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THE FILMS OF FRITZ LANG 23I
From a filmic point of view his work has developed in two separate directions, with the result that his earlier pictures fall into two distinct classes. On the one hand both Destiny (1921) and the two parts of the Nibelungen Saga (1923) {Siegfried and Kriemhild's Revenge) were romantic, semi-historical, mystical films distinguished by slow, pageant-like processions of beautiful pictorial compositions trailing across the screen. They were long, heavy-handed, dark in material, full of trick camerawork and dignified studio architecture. On the other hand, Doctor Mabuse, the Gambler (1922), and The Spy (1928) were quick moving melodramas, mixtures of Edgar Wallace and Maurice Leblanc, thrilling in action, electric with starding mysteries, filled with secret police, gunmen, vendettas, complex disguises, railway smashes and bombs. Metropolis (1926), a vision of the future, combined the hugeness of Siegfried and Destiny with a modernism of outlook, but in spite of its colossal scale and courageous conception it was not a proper outlet for Lang's creativeness. In his two most recent films, The Spy and The Woman in the Moon, however, the best of each of his tendencies have been amalgamated into one definite style of picture.1
All these films were crammed with a quality that is best described as Langishness. They have evidenced a striving to express an essentially modern state of mind. With his gift for selection of material, Lang attempts to incorporate in his films the panorama of new ideas
1 From reports, I gather that his recently completed sound film, " M," follows on the style set by The Spy and Dr. Mabuse, being based on the notorious Diisseldorf murders.