Fritz Lang Epic Collection (2004)

Expressionist Yourself

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Fritz Lang Epic Collection on DVD

Before Fritz Lang fled his native Germany, he enjoyed a creative freedom given only to a select few in history. Between his 1919 debut Spiders and his 1933 masterpiece The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, Lang made nine extraordinary films that would rank him among the greatest in history, even if he never came to Hollywood.

Kino has now released four of these films in a spectacular five-disc box set that will no doubt emerge as one of the year's must-have DVD releases.

Kicking off the collection is Metropolis (1927), which is already available on DVD and is arguably the finest accomplishment in Kino's illustrious history; it ranks almost constantly as the best-selling DVD on their website. If you don't own it yet, that gives you an excuse to pick up this box set.

The set also includes both parts of the masterful Die Nibelungen (1924), on a two-disc set. Also released in 2002, this film is lesser known than Metropolis, but superior in many ways.

Most importantly, the "Epic Collection" includes two new releases, Woman in the Moon (1929), which is entirely new to DVD, and Spies (1928), which is now available in a freshly restored edition with previously unseen footage.

Many film scholars scorn Woman in the Moon as a lesser -- and even failed -- Lang film, but looking at it in this new edition will shatter those erroneous conceptions. In this 169-minute version, which restores the film closer to Lang's original vision than any other video release, the film proves itself a terrific entertainment with hints of greatness.

The story concerns a young scientist, Wolf Helius (Willy Fritsch), who has built a rocket designed to carry passengers to the moon. He is the one and only friend of an older, disgraced professor (Klaus Pohl) whose theories about gold on the moon got him laughed out of the scientific community. But when a cabal of renegade scientists makes a connection between the two men, they shanghai the ship.

The ship's crew henceforth consists of the young scientist, the old professor and an evil spokesman for the cabal (Fritz Rasp). To mix things up, the film throws in a love triangle with the scientist's best friend (Gustav von Wangenheim) and the woman they both love (Gerda Maurus). A kid who reads "John Carter of Mars" comic books (Gustl Stark-Gstettenbaur) stows away.

Lang presents a few terrific moments of suspense and even humor; in one early scene Helius nervously talks on his next-door neighbor's phone and absently snips away at a vase of flowers. The neighbor looks at his skeletal bouquet with a delightfully disbelieving look.

Aside from its plot, the film is astounding for its incredibly prophetic scientific vision of a flight to the moon. 27 years after Georges Melies filmed his A Trip to the Moon, Lang took a less fairy-tale approach and looked at ways in which the trip could actually be made. Woman in the Moon is more straightforward than Metropolis was, and lacks that film's awesome vision, but it's much warmer and more purely entertaining on a pulp level. Lang's wife Thea von Harbou wrote the screenplay and Jon C. Mirsalis provides a new piano score. The DVD includes a rare photo gallery.

In Spies, our hero, known only as agent No. 326 (Willy Fritsch), first appears disguised as a drunken derelict. During an assignment, he accidentally falls in love with a rival spy, Sonja (Gerda Maurus). Sonja in turn works for Haghi (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), the evil head of a huge international spy network, who anonymously runs his empire from a wheelchair.

Everyone knows that he exists, but no one knows who he is. The only thing that's clear is that he is a nearly invisible, uncatchable supervillain who is capable of stealing secret documents at a whim. In this world of spies spying on spies, even the director of the secret service doesn't realize that one of his own men is really spying on him.

Thea Von Harbou again wrote the screenplay, as well as the novel of the same name. Lang's beautiful expressionist touches are on display throughout, especially during the staccato opening sequence, which demonstrates the supervillain's ultimate power. But at the same time, Lang attempts a new stark emptiness, notably in Haghi's headquarters. The supervillain sits alone at his desk in the middle of a bare-walled room that's far more sinister than any kind of highly-decorated dungeon.

Donald Sosin provides a new piano score for this gorgeous digital restoration. Extras include a photo gallery, a trailer for the Metropolis re-release and a note on the restoration.

With this release, all nine of Lang's existing German films are now available on DVD, as well as his only French film (Liliom). Now hopefully we will begin to see some of his American films, the majority of which have thus far been sadly neglected.

Starring: Margarete Schön, Paul Richter, Gertrud Arnold, Hanna Ralph, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Brigitte Helm, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Gerda Maurus, Willy Fritsch, Klaus Pohl, Gustav von Wangenheim, Gerda Maurus
Written by: Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou
Directed by: Fritz Lang
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Language: Silent
Running Time: 727 minutes
Date: December 30, 2004