Fritz Lang, master of silent ci-fi, westerns, noirs

Anyone have any defence of The Blue Gardenia? I found it to be an OK time-waster, but really nothing more.

I'm reading descriptions and trying to figure out if I saw it a couple of years ago or not. I'm about 80% sure I did--if so, the uncertainty indicates I had the same reaction.

Is that the one with creepy Raymond Burr? If so I liked it only for creepy Burr.

i don't think i've ever seen that one. moonfleet still my favorite american lang.

Angry Raymond Burr, Nat King Cole singing, some nice noir details. Isn't there a big set piece scene of the crime with broken glass or mirrors or nightmare logic or something? Only saw it the once, but seemed to be worth seeing again.

Raymond Burr's character here similar to the one Rear Window?

What's the general consensus on Fury? I found a few tasty Lang touches, but mostly this was exactly the kind of strident, heavy-handed "issue" movie that I generally hate. And that dissolve from the old women gossiping to a shot of the hens? Tacky!

I have the opposite response: powerful, marred by Expressionist imagery and pace. Tracy's best performance too.

i.e. a good and sometimes great film with blemishes

yeah crypto, c'mon

plus a good hen party gives me a laff

Ambivalent on Fury. Scarlet Street otoh is amazing.

The Woman in the Window too.

Eric, have you seen the Renoir version?

Fury could be my fave US Lang.

I have. I think Lang's version is the better one.

xpost

All of this is convincing me that perhaps I need to take a second look at Fury one day down the road, mainly because right now I'm finding the idea of anyone thinking it > The Big Heat mind boggling.

also a great early Tracy performance, to stack next to Me and My Gal.

that you found Fury an apt occasion to being up "Oscarbait" on Letterboxd boggled me!

Also if you're going to call it a "social issue" movie, you might as well call M one too. Lang usually gets at something existential in addition.

what's the line? "I could smell myself BURNING."

L'ecran challoptique

Wow, Metropolis is batshit... There's a Lang retro next month. Doing some writing on Pynchon's use of Lang and such. It's all very very insane and strange.

Saw The Woman in the Window for the first time in ages; so good. People still fight over the "cop out" ending, but it works better than it should. Edward G Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea *almost* as good as they are the following year in Scarlet Street.

Saw a Metropolis screening on Friday night at the BlueDot Festival with Factory Floor's new score accompanying. V good.

Saw The Woman in the Window for the first time in ages; so good. People still fight over the "cop out" ending, but it works better than it should.

I just watched it for the first time and there's definitely some great stuff here (the scenes between Bennett and Duryea especially) but I actually think the ending works *less* than it should--not only do they go there, they go full on Wizard of Oz with it too!

It's better than Scarlet Street.

i watched Metropolis earlier this year it was incredible

xpost

What do you make of the ending?

The rhythm of the film is akin to a dream anyway, so it don't bother me; besides, it seemed less fatuous in the 1940s.

On zing so can’t easily search, wondering if this thread mentions his interesting appearance in Contempt

Just seen the Destiny/Der Mude Tod. Lil Dagover looking very fine and Death looks quite striking too (as he should) but not quite the sets/compositions I was hoping for.

Extras show screens of a really incredible candle scene from another film apparently inspired by Destiny. Cant remember the name, perhaps a Mexican film.

Fritz Lang on the comic strip. pic.twitter.com/z9V2Q1zzZt

— SHADOWPLAY (@dcairns) June 28, 2020

Heard Hans Magnus Enzensberger talk about that once.

very cool

I watched THE TESTAMENT OF DR MABUSE (1933).

I love Inspector Lohmannm, and admire the style of love interest Lilli (though I'm not sure she's terribly well acted).

* LOHMANN - as they say in the film.

FURY (1936) feels like a US allegory of Nazi demagoguery and mob rule - which would clearly make sense with Lang at the time - though I'm not sure whether that was the idea. Powerful film!

Curious that Sylvia Sidney isn't better known.

She peaked in that era -- have you see Sabotage and You Only Live Once? Then she turned to the stage.

I love that the trial evidence in "Fury" is footage from the movie itself.

I'm planning to watch YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE!

Interesting about ms Sidney, and I've been informed today that her last film was MARS ATTACKS! She was also, remarkably, briefly married to the publisher who got Ulysses unbanned.

Yes I enjoyed that footage and especially how it was freeze-framed!

She was also, remarkably, briefly married to the publisher who got Ulysses unbanned.

LOOOL

A fave bit of trivia: Sylvia Sidney played Mother Carlson in the WKRP pilot, but declined to do the series because she thought it was stupid.

Oscar-nominated for the sleepy Joanne Woodward soaper Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams and was of course in Beetlejuice.

Yeah, was gonna say that performance is like supporting actressexual manna (well both, actually, but mostly meant the one she was actually nominated for).

Xp Joyce had issues with his bookmarks too

I just watched RANCHO NOTORIOUS (1952).

A very eccentric Western!

Dietrich brings something like Weimar singing (and accent) - in a role unlike most I've ever seen for a woman in a Western. Lang brings repeated flashbacks, big close-ups, and a satirical vignette on crooked politics. It's all framed by a rather dubious cowboy ballad.

An odd film, for better or worse (often better).

I love the paragraph in Patrick McGilligan's biography - there's a more interesting/amusing film than Mank to be made about Fritz Lang getting togged up to go barn dancing:

Lang had become enamoured of American square dancing. "He wanted to try it out," said Richards. "We watched what the people did. Pretty soon we were do-si-doing." For a spell the director and his screenwriter-girlfriend were regulars at Los Angeles square dance events. "Fritz wore a wonderful Western shirt with a silver bull's head holding the kerchief, and cowboy boots," Richards said. "I wore ruffled petticoats and skirts. We went square dancing all over this town for about a year and a half. Let me tell you, there's nothing like a man square-dancing in a cowboy suit with a monocle."

Just saw The Tiger of Eschnapur was available on Kanopy. Didn’t finish it yet but great so far.

Wow, you still have access to Kanopy.

Huh?