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Fritz on Fridays

A collection of 23 posts

Fritz on Fridays: Rancho Notorious

Fritz on Fridays

Fritz on Fridays: Rancho Notorious

The final 15 minutes of Rancho Notorious are spectacular.

Fritz on Fridays: Hilde Warren and Death

Fritz on Fridays: Hilde Warren and Death

The classic Langian game theory with fate expresses itself through Weimar-era anxieties about corrupted blood.

Fritz on Fridays: The Blue Gardenia

Fritz on Fridays: The Blue Gardenia

The Blue Gardenia challenges this narrative of complacency and Lang’s supposed wont to “sleepwalking through history.”

Fritz on Fridays: Harakiri (1919)

Fritz on Fridays: Harakiri (1919)

One of the most underappreciated legacies of Fritz Lang’s career was his star-making power.

Fritz on Fridays: While the City Sleeps

Fritz on Fridays: While the City Sleeps

If it bleeds, it leads.

Fritz on Fridays: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

Fritz on Fridays: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt is more sadistic than bleak.

Fritz on Fridays: Man Hunt (1941)

Fritz on Fridays: Man Hunt (1941)

What greater thrill could there be than killing the leader of the Third Reich?

Fritz on Fridays: You and Me

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.

Fritz on Fridays: Death’s Domain in ‘Destiny’ with Daniel Gorman

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.

Fritz on Fridays: House by the River

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.

Fritz on Fridays: Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler

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.

Fritz on Fridays: The Return of Frank James

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.

Fritz on Fridays: The Westerns of Fritz Lang with Garrett Strpko

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."

Fritz on Fridays: The Wandering Image

Fritz on Fridays: The Wandering Image

The Wandering Image is not a great film. It is an important one, though.

Fritz on Fridays: Western Union

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.

Fritz on Fridays: American Guerrilla in the Philippines

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.

Fritz on Fridays: Hangmen Also Die!

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.

Fritz on Fridays: You Only Live Once

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.

Fritz on Fridays: The Spiders — The Diamond Ship

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.

Fritz on Fridays: The Woman in the Window (1944)

Fritz on Fridays: The Woman in the Window (1944)

The Woman in the Window might be the most important film the director made after leaving the German industry.

Fritz on Fridays: The Spiders — The Golden Sea

Fritz on Fridays: The Spiders — The Golden Sea

I try not to interpret Lang, or all Austrian and / or German cinema for that matter, through the tragedy of the Shoah and fascism more broadly, but The Golden Sea makes that hard through the confession of the Incan leader, who offers “a sacrifice to the sun that rises and promises to make our people

Fritz on Fridays: Die Nibelungen: Siegfried

Fritz on Fridays: Die Nibelungen: Siegfried

At the absolute maximum, there are but a handful of filmmakers in the history of the seventh art who have left a greater mark on the medium than Fritz Lang. I’m even hesitant to identify a single filmmaker with a definitive case for being more influential over the course

Fritz on Fridays: <i>The Big Heat</i> (1953)

Fritz on Fridays: <i>The Big Heat</i> (1953)

Beginning today, 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