1919: Halbblut (Half Caste) (+scenarist/scriptwriter); Der Herr der Liebe (The Master of Love) (+role); Hara-Kiri; Die Spinnen (The Spiders) Part I: Der Goldene See (The Golden Lake) (+scenarist/scriptwriter). 1920: Die Spinnen (The Spiders) Part II: Das Brillantenschiff (The Diamond Ship) (+scenarist/scriptwriter); Das Wandernde Bild (The Wandering Image) (+co-scenarist/scriptwriter); K?mpfende Herzen (Die Vier um die Frau; Four around a Woman) ( +co-scenarist/scriptwriter). 1921: Der m?de Tod: Ein Deutsches Volkslied in Sechs Versen (The Weary Death; Between Two Worlds; Beyond the Wall; Destiny) (+co-scenarist/scriptwriter). 1921-22: Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler; The Fatal Passions) in two parts: Ein Bild der Zeit (Spieler aus Leidenschaft; A Picture of the Time) and Inferno?Menschen der Zeit (Inferno designer Verbrechens; Inferno?Men of the Time) (+co-scenarist/scriptwriter). 1924: Die Nibelungen in two parts: Siegfrieds Tod (Death of Siegfried) and Kriemhilds Rache (Kriemhild's Revenge) (+co-scenarist/scriptwriter, uncredited). 1927: Metropolis (+co-scenarist/scriptwriter, uncredited). 1928: Spione (Spies) (+producer, co-scenarist/scriptwriter, uncredited). 1929: Die Frau im Mond (By Rocket to the Moon; The Girl in the Moon) (+producer, co-scenarist/scriptwriter, uncredited). 1931: M, M?rder unter Uns (M) (+co-scenarist/scriptwriter, uncredited). 1933: Das Testament designer Dr. Mabuse (The Testament of Dr. Mabuse; The Last Will of Dr. Mabuse) (+co-scenarist/scriptwriter, uncredited) (German and French versions). 1934: Liliom (+co-scenarist/scriptwriter, uncredited). 1936: Fury (+co-scenarist/scriptwriter). 1937: You Only Live Once. 1938: You and Me (+producer). 1940: The Return of Frank James. 1941: Western Union; Man Hunt; Confirm or Deny (co-director, uncredited). 1942: Moontide (co-director, uncredited). 1943: Hangmen Also Die! (+producer, co-scenarist/scriptwriter). 1944: Ministry of Fear; The Woman in the Window. 1945: Scarlet Street (+producer). 1946: Cloak and Dagger. 1948: Secret Beyond the Door (+co-producer). 1950: House by the River; An American Guerrilla in the Philippines. 1952: Rancho Notorious; Clash by Night. 1953: The Blue Gardenia; The Big Heat. 1954: Human Desire. 1955: Moonfleet. 1956: While the City Sleeps; Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. 1959: Der Tiger von Eschnapur (The Tiger of Bengal) and Das Indische Grabmal (The Hindu Tomb) ( +co-scenarist/scriptwriter) (released in cut version as Journey to the Lost City). 1960: Die Tausend Augen designer Dr. Mabuse (The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse) (+producer, co-scenarist/scriptwriter).
1917: Die Hochzeit im Ekzentrik Klub (The Wedding in the Eccentric Club) (May) (scenarist/scriptwriter); Hilde Warren und der Tod (Hilde Warren and Death) (May) (scenarist/scriptwriter, four roles); Joe Debbs (series) (scenarist/scriptwriter). 1918: Die Rache ist mein (Revenge Is Mine) (Neub) (scenarist/scriptwriter); Herrin der Welt (Men of the World) (May) (assistant director); Bettler GmbH (scenarist/scriptwriter). 1919: Wolkenbau und Flimmerstern (Castles in the Sky and Rhinestones) (director unknown, co-scenarist/scriptwriter); Totentanz (Dance of Death) (Rippert) (scenarist/scriptwriter); Die Pest in Florenz (Plague in Florence) (Rippert) (scenarist/scriptwriter); Die Frau mit den Orchiden (The Woman with the Orchid) (Rippert) (scenarist/scriptwriter); Lilith und Ly (scenarist/scriptwriter). 1921: Das Indische Grabmal (in 2 parts: Die Sendung designer Yoghi and Der Tiger von Eschnapur) (co-scenarist/scriptwriter). 1963: Le M?pris (Contempt) (Godard) (role as himself).
