Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary '' Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 63. One of the best-known ''émigrés'' from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute. He has been cited as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. Lang's work spans five decades, from the Expressionist silent films of his first German creative period to his short stay in Paris and his work as a Hollywood director to his last three films made in Germany. Lang's most celebrated films include the futuristic science-fiction film ''

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...

'' (1927) and the influential '' M'' (1931), a film noir precursor. His 1929 film '' Woman in the Moon'' showcased the use of a multi-stage rocket, and also pioneered the concept of a

rocket A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

launch pad (a rocket standing upright against a tall building before launch having been slowly rolled into place) and the rocket-launch countdown clock."The Directors (Fritz Lang)"
Sky Arts. Season 1, episode 6. 2018 His other major films include '' Dr. Mabuse the Gambler'' (1922), '' Die Nibelungen'' (1924), and after moving to Hollywood in 1934, '' Fury'' (1936), '' You Only Live Once'' (1937), '' Hangmen Also Die!'' (1943), '' The Woman in the Window'' (1944), '' Scarlet Street'' (1945) and '' The Big Heat'' (1953). He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1939.

Early life

Lang was born in Vienna, as the second son of Anton Lang (1860–1940), an architect and construction company manager, and his wife Pauline "Paula" Lang ( Schlesinger; 1864–1920). There is no documented evidence of the true identity of Anton Lang's biological father; he was born as an illegitimate child of a maid from Moravia. Anton Lang was described as a "lapsed Catholic," and was a builder and partner in Honus and Lang, an important construction company Pauline Lang was born

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

and converted to Catholicism. Fritz Lang was baptized on December 28, 1890, at the Schottenkirche in Vienna. He had an elder brother, Adolf (1884–1961). Lang's father was of Moravian descent. At one point, he noted that he was "born

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and very puritan". Ultimately describing himself as an atheist, Lang believed that religion was important for teaching ethics. After finishing school, Lang briefly attended the Technical University of Vienna, where he studied civil engineering and eventually switched to art. He left Vienna in 1910 to travel throughout Europe and Africa, later Asia and the Pacific area. In 1913, he studied painting in Paris. He was arrested by the French authorities as an "enemy alien," but escaped to Vienna, where he was drafted into the Imperial Austrian Army. At the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Lang returned to Vienna and volunteered for military service in the Austrian

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

, fighting in Russia and

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. Lang was wounded four times and lost sight in his right eye, when he then saw a Max Reinhardt show for injured soldiers and played in a Red Cross revue. During his convalescence he began writing plays and simple scenarios with Austrian film director Joe May devising a two-reel film from a Lang scenario. At the end of the war, Lang began to mingle with the demobilized Berlin artists and was discharged from the army with the rank of lieutenant in 1918. Lang briefly acted in the Viennese theater circuit before being hired as a writer at Decla Film, Erich Pommer's Berlin-based production company. On 13 February 1919, in the Marriage Registry Office in Charlottenburg, Berlin, Lang married a theater actress named Elisabeth Rosenthal. Rosenthal died of a single gunshot wound in their bathtub on September 25, 1920, the shot deemed to have been fired by Lang's World War I Browning revolver. Lang and his future wife Harbou claimed that Rosenthal had shot herself, and Lang and Harbou were charged with failure to render aid. The charge was soon dropped.

Career

Expressionist films: the Weimar years (1918–1933)

Lang started work as a director at the German film studio UFA, and later Nero-Film, just as the Expressionist movement was building. In this first phase of his career, Lang alternated between films such as '' Der Müde Tod'' ("The Weary Death") and popular thrillers such as '' Die Spinnen'' ("The Spiders"), combining popular genres with Expressionist techniques to create a synthesis of popular entertainment with art cinema. In 1920, Lang met his future second wife, the writer Thea von Harbou through director Joe May. Harbou co-wrote and directed the film ''Das wandernde Bild'' with Lang. She co-wrote every Harbou-Lang film till 1933, including '' Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler'' ("Dr. Mabuse the Gambler," 1922 – which ran for over four hours, in two parts in the original version, and was the first in the Dr. Mabuse trilogy), the five-hour '' Die Nibelungen'' (1924), the dystopian film ''

'' (1927), and the science fiction film '' Woman in the Moon'' (1929). ''Metropolis'' went over budget, to the UFA's detriment. It was a financial flop, as were his last silent films '' Spies'' (1928) and ''Woman in the Moon'', produced by Lang's own company. In 1931, independent producer Seymour Nebenzahl hired Lang to direct '' M'' for Nero-Film. His first "talking" picture, considered by many film scholars to be a masterpiece of the early sound era, ''M'' is a story of a child murderer ( Peter Lorre in his first starring role) who is hunted down and brought to justice by Berlin's criminal underworld. Lang was hard to work with. During the climactic final scene in ''M'', Lang allegedly threw Peter Lorre down a flight of stairs in order to give more authenticity to Lorre's battered look. In the films of his German period, Lang produced an oeuvre that established the characteristics later attributed to film noir, with its recurring themes of psychological conflict, paranoia, fate and moral ambiguity. Lang started having an affair with the Austrian actress Gerda Maurus during the filming of '' Spione'' (1928). At the end of 1932, Lang started filming '' The Testament of Dr. Mabuse''. As

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

came to power in January 1933, the new regime banned the film on March 30 as an incitement to public disorder. ''Testament'' is occasionally deemed an anti-Nazi film, as Lang had put Nazi phrases into the mouth of the title character. A screening of the film was cancelled by Joseph Goebbels, and it was later banned by the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. In banning the film, Goebbels stated that the film "showed that an extremely dedicated group of people are perfectly capable of overthrowing any state with violence", and that the film posed a threat to public health and safety. Throughout his marriage with Harbou, Lang was known for being a philanderer. Two of his lovers of these years included Gerda Maurus, the leading actress in Lang's last silent films '' Spione'' (1928) and '' Woman in the Moon'' (1929), and Lily Latte in 1931. In the early 1930s, Harbou started an affair with Ayi Tendulkar, an Indian journalist and student 17 years her junior.

Emigration

According to Lang, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels called Lang to his offices to inform him that ''The Testament of Dr. Mabuse'' was being banned but, nevertheless, he was so impressed by Lang's abilities as a filmmaker (especially ''Metropolis''), that he offered Lang the position of head of German film studio UFA. Lang said it was during that meeting he had decided to leave for Paris – but that the banks had closed by the time the meeting was over. Lang claimed that, after selling his wife's jewelry, he fled by train to Paris that evening, leaving most of his money and personal possessions behind. Despite this, Lang's passport of the time showed that he traveled to and from Germany throughout 1933. Lang left Berlin permanently on July 31, 1933, four months after his meeting with Goebbels and his initial departure. He moved to Paris,David Kalat,
DVD Commentary for The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
'. New York City, United States: The Criterion Collection (2004) having divorced Thea von Harbou, who stayed behind, earlier in 1933. In Paris, Lang filmed his only French film, a version of Ferenc Molnár's '' Liliom'', starring Charles Boyer. He then moved to the United States.

Hollywood career (1936–1957)

Lang made twenty-two features in his 20-year American career, working in a variety of genres at every major studio in Hollywood, and occasionally producing his films as an independent. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1939. Signing first with MGM Studios, Lang's crime drama '' Fury'' (1936) saw Spencer Tracy cast as a man who is wrongly accused of a crime and nearly killed when a lynch mob sets fire to the jail where he is awaiting trial. However, in ''Fury'', he was not allowed to represent black victims in a lynching scenario or to criticize racism, which was his original intention. By the time ''Fury'' was released, Lang had been involved in the creation of the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League, working with Otto Katz, a Czech who was a Comintern spy. He made four films with an explicitly anti-Nazi themes, '' Man Hunt'' (1941), '' Hangmen Also Die!'' (1943), '' Ministry of Fear'' (1944) and ''

Cloak and Dagger "Cloak and dagger" was a fighting style common by the time of the Renaissance involving a knife hidden beneath a cloak. The term later came into use as a metaphor, referring to situations involving intrigue, secrecy, espionage, or mystery. Over ...

