Film Review
After the embarrassing commercial failure of
Metropolis (1927), director Fritz Lang was
more or less driven to make a film with greater popular appeal (particularly as this was
to be the first film for his own newly formed production company). He hoped to repeat
the success of his earlier thriller
Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (1922), and so effectively
reworked this film as
Spione (1928), based on
a novel by his then wife Thea von Harbou.
Like Lang's first
Mabuse film,
Spione
is very much the prototype for the modern adventure thriller, with some easily
recognisable shades of Alfred Hitchcock and James Bond (note the occurrence of hi-tech
gadgets). There's a seriously evil criminal mastermind, a tough and charismatic
hero, an attractive femme fatale, and a plot with more twists and turns than you can count
on the fingers of three hands. Here, the said criminal mastermind is played by Rudolf
Klein-Rogge, famous for his sinister portrayals of mad scientist Rotwang in
Metropolis
and the unscrupulous Dr Mabuse in Lang's first two
Mabuse
films.
Whilst the film is shamelessly populist, Lang treats it with no
less seriousness than his other films. It may lack the striking Art Deco impact
of
Metropolis but
Spione
is a masterfully composed thriller, skilfully employing expressionistic motifs
to suggest a sense of dark menace, with some meticulously edited action sequences.
That Lang was influenced by the crime serials (
Les Vampires,
Judex, etc.) of French director Louis Feuillade
is more than evident, although there is also a hint of the realism that the director would
achieve with his next and most famous thriller,
M (1931).
Mabuse,
der Spieler and
Spione are both compelling
thrillers, enjoyable escapist fantasies, but they are equally a reflection of the world
in which Lang lived. Germany between the wars was marked by social, political and
economic turbulence, which would culminate with the rise of the Nazi party in the early
1930s. This troubled world is mirrored in Lang's films of this period, a world of
uncertainty, decadence, dangerous conspiracy and unnamed threats, with the seemingly all-controlling
Mabuse and Haghi prefiguring the monsters that would lead the fascist regimes of the 1930s.
What is particularly disturbing about Lang's criminal masterminds Mabuse and Haghi
is there apparent lack of motive for what they do - they are genuinely immoral characters.
Both indulge in crime merely for the pleasure of being criminals. They become powerful
not with any great vision in mind, but just because they know how to exert control over
people - like Nietzsche's Übermensch. Of the two characters, Haghi is
the strongest and most convincing. Whereas Mabuse ultimately yields to failure,
Haghi remains in control right to the very end, closing his career with the most perfectly
staged curtain call - which, a propos, is the best ending to any of Lang's films.
© James Travers 2007
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Next Fritz Lang film:
Frau im Mond (1929)
Film Synopsis
When a series of top secret government documents go missing, agent No. 326 is called in
to investigate. Little does he know that he is up against Europe's most sophisticated
spy ring, led by the ruthless banker, Haghi. Using a combination of technology and
blackmail, Haghi has a vice-like grip over a vast network of spies, which includes Russian
émigré Sonya Baranilkowa. Can anyone thwart Haghi's next daring
scheme, to steal a vital treaty with Japan...?
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.