Cartoonist, fashion designer, and painter in Par?s, 1913; returned to Vienna, served in army, 1914-16; after discharge, worked as scriptwriter and actor, then moved to Berlin, 1918; reader and story editor for Decla, then wrote and directed first film, Halbblut, 1919; worked with von Harbou, from 1920; visited Hollywood, 1924; Das Testament designer Dr. Mabuse banned by Nazis, 1933; offered post as supervisor of Nazi film productions by Goebbels, but fled Germany after working in Paris and London, went to Hollywood, 1934; signed with Paramount, 1940; co-founder, then president, Diana Productions, 1945; quit Hollywood, citing continuing disputes with producers, 1956; directed two films in India, 1958-59, before last film, directed in Germany, 1960.
Vienna, 5 December 1890, became U.S. citizen, 1935.
Studied engineering at the Technische Hochschule, Vienna.
Married (second time) writer Thea von Harbou, 1924 (separated 1933).
Los Angeles, California, 2 August 1976.
Fritz Lang's career can be divided conveniently into three parts: the first German period, 1919-33, from Halbblut to the second Mabuse film, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse-, the American period, 1936-56, from Fury to Beyond a Reasonable Doubt; and the second German period, 1959-60, which includes the two films made in India and his last film, Die tausend Augen des Dr. Mabuse.
Lang's apprentice years as a scriptwriter and director were spent in the studios in Berlin where he adopted certain elements of expressionism and was imbued with the artistic seriousness with which the Germans went about making their films. In Hollywood this seriousness would earn Lang a reputation for unnecessary perfectionism, a criticism also thrown at fellow ?migr?s von Stroheim and von Sternberg. Except for several films for Twentieth Century-Fox, Lang never worked long for a single studio in the United States, and he often preferred to work on underbudgeted projects which he could produce, and therefore control, himself. The rather radical dissimilarities between the two studio worlds within which Lang spent most of his creative years not surprisingly resulted in products which look quite different from one another, and it is the difference in look or image which has produced the critical confusion most often associated with an assessment of Lang's films.
One critical approach to Lang's work, most recently articulated by Gavin Lambert, argues that Lang produced very little of artistic interest after he left Germany; the Cahiers du cin?ma auteurists argue the opposite, namely that Lang's films made in America are superior to his European films because the former were clogged with self-conscious artistry and romantic didacticism which the leanness of his American studio work eliminated. A third approach, suggested by Robin Wood and others, examines Lang's films as a whole, avoiding the German-American division by looking at characteristic thematic and visual motifs. Lang's films can be discussed as exhibiting certain distinguishing features-economy, functional precision, detachment-and as containing basic motifs such as the trap, a suppressed underworld, the revenge motive, and the abuse of power. Investigating the films from this perspective reveals a more consistent development of Lang as a creative artist and helps to minimize the superficial anomalies shaped by his career.
In spite of the narrowness of examining only half of a filmmaker's creative output, the sheer number of Lang's German movies which have received substantial critical attention as ?classic? films has tended to submerge the critical attempt at breadth and comprehensiveness. Not only did these earlier films form an important intellectual center for the German film industry during the years between the wars, as Siegfried Kracauer later pointed out, but they had a wide international impact as well and were extensively reviewed in the Anglo-American press. Lang's reputation preceded him to America, and although it had little effect ultimately on his working relationship, such as it was, with the Hollywood moguls, it has affected Lang's subsequent treatment by film critics.
If Lang is a ?flawed genius,? as one critic has described him, it is less a wonder that he is ?flawed? than that his genius had a chance to develop at all. The working conditions Lang survived after his defection would have daunted a less dedicated director. Lang, however, not only survived but flourished, producing films of undisputed quality: the four war movies, Man Hunt, Hangmen Also Die!, Ministry of Fear, and Cloak and Dagger, and the urban crime films of the 1950s, Clash by Night, The Blue Gardenia, The Big Heat, Human Desire, and While the City Sleeps.
These American films reflect a more mature director, tighter mise-en-sc?ne, and more control as a result of Lang's American experience. The films also reveal continuity. As Robin Wood has written, the formal symmetry of his individual films is mirrored in the symmetry of his career, beginning and ending in Germany. All through his life, Lang adjusted his talent to meet the changes in his environment, and in so doing produced a body of creative work of unquestionable importance in the development of the history of cinema.-CHARLES L.P. SILET