The Five Best Fritz Lang Films

In listing director Fritz Lang's best films, I struggled with whether to consider his entire career or differentiate between his work in German and American cinema. He was probably the most successful European (non-British) filmmaker to relocate to Hollywood during World War II. In the end, I opted to consider his full filmography--but solely because I didn't want to set a precedent.

Lorre as the killer.

1. M (1931) - A visual and thematic masterpiece, M tells the story of a child murderer sought by both the police and the underworld. Like Hitchcock, Lang cherished multi-layered villains and M doesn't disappoint on that level. Peter Lorre, in a star-making performance, creates a quiet, unassuming, genuinely disturbing killer. Equally interesting are the city's other criminals, who revile Lorre's killer as much as the public; they may commit horrible crimes, but they do not murder children. M also features one of the most chilling murder scenes in cinema history--although Lang shows nothing but a rolling ball that the victim had been playing with--leaving the rest to the viewer's imagination. 

2. Metropolis (1927) - A film that virtually defined science fiction cinema, Metropolis continues to thrill audiences today with its fabulous sets. However, its reputation rests equally on Lang's fully-realized vision of a future ruled by a privileged class. Thea Von Harbou, Lang's then-wife and frequent collaborator deserves some of the credit, too. In his Movie Home Companion, Roger Ebert called Metropolis "one of the great achievements of the silent era, a work so audacious in its vision and so angry in its message that it is, if anything, more powerful today than when it was made."

Marlene Dietrich, Mel Ferrer, and
Arthur Kennedy.

3. Rancho Notorious (1952) - This complex tale of “hate, murder, and revenge” played a key role in the development of the “adult Western” in the 1950s. Like many of Lang's films, Rancho Notorious depicts an honest man who, through the intervention of events beyond his control, becomes morally ambiguous. In his quest for vengeance, Vern (Arthur Kennedy) helps an outlaw escape justice, participates in a bank robbery, and shows a willingness to kill in cold blood. In some Lang films, his protagonists suffer retribution or somehow reestablish their faith in humanity. In Fury (1936) and The Big Heat (1953), the vengeance-minded characters played by Spencer Tracy and Glenn Ford pull back from the brink of a meaningless world. However, Lang wasn't afraid to portray what happens when good men lose their moral compass, as in Scarlet Street and Rancho Notorious.

4. Ministry of Fear (1944) - I'm sure I'll take some heat for including this highly-entertaining film over more celebrated Lang film noirs such as The Big Heat (1953) and Human Desire (1954). However, Ministry of Fear is a tense, atmospheric espionage tale loosely adapted from a Graham Greene novel. There are several brilliant scenes: Ray Milland winning the cake at the village fair; the "blind" man on the train; the bomb in the suitcase; and the rooftop shoot-out. However, the film's strongest element is how Lang conveys the uncertainly and fear felt by Milland's protagonist, who has just been released from an asylum. I've often thought Ministry of Fear would make a fascinating double-feature with Hitchcock's Spellbound, which was released the following year.

Robinson--his face says it all.

5. Scarlet Street (1944) - Its lapse in the public domain has probably made Scarlet Street the most viewed Fritz Lang film--and thats a good thing. In a career filled with fine performances, Edward G. Robinson gives perhaps his best one as Chris Cross, a lonely, meek cashier that falls prey to a femme fatale (Joan Bennett) and her scuzzy boyfriend. They lead him down a dark road filled with deception, larceny, and ultimately murder. However, despite the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code, Chris gets away with murder (but only in a Fritz Lang kind of way). Though it's a textbook film noir, there are elements of dark comedy in Scarlet Street (e.g., Chris achieves artistic fame only when Kitty takes credit for his paintings). It's a complex film that work on several levels and improves with multiple viewings.

Honorable Mentions:  Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (the first of Lang's supervillain series); Spies (think of it as a silent 007 film); the mythic Die Nibelungen (both parts); Fury (the word is "memento"); and Hangmen Also Die! (in which one of the villains squeezes a pimple--a scene not easily forgotten).

The Five Best Classic Movie Robots

They come in all sizes, from imposing, lumbering giants to pint-sized wheeled models. Sometimes, they can speak a variety of languages fluently, but other times they can only make beeping sounds or no noise at all. They're adept at fixing things and destroying things. Once in awhile, one goes bad--but typically they function as loyal companions. Yes, we are talking about robots of the silver screen!

In our picks below, please note that cyborgs and androids have been omitted (sorry, Blade Runner, RoboCop, and Terminator!).

1. Gort (The Day the Earth Stood Still). Eight feet tall and made of an impenetrable alien metallic substance, Gort was the movies’ first robot superstar. He doesn’t say a word, but was the recipient of a classic line of dialogue: “Klaatu barada nikto” (roughly translated, it means that Klaatu was killed and needs to be revived…and, by the way, please don’t destroy the Earth). Definitely the tall silent type.

2. Robby the Robot (Forbidden Planet). Slightly shorter than Gort and much more talkative, Robby also starred in the cult sci fi film The Invisible Boy (1957). But he’s most famous for Forbidden Planet, in which his character was inspired by the sprite Ariel in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Dr. Morbius programmed Robby so that the robot could not harm humans. (Robby was also the obvious inspiration for the robot in TV's Lost in Space).

