Harakiri (1919) - Fritz Lang

This is one of the first films directed by the giant Fritz Lang, specifically the fourth feature film, and all in its first year of artistic existence the seventh art, all in 1919, certainly a fruitful year, a transcendental and providential year in German cinema, and in the classic cinema, in the cinema in its totality . It is, again, an atypical and unique film and the varied filmography of this huge author, located right in the middle of the two films that composed the frustrated adventure of The Spiders, and that, just like the two pictures, both fatures mentioned, is based on exotic elements, because if before were the elements of the old Inca Empire, a bit of Mexico and even Asia, this time the director focuses exclusively on the Asian country of Japan, with all its solemnity. