History Creator / FritzLang

-- '''''Fritz Lang'''''

* "Vier um di Frau" ("Four Around a Woman"), 1921: A jealous husband lures the supposed lover of his wife to his residence, planning violent revenge. One of his friends and a local con-man also turn up for visits, several plot twists follow.

* ''Film/{{M}}'', 1931: His first talkie and one of his most famous films, about a serial child killer. He's the hero.

* TheHunterBecomesTheHunted: One of his favoured tropes. Played very straight e. g. in ''Film/{{M}}'', where you can pinpoint the switch to the moment when Becker discovers the chalk "M" on his shoulder. Often used in its inversion (the hunted becoming the hunter) starting with ''Die Spinnen'', where the hero spends the first part evading the attacks of the conspiracy and then assumes the role of the hunter in the sequel.

* ''Beyond a Reasonable Doubt'' (1956).

* EyepatchOfPower: Probably one of the most famous in film history. The man himself was a veteran of WWI.

* ThePerfectionist: He had a reputation for this. There's a scene in ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' where the lead actor, Gustav Fröhlich, collapses to his knees. The story goes that Lang had Fröhlich perform the action over and over until his knees ''started bleeding'' just to get what he felt was the perfect shot.

* UnreliableNarrator: Lang had a tendency to paint his own life as more eventful than it probably was. Lang's famous story of [[ThoseWackyNazis Joseph Goebbels]] offering him control of Germany's film industry, only to flee that same evening, has been proven to be embellished if not outright invented.

* ''Der Müde Tod'' (''Destiny''), 1921: Pure Expressionism.

* EyepatchOfPower

* ThePerfectionist: He had a reputation for this. There's a scene in ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' where the lead actor collapses to his knees. Lang had the actor perform the action until his knees ''started bleeding'' just to get what he felt was the perfect shot.

* ''Ministry of Fear'' (1944).

* ExecutiveMeddling: Frequently. The German government banned ''The Testament of Dr. Mabuse'' for its parallels to Nazism. ''Fury'''s finale was re-edited to soften its anti-lynching message. ''Hangmen Also Die!'' lost a scene of the Nazis massacring Czech hostages (including one of the main characters), and survivors visiting their mass grave. ''Cloak and Dagger'' contained a pointed scene condemning nuclear weapons, which was not only cut but actually destroyed by the studio.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Many examples, not only from his German period (''The Testament of Dr. Mabuse'' being banned for its Nazi parallels). ''Fury'''s finale was re-edited to soften its anti-lynching message. ''Hangmen Also Die!'' lost a scene of the Nazis massacring Czech hostages (including one of the main characters), and survivors visiting their mass grave. ''Cloak and Dagger'' contained a pointed scene condemning nuclear weapons, which was not only cut but actually destroyed by the studio.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The child serial killer in ''Film/{{M}}'' was based on real German serial killer Peter Kuerten. Also, lynch mob justice in ''Fury''. And ''You Only Live Once'' (1937) was based on [[OutlawCouple Bonnie And Clyde]], who had been gunned down just three years before that film hit the theatres.

* ''Fury'' (1936).

* ''Spione'' (''Spies''), 1928: SpyFiction film, one of the earliest hits in the genre. Haghi, the secret head of a NebulousEvilOrganisation, learns that opposing Agent No. 326 has been tasked with bringing down his entire group. He assigns his top operative Sonja Baranikowa to gain the trust of 326, but he fails to anticipate that the two would genuinely fall for each other. Now Haghi has to get personally involved in the struggle against 326.

Fritz Lang (1890-1976) was an UsefulNotes/{{Austria}}n director known for his trope-making films in the Golden Age of German and Hollywood cinema. After trying first to be an architect and then a painter, Lang got into the film industry after serving in WorldWarOne, as both a writer and actor before becoming a director. In the early 1920's he met his second wife, screenwriter Thea von Harbou, who he collaborated with on all his films for the next decade. This period included ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'', ''Die Nibelungen'', the [[Film/DrMabuseTheGambler Dr. Mabuse series]], and ''Film/{{M}}'', which are probably his most famous works.

Lang left Germany when [[NaziGermany Hitler came to power]] - often claiming that he left the same night Goebbels asked him to join the Nazi party, though available evidence disputes this - and started over in Hollywood. Though Lang made significant contributions to the film noir and western genres with films like ''You Only Live Once'', ''Fury'', ''Western Union'', ''Film/TheWomanInTheWindow'', and ''The Big Heat'', he felt stifled by the restrictive studio system and returned to postwar West Germany, where he continued to make films until he went blind in the mid-1960's.

* ''TheBlueGardenia'' (1953).

* ''Scarlet Street'' (1945).

* TheAce : Although little known today, Fritz Lang is a phenomenal influence on film history. He influenced all kinds of popular genres and especially the crime genre and thriller. FilmNoir and Hitchcock's thrillers would not have been possible without his influence.

* CreatorBacklash : He hated ''Metropolis'', regarding it as an OldShame for its childish story motivations and its weak ending and also didn't like the fact that [[MisaimedFandom the Nazis]] [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame liked it]].

* MagnumOpus : Regard ''M'' as his greatest film. Most critics agree.
* ProductionPosse: Between 1921 and 1933, whatever Fritz Lang did always included Thea von Harbou as the screenwriter and, with only two exceptions (Peter Lorre for ''M'' and Fritz Rasp for ''Woman in the Moon''), had Rudolf Klein-Rogge playing the villain.

* EyepatchOfPower: Look at the photo above. He had eye problems as a result of an injury he suffered in his military service during WorldWarI.
* HighClassGlass: That said, he only wore the eyepatch in his later years. For most of his life, especially in the 20s and 30s, he took to wearing a monocle that added a sinister aura that allowed him to be very intimidating to his crew.

* PrimaDonnaDirector: He was famous for his ruthless perfectionism and insistence on high standards and was a terror to his cast and crew, but did inspire loyalty among some of them.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Was opposed to Nazism but like many liberals of his time, he stayed in Germany until 1934 in the hope that the Nazis wouldn't last and weren't to be taken seriously. He gradually realized that they were there to stay and [[UnreliableNarrator in his own words]], made a hair-raising exit right after meeting Josef Goebbels who offered him a [[WeCanRuleTogether high-end position]] in the Nazi Film industry.
** His passport at the Deutsche Kinematek at Berlin reveals that he made several back-and-forth trips between Germany and Paris and carried [[PragmaticHero all]] his clothes, belongings and money to France, making him far better off than other exiles and emigres who literally had to [[ResetButton start]] from scratch.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Was opposed to Nazism but like many liberals of his time, he stayed in Germany until 1934 in the hope that the Nazis wouldn't last and weren't to be taken seriously. He gradually realized that they were there to stay and [[UnreliableNarrator in his own words]], made a hair-raising exit right after meeting Josef Goebells who offered him a [[WeCanRuleTogether high-end position]] in the Nazi Film industry.

* ''The Big Heat'' (1953).

* ''Fim/Die1000AugenDesDrMabuse'' (The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse), 1960. Final film directed by Lang.