3. The Robot Maria (Metropolis). This 2006 inductee into the Robot Hall of Fame (Gort made it the same year) is the oldest robot on this list--though she's doesn't look it, of course. Possibly cinema's first female robot, the Robot Maria (also know as the False Maria) is eventually given human features that make it impossible to discern the real Maria from her robotic duplicate. Still, it's the image of the robot prior to the transformation that has captured the imagination of millions of film fans.

4. R2-D2 and C3PO (Star Wars movies). They need no introduction after compiling more screen time than any other robots in motion picture history. Plus, they've starred in video games, been molded into popular play-action figures, and been transformed into kiddie Halloween costumes!

5. Huey, Dewey, and Louie (Silent Running). These three little service drones prove invaluable to an astronaut-botanist (Bruce Dern) after he hijacks a spaceship carrying a living forest. The drones not only conduct maintenance on the station, but they also perform surgery on Dern’s injured leg, tend to the forest, and play poker with their human companion.


Honorable Mentions: The Iron Giant, Tobor the Great (spell his name backwards), and Terror of Mechagodzilla.

Man vs. Machine in Fritz Lang's "Metropolis"

The Metropolis is a huge, expansive city with skyscrapers and elevated railways. This is where the rich live lavishly and play in beautiful gardens, carefree and content. Well below where the wealthy reside is the “workers’ city,” where laborers work long, hard hours to maintain the city above them. Fredersen (Alfred Abel), “Master of Metropolis,” runs the city with cold determination. His son, Freder (Gustav Fröhlich), enjoys his buoyant lifestyle, but one day, he follows a young woman to where the workers work underground. Horrified by an accident which leaves a number of laborers deceased, Freder hurriedly tells his father what he has witnessed. Fredersen, however, is upset that he’s been informed of the incident by his son (in lieu of an employee) and is more concerned with “plans” that a foreman discovered on two of the dead workers. The papers found are actually maps to a place in the city’s catacombs, where workers congregate to listen to Maria (Brigitte Helm), the woman with whom Freder has become obsessed.

Meanwhile, Freder returns to the workers’ city and swaps places with one of the laborers. As Maria tells the workers that a “Mediator” will essentially be the savior and establish balance between the planners and the laborers, Freder believes that he is to be the Mediator. Fredersen convinces inventor/scientist Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) to make his Maschinenmensch (“machine-man”) in the likeness of Maria, to instill doubt among the workers’ faith in the woman. Rotwang, however, has a sinister purpose, as he and Fredersen were once in love with the same woman, who married Fredersen and died giving birth to Freder. Rotwang sends the Maria-machine to spark a revolution among the laborers, hoping to destroy Metropolis and murder Fredersen’s son.

One of the most significant qualities of Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent film, Metropolis, is a bleak view of capitalism. It is doubtless from the beginning that the extravagant metropolis could not exist without the work of the men below. These are not men who go into work each day, heads held high. In fact, they literally hang their heads and hide their faces, a slow march to and from work. The movie opens with a shift change, and the audience follows the men unto what looks to be a freight elevator and leisurely descends into the depths of the city. The workers appear to be on their way to prison, which, in many respects, they are. After one of Fredersen’s men is fired, Freder rushes to the man’s side and stops him from putting a bullet into his head. Such an act implies that, without employment, however burdensome, death is the only viable option.

A common fear that is frequently expressed in sci-fi films (e.g., James Cameron’s Terminator series) is a general uneasiness of machines taking over the world. Metropolis makes such a somber concept even darker with a man who intentionally creates a machine to destroy his own kind. And in the end, potential destruction is not at the hands of the machines, but the hands of the men, as the Maschinenmensch is instructed to coerce the workers into destroying themselves. This coincides with an image Freder has following the accident, one of Moloch, a machine to which the laborers are sacrificed. It’s a frightening idea not just because of the implication of men working to their deaths, but, in Freder’s vision, the men willingly walk up the steps into the mouth of Moloch.

There are men vs. machine comparisons throughout Metropolis. In addition to the Maria and Maschinenmensch duality, the men, in the process of labor, are staged and choreographed to look like machines. Their movements are sharp and precise and, most notably, monotonous, to the point where, if watched long enough, the men will truly resemble machinery. This goes back to an appraisal of capitalism, in that the political ideal is not a construction of equality, but a hierarchy, with the wealthy high in the sky and the laborers nothing more than cogs in the machinery.

Klein-Rogge is the titular doctor of Lang’s Dr. Mabuse films (1922 and 1933), the first film which also featured his Metropolis co-star, Abel. Although she is completely unrecognizable, actress Helm was actually playing the part of the Maschinenmensch. There are various prints of Metropolis with multiple running times. This is partly due to some of the footage reportedly being lost after its premiere in Germany, but also from the speed of the frame rate (or frames per second), long a source of debate among film historians and enthusiasts.

Metropolis is a much loved sci-fi classic, and deservedly so. When the film was released in 1927, the year of the movie’s setting, 2026, was nearly a century away. Now, in 2010, we are much closer to the time of Metropolis, and the film’s impact has not diminished in the slightest. It’s an expression of societal classes that can be applied to what is happening in the present, as well as a fear that may still lurk in our hearts today.