Fritz on Fridays Fritz on Fridays: Secret Beyond the Door On the first Friday of every month, this column by critic Joshua Polanski will feature a short review or essay on a film directed by Fritz Lang (1890-1976), the great Austrian “Master of Darkness.” Occasionally (but not too occasionally), Fritz on Fridays will also feature interviews and conversations with relevant
Fritz on Fridays Fritz on Fridays: The Lost Films of Fritz Lang Like many prolific filmmakers active in the first half of the 20th century, Fritz Lang’s filmography did not make it to the present in its entirety.
Fritz on Fridays Fritz on Fridays: The ‘Secret’ Films in the American Heritage Center Collection There is an entire collection of Fritz Lang-helmed moving pictures fully unadulterated by cinephiles, scholars, historians, programmers and critics. The entire collection is available for free on the internet, too.
Fritz on Fridays Fritz on Fridays: Metropolis Not all masterpieces are without their flaws. I’m sure the Sistine Chapel has its dents and dings, too.
Fritz on Fridays Fritz on Fridays: Rancho Notorious The final 15 minutes of Rancho Notorious are spectacular.
Reviews Fritz on Fridays: Hilde Warren and Death The classic Langian game theory with fate expresses itself through Weimar-era anxieties about corrupted blood.
Reviews Fritz on Fridays: The Blue Gardenia The Blue Gardenia challenges this narrative of complacency and Lang’s supposed wont to “sleepwalking through history.”
Reviews Fritz on Fridays: Harakiri (1919) One of the most underappreciated legacies of Fritz Lang’s career was his star-making power.
Reviews Fritz on Fridays: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt Beyond a Reasonable Doubt is more sadistic than bleak.
Reviews Fritz on Fridays: Man Hunt (1941) What greater thrill could there be than killing the leader of the Third Reich?
Reviews Fritz on Fridays: You and Me It’s also a film that takes place from Thanksgiving to Christmas, making it a fitting time to run for this month’s column.
Bernhard Goetzke Fritz on Fridays: Death’s Domain in ‘Destiny’ with Daniel Gorman A conversation about what sets Destiny apart, the technological advances of the early silent-film years, Langian metanarratives related to destiny and much more.
Reviews Fritz on Fridays: House by the River It’s one of those films so pleasant to look at that it makes you regret the flatly lit junk made today for streaming services.
Reviews Fritz on Fridays: Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler The man dropped classics like drivers dropping fast-food litter off I-71 on their commute: naturally, frequently and as if no one was looking.
Reviews Fritz on Fridays: The Return of Frank James The Return of Frank James is a sound film that bears the marks of a silent film director.
Arthur Kennedy Fritz on Fridays: The Westerns of Fritz Lang with Garrett Strpko "There’s a certain affinity that the medium has with gun violence … It’s not insignificant that we call it shooting and that one of the first moving picture cameras ever created is shaped like a rifle."
Reviews Fritz on Fridays: The Wandering Image The Wandering Image is not a great film. It is an important one, though.
Reviews Fritz on Fridays: Western Union The issues they encounter on the way to Utah are typical, with one little unique and highly critical addition: Confederate soldiers wearing redface with the purpose of inciting conflict against Western Union because their telegraph will help the Union.
Reviews Fritz on Fridays: American Guerrilla in the Philippines Don’t lie: You didn’t know Fritz Lang directed a film set in the Philippines during World War II.
Reviews Fritz on Fridays: Hangmen Also Die! Fritz Lang and Bertolt Brecht were a match designed by the gods of cinema even if the apocalyptic circumstances uniting them were nothing short of godless.
Reviews Fritz on Fridays: You Only Live Once If you were to put all of Fritz Lang’s films together and make a new one from the aggregate, that film would very closely resemble 1937’s You Only Live Once.
Reviews Fritz on Fridays: The Spiders — The Diamond Ship The second of Fritz Lang’s two Spiders films, released in 1920 but considered a lost film until the 1970s, might be the most reprobate picture of his nearly six-decade career.