'' (1946). ''Man Hunt'', wrote Dave Kehr in 2009, "may be the best" of the "many interventionist films produced by the Hollywood studios before Pearl Harbor" as it is "clean and concentrated, elegant and precise, pointed without being preachy." Fritz Lang and Gloria Grahame on set of Human Desire

Fritz Lang and Gloria Grahame on set of Human Desire

His American films were often compared unfavorably to his earlier works by contemporary critics, although the restrained Expressionism of these films is now seen as integral to the emergence and evolution of American genre cinema. '' Scarlet Street'' (1945), one of his films featuring Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett, is considered a central film in the film noir genre. One of Lang's most praised ''films noir'' is the police drama '' The Big Heat'' (1953), known for its brutality. As Lang's visual style simplified, in part due to the constraints of the Hollywood studio system, his worldview became increasingly pessimistic, culminating in the cold, geometric style of his last American films, '' While the City Sleeps'' (1956) and '' Beyond a Reasonable Doubt'' (1956).

Last films (1959–1963)

Lang, as his health worsened with age, found it difficult to find congenial production conditions and backers in Hollywood and contemplated retirement. The German producer

Artur Brauner Artur "Atze" Brauner (born Abraham Brauner; 1 August 1918 – 7 July 2019) was a German film producer and entrepreneur of Polish origin. He produced more than 300 films from 1946. Life and career He was born the oldest son of a Jewish family ...

had expressed interest in remaking '' The Indian Tomb'' (from an original story by Thea von Harbou, that Lang had developed in the 1920s which had ultimately been directed by Joe May), so Lang returned to West Germany to make his "Indian Epic" (consisting of '' The Tiger of Eschnapur'' and '' The Indian Tomb''). Following the production, Brauner was preparing for a remake of '' The Testament of Dr. Mabuse'' when Lang approached him with the idea of adding a new original film to the series. The result was '' The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse'' (1960), whose success led to a series of new Mabuse films produced by Brauner (including the remake of ''The Testament of Dr. Mabuse''), though Lang did not direct any of the sequels. Lang was approaching blindness during the production, and it was his final project as director. In 1963, he appeared as himself in Jean-Luc Godard's film '' Contempt''.

Death and legacy

On February 8, 1960, Lang received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion picture industry, located at 1600 Vine Street. Fritz Lang Grave

Lang died from a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

on August 2, 1976, and was interred in the Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. Lang's American and later German works were championed by the critics of the '' Cahiers du cinéma'', such as François Truffaut and Jacques Rivette. Truffaut wrote that Lang, especially in his American career, was greatly underappreciated by "cinema historians and critics" who "deny him any genius when he 'signs' spy movies ... war movies ... or simple thrillers." Lang is credited with launching or developing many different genres of film. Philip French of '' The Observer'' believed that Lang helped craft the "entertainment war flick" and that his interpretation of the story of Bonnie and Clyde "helped launch the Hollywood film noir". Geoff Andrew of the British Film Institute believed he set the "blueprint for the serial killer movie" through ''M''. In December 2021, Lang was the subject for BBC Radio 4's '' In Our Time''.

Preservation

The Academy Film Archive has preserved a number of Lang's films, including '' Human Desire'' and '' Man Hunt''.

Filmography

Awards

* Silver Hand in 1931, for his film ''M'', by the German Motion Picture Arts Association * Commander Cross, Order of Merit in 1957 and 1966 * Golden Ribbon of Motion Picture Arts in 1963 by the Federal Republic of Germany * Order of Arts and Letters from France in 1965 * Plaque from El Festival Internacional del Cine de San Sebastian in 1970 * Order of the Yugoslavia Flag with a Golden Wreath in 1971 * Honorary Professor of Fine Arts by the University of Vienna, Austria, in 1973