play.
The films received
a passing reception, but did not do as well as Fury. Lang, used
to complete artistic freedom, was increasingly frustrated by autocratic
studio rule. Signing a contract with 20th Century-Fox, Lang embraced American
mythology with The Return of Frank James(1940), an entertaining
sequel to Henry King’s acclaimed Jesse James (1939). Western
Union (1941), though not as successful, cemented his reputation as
a master of the time-honored genre.
America’s involvement
in World War II turned Nazis into standard box-office villains. Lang gladly
launched his part in the war effort with a series of anti-Nazi films.
Man Hunt (1941), finds a British assassin stalking Hitler while
he, in turn, is hunted by the Gestapo. Here, he returns to the fatalistic
themes that marked so many of his German films. Espionage thrillers like
Hangmen Also Die (1943), Ministry of Fear (1944) and Cloak
and Dagger (1946) rounded out this cycle.
Lurking
in the Shadows: Film Noir
Toward the end of the
war, and for some years after, Lang revisits the mystery-suspense themes
of his earlier career. Psychological thrillers like The Woman in the
Window (1944), Scarlet Street (1945), Secret Beyond the
Door (1948), and House by the River (1950) epitomized the emerging
American genre that French critics named film noir.
Like M and the
Dr. Mabuse before, these films were marked by somber, shadow-filled
tones, often set in what film critic Gavin Lambert described as "an
anonymous, melancholy urban world." They portrayed an American landscape
where heroes and villains were sometimes difficult to distinguish.
Lang turned away from
mobsters briefly and made one last western. Rancho Notorious (1952),
is a psychological tale about a cowboy turned vigilante after the murder
of his girlfriend. Though the film was eventually ranked among his more
important works, critics and audiences rejected it at the time.
Witch
Hunt
Lang’s next films reclaimed
the shadowy realm of crime. Clash by Night (1952), set during the
Depression, considers how social turmoil can transform a peaceful man
into a murderer. Shortly after the film was finished in 1951, Lang was
swept up in the growing turmoil of the cold war.
Senator
Joseph McCarthy’s House Committee on Un-American Activities branded
Lang a "potential communist." This charged stemmed from the
director’s association with "left-leaning" screenwriters like
Berthold Brect and Ring Lardner Jr. Blacklisted, Lang was unemployed for
over a year.
In 1953 Harry Cohn
of Columbia Pictures testified before McCarthy’s
witch-hunting committee that Lang was not a communist. The director
was immediately hired to work on Blue Gardenia (1953), the story
of an innocent young woman accused of a ghastly murder. This marginally
successful film was followed by The Big Heat (1953), one of Lang’s
best crafted and evocative noir thrillers.
In The Big Heat,
a young detective battles a ruthless mobster who controls a small town.
The film shocked both audiences and critics alike with its brooding intimations
of violence, and moral ambiguity. Lang depicts a world where corruption
is the norm, and honesty is a laughably naive ideal.
Human Desire
(1954), a remake of Jean Renoir’s La B?te Humaine (1938) explored
the destructive power of lust. Lang departed from contemporary criminal
themes in Moonfleet (1955), a gothic melodrama about an orphan
enlisted by a gang of smugglers.
Lang’s last American
masterpiece was also one of his personal favorites. While the City
Sleeps (1956) concerns three newspaper reporters whose ruthless news
gathering tactics rival the horror of the murder they are investigating.
Arguably the darkest of his crime thrillers, Lang casts a scathing critique
of America’s cutthroat business culture.
Beyond a Reasonable
Doubt (1956) marked a disappointing conclusion to Lang’s American
career. Although the idea was intriguing — a novelist masquerades as
a murderer to expose inequities in the judicial system — the production
was a mechanical exercise in excess. Not even the film’s unexpected twist-ending
restores its potential.
Leaving
Hollywood
Professionally, Lang
wearied of zealous studio chiefs meddling with his productions. He longed
to direct films where artistry was not compromised by commercial considerations.
He traveled to India in 1956 and did research for an independent project
called Taj Mahal. Not far into the planning stages, he abandoned the project
and returned to the United States.
In a last attempt to
work with Hollywood studios, he pitched a story idea concerning illegal
telephone tapping by the FBI. Still reeling from McCarthy-era paranoia,
the premise was flatly rejected. After twenty years of feuding and frustration,
Lang abandoned Hollywood forever.
In 1957 a German production
company offered him a chance to direct a two-part story, The Tiger
of Eschnapur (1959), and The Indian Tomb (1959). The scripts
were closely based on scenarios written by Lang and Thea von Harlou in
1921, and held great personal significance for the director.
Lang stayed in Germany
and made one last film, The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960). His
directorial swan song was a finely crafted update of his Mabuse series.
After a series of grisly murders, the Berlin police suspect the killer
may be a high-tech copycat of the evil Dr. Mabuse. Taut and suspenseful,
the film delivered a polemic against the dangers of over reliance on technology.
In 1963 Lang played
himself in Jean
Luc Godard’s Contempt. A film about the making of a film, Contempt
is also a glowing tribute to the career of Fritz Lang. Godard and other
French New Wave film makers were among the first to recognize the director’s
profound influence on modern cinema.
Lang returned to the
United States in his late years, and lived in Beverly Hills, CA. He died
on August 2, 1976 after a long illness.
1Riefenstahl’s
films, Triumph of the Will (1935) and Olympia (1938) are
considered masterpieces of cinematic propaganda.
Select
Bibliography for Fritz Lang
Books
Armour, Robert,
Fritz Lang, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977.
Cook, David
A., A History of Narrative Film, New York: W.W. Norton & Co,
1981.
Eisner, Lotte
H., Fritz Lang, New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.
Katz, Ephram,
The Film Encyclopedia, New York: HarperCollins, 1994
Mast, Gerald
and Kawin, Bruce, A Short History of the Movies: Fifth Edition,
New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992.
Articles
Hawkins, Erika,
"Fritz Lang and Metropolis: The First Science Fiction Film,"
Metropolis Homepage, January 1997.