Rent Spies (1928)

James Bond Begins? - Spies review by Count Otto Black

Fritz Lang was unquestionably one of the all-time great directors, and some of his early work in particular is absolutely extraordinary. Unfortunately, after he made what is nowadays regarded as his masterpiece, "Metropolis", he had the same problem as Terry Gilliam did in the wake of "Baron Munchausen"; if you spend a fortune on a massively ambitious film which isn't a commercial hit, no matter how good you are, the studio is going to give you a lot less money next time. Lang, whose budgets had been getting steadily bigger, suddenly had to compromise his grand visions because the accountants were shaking their heads, and it took him a while to adjust.

"Spies" attempts to create another supervillain just like Dr. Mabuse (and played by the same actor, Lang's favorite bad guy Rudolf Klein-Rogge), only even more terrifying, since instead of Mabuse's handful of sleazy minions, Haghi, whose hairstyle is as odd as his name, is in charge of a vast and ruthlessly efficient criminal organization, controlled from a secret underground headquarters several levels deep and with at least a hundred full-time staff, including proper henchmen in sinister leather uniforms. So basically he's a Bond villain 34 years before the first Bond movie.

It's a fantastic concept, but unfortunately Lang can't afford to show us any of it properly. Haghi's HQ amounts to little more than one small, bare control room containing what passed for hi-tech information technology in 1928 (you can see how tiny and low-budget it is in the stills above), and his gang is effectively no bigger than Mabuse's, since the existence of everyone and everything else is almost entirely established by a couple of shots of extras milling about in a stair-well. Apart from a fairly convincing train crash and some rather muddled action towards the end, Haghi's nefarious schemes are very low-key, and the magnificently decadent night-life that so enlivened "Dr. Mabuse the Gambler" isn't shown here, other than a token scene in a peculiar night-club for people equally keen on ballroom dancing and boxing.

It's still pretty good, other than the slowness of the first half, which gives us romantic and moral dilemmas instead of action in an obvious attempt to save money for the big finish, but you can sense Lang's frustration with the low budget. Even his trademark weird visuals barely feature at all (the second-last of the stills above, which seems to show a medieval army, isn't from this film), apart from a bit of total bizarreness involving a clown with a gun and some giant insects, but that's literally the last three minutes of the movie. Overall this is one of a very talented director's lesser works. And apart from the much more prominent romantic elements, there's nothing in it that Lang didn't do better 6 years earlier in "Dr. Mabuse the Gambler".

Very Muddled & Confusing Overlong Minor Fritz Lang Film - Let its Great Soundtrack Wash Over You! - Spies review by PV

This is a very long film. It is also very muddles and, for me, confusing. I felt like I needed a print-out of the plot and characters to read beforehand - as is useful if going to the theatre to watch a Shakespeare play or even Gilbert and Sullivan (and when I take the print-out with me to shows, so many people ask in the interval to read the pages I have printed off the internet as the plot and/or character numbers have confused them).

Useful historical context: Japan was on the side of Britain and the allies in the First World War, and this is pre China going communist too, though Russia was of course, though white Russians who escaped after losing the 1921/2 civil war to the reds were all over western Europe in the 1920s. So this plot does reflect growing German nationalism and resentment re the punitive conditions of the Versailles Treaty in 1919. History eh?

Having said all that, I enjoyed it, sort of let it wash over me. I am making the effort to try and watch all Fritz Lang films this year. Amazing to think this is almost an antique, 100 years old in 2028.

The baddie mastermind here reminded me of a Bond villain, wheelchair and all. Maybe that is where the Bond film makers got their idea from, esp for Blofeld? Then think the Austin Powers spoof of that Bond film You Only Live Twice from 1967.

It is all very pantomime and no doubt the wokies will get triggered by the racial Japanese stereotypes (though never the white or male ones!) accompanied by chopsticks score music - by the way, the soundtrack is fab. Piano plus electronics. Just great!

I MUSH preferred WOMAN IN THE MOON made the next year 1929 with a lot of the same cast.

Just 3 stars for this, But I am still not entirely sure what was going on...

Proto-Hitchcock. - Spies review by Steve

This could easily have been conceived as a sequel to Fritz Lang's 1922 hit Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler. The head of the criminal underworld is still played by Rudolf Klein Rogge- situated somewhere between Professor Moriarty and a Bond villain. The main differences are a lower budget and a much lighter tone. This has the feel of an adventure serial, all cliffhangers and last second escapes.

Middle Europe in the years between the wars has drifted into an uneasy peace monetised by parasitic gangs. There is a lot of McGuffin about a peace treaty, but this is really a vehicle for the spy plot motifs; the invisible writing, the disguises and '20s surveillance technology. Most of the action is loaded into the climax. Earlier scenes are sustained by the attractive romantic leads.

Willy Fritsch has a lot of debonaire charm as the action man of national security. And Gerda Maurus is drop dead gorgeous as the hired spook who turns legit. The camera plainly loves her, but then she was having an affair with the director. German expressionism has been replaced by a more realistic look and a procedural approach, but it's still stylish, with outlandish plot twists.

Buzzers are constantly triggered which connect with the '30s thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock. Most startlingly when the female lead is manoeuvred into bondage... Hitch took plenty from this. Spione is not usually pitched as one of Lang's best silents, and there are longueurs early on, but it's ultimately an exciting action-suspense film set in an interwar Germany of intrigue and conspiracy.