Films with: Lang, Fritz

Beyond a reasonable doubt

Guilty - beyond a reasonable doubt - such is the incontrovertible law which pardons the innocent and condemns the guilty. But just how fallible is the process of law? To what extent can deceit, prejudice and the cruel powers of fate intervene to set a murderer free, or send an innocent man to the electric chair ... Crusading publisher Austin Spenser wants to prove a point about the insufficiency of circumstantial evidence. Spencer talks his prospective son-in-law Tom Garrett into participating in a hoax, the better to expose the alleged ineptitude of conviction-happy DA. Tom will plant clues indicating that he is the murderer of a nightclub dancer, then stand trial for murder; just as the jury reaches its inevitable guilty verdict, Spencer will step forth to reveal the set-up and humiliate the DA. Somewhat surprisingly, Tom eagerly agrees to this subterfuge. Unfortunately, an unforeseen event renders their perfectly formed scheme useless.

DVD 12593

Big heat

An honest police sergeant risks his life and his job when his investigations lead to the exposure of the crime syndicate that controls the city administration.

DVD 7414

Blue Gardenia

Norah Larkin is a working girl who wakes up a murderess after passing out in the apartment of brutish playboy Harry Prebble. Branded "The Blue Gardenia" by a sensational columnist, Norah dodges dragnets, informants and the cruel hand of fate as she struggles to conceal her involvement with Prebble, and to remember the details of her ill-fated night. As her hopes for justice fade, she decides to gamble her future on the journalist who transformed her into such a notorious figure.

DVD 10817

Cloak and dagger

An American physicist is parachuted into war-torn Nazi Germany to obtain military secrets. But the deeper he probes, the deadlier his mission becomes, especially when his involvement with a beautiful and mysterious woman catapults him into an intense maelstrom of danger, betrayal, and murder.

DVD 11427

Destiny Der müde Tod /

In a middle-European village a century ago, Death takes a young man just before he is to be married. His lover seeks out the Death figure and pleads with him for her fiance's life. Filled with pity for her, he promises to return her fiance if she can save even one of three lives about to flicker out.

DVD 8160

Dr. Mabuse, the gambler

Sinister Dr. Mabuse maintains his wealth through counterfeiting, manipulating the stock exchange and bending weaker minds to his will. In part 1, Mabuse builds his empire and casually ruins Count Told while entrancing the thrill-seeking Countess. In part 2, Mabuse turns from criminal to villain, murdering the Count and kidnapping the Countess.

DVD 4586

Frau im Mond Woman in the moon /

Two years after revolutionizing the science fiction film with his epic Metropolis, director Fritz Long revisited the genre with an ambitious spectacle that dramatizes the first lunar expedition. Rather than a flight of pure fantasy, Lang, screenwriter Thea von Harbou and a group of technical consultants conceived a modernized "Trip to the Moon" grounded in state-of-the-art astrophysics. Spiced with romance and espionage (including a network of diabolical super-spies straight out of Lang's Mabuse films), Woman in the Moon (Frau im Mond) was one of the most influential science fiction films of its era.

DVD 12580

Fritz Lang's The spiders

About the adventures of high-society adventurer Kay Hoog and his arch nemesis, a secret criminal organization known as the Spiders. Part 1: The Golden Lake is a treasure hunt that takes both Kay and Spiders mastermind Lio Sha to Peru, where they battle primitive Incas (who capture Lio for a human sacrifice) and each other for a fortune in hidden gold. Part 2: The Diamond Ship is a longer and far more intricate conspiracy involving a hidden criminal underground. Adventurer Kay Hoog is caught up in a race to find the Buddha-head diamond before the Spiders can locate it.

DVD 12579

Fury

A once decent man becomes ruthless and bitter when he's falsely accused of a crime and becomes a target for a lynch mob. He escapes, but refuses to let his survival be known, so his attackers can be charged with murder.

DVD 3654

Hangmen also die!

Prague 1942. Following the assassination of Nazi "Reich Protector" Heydrich, Masha Novotny, a professor's daughter, hides the culprit in her parents' apartment. When the Gestapo take 400 people hostage in retaliation, Masha's father is among those arrested. The assassin, surgeon Dr. Svoboda, manages to escape. As they search for him the Gestapo also train their sights on Masha.

DVD 12578

House by the river

A second rate writer strangles his maid when she rejects him and frames his brother for the crime after they dispose of the body.

DVD 4260

M

A psychopathic murderer of young girls terrorizes a German city causing public hysteria and intense police investigations, which in turn disrupts organized crime. The contrasting worlds of the police and the underworld are juxtaposed as they both resolve to hunt, capture, and try the murderer.

DVD 996

M

A psychopathic murderer of children is hunted by police, but is caught and tried by the city's criminals.

DVD 9

Man hunt

A British hunter on vacation in the Bavarian Alps, in the forests near Adolf Hitler's home, gets Hitler in his gun sight, pondering whether or not he should shoot him.

DVD 6630

Metropolis

"The future. Metropolis is a wonderful city, high above the ground its towers stand. The people prosper, the economy is flourishing, the suspended streets are busy. But Metropolis also has a great secret, so hidden that not even Freder Fredersen, son of founder Joh Fredersen knows about it. He is spending his free time in the Eternal Gardens, when suddenly a woman shows up, with what looks like a class of children. They're from the City of Workers, in the depth, Freder learns. "These are your brothers," she tells the children, before she is forced to leave. Freder is so intrigued he follows them into the depth and doesn't like what he sees. The workers are exploited, they must do labor like robots. Freder tries to convince his father to change, while the woman tries to keep workers' morale high by predicting a man will stand up that will mediate. Someone that will use both hands and head, someone that will be the heart." -- www.imdb.com This newly restored version of the film is the closest yet to the version Fritz Lang debuted to theatrical audiences in 1927 Berlin. In 2008, a duplicate negative created from an original 1927 Argentinian theatrical print was discovered in Buenos Aires' Museo del Cine. Extensive preservation work on that and other footage, in addition to a newly acquired copy of Gottfried Huppertz' original performance score, and intertitles translated into English from German censorship records, has led to a newly edited story line, with rearranged shots and scenes.

DVD 9536

Metropolis

The story of a 21st century city run by a "super trustee" and his collaborators who live in a paradise-like garden. Workers are totally enslaved by machines and condemned to live underground. In the midst of this misery, a young woman, Maria, arises and attempts to inspire the workers to throw off their oppressors.

DVD 3752

Mépris Contempt /

Asked to write a screenplay for an American producer, a young French dramatist and his wife visit the producer's villa in Capri. There the wife and producer engage in an affair, and she decides to leave her husband. However, something quite unexpected happens.

DVD 2225

Ministry of fear

En route to London after being released from a mental institution, Stephen Neale stops at a seemingly innocent village fair, after which he finds himself caught in the web of a sinister underworld with possible Nazi connections.

DVD 11727

Nibelungen

In part one, Siegfried wins the hand of Kriemhilde by slaying the dragon and defeating Brunhilde. When Brunhilde learns that magic has been used to conquer her, she has Siegfried murdered. In part two, Kriemhilde seeks revenge for Siegfried's death and marries Attila, king of the Huns, in order to further her purpose.

DVD 4959

Rancho Notorious

A western, set in the 1870s, which dramatizes the ballad The legend of Chuck-A-Luck. The search of a Wyoming cowboy for his fiancée's murderer leads him to a ranch-hideaway for bandits which is operated by an ex-saloon entertainer.

DVD 12588

Scarlet Street

Chris Cross, 25 years a cashier, has a gold watch and little else. That rainy night, he rescues delectable Kitty from her abusive boyfriend Johnny. Smitten, amateur painter Chris lets Kitty think he's a wealthy artist. At Johnny's urging, she lets Chris establish her in an apartment (with his shrewish wife's money). There, Chris paints masterpieces; but Johnny sells them under Kitty's name, with disastrous and ironic results.

DVD 5304

Spione

Having defined the espionage genre with Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, Fritz Lang returned to the genre with this surprisingly fast-paced and remarkably grim thriller. Rudolf Klein-Rogge starts as Haghi, the head of an elaborate criminal empire, and Willy Fritsch is the undercover agent assigned to topple the diabolical king from his throne. Filled with the sexual intrigue and high-tech gadgetry that continue to define the genre, SPIES (Spione) remains remarkably contemporary, more than 85 years after its original release.

DVD 12280

Testament des Dr. Mabuse Testament of Dr. Mabuse /

Locked away in an asylum for a decade and teetering between life and death, the criminal mastermind Dr. Mabuse has scribbled his last will and testament: a manifesto establishing a future empire of crime. When the document's nefarious writings start leading to terrifying parallels in reality, it's up to Berlin's star detective, Inspector Lohmann, to connect the most fragmented, maddening clues in a case unlike any other.

DVD 3376

While the city sleeps

"Ask mother" says the message scrawled in lipstick at a muder scene by an unknown serial killer who preys on women. It's a sensational story - if it bleeds, it leads - and a news conglomerate offers a big promotion to the high-level company exec who solves the case. So begins the wheeling, dealing and backstabbing of the competing media hotshots as they vie to unmask the so-called Lipstick Killer.

DVD 12532

Woman in the window

A professor of criminology is the pawn in a shocking crime thriller with a surprising twist.

DVD 5741

You and me

An ex-convict (George Raft) marries a department-store co-worker (Sylvia Sidney), unaware she's on parole.

DVD 12589

You only live once

Three time loser Eddie has had enough of life behand bars. Determined to make good after an early parole from prison Eddie finds devoted sweetheart Joan waiting for him. Fate then deals the young couple a cruel blow when Eddie is convicted of bank robbery and murder all the while proclaiming his innocence.

DVD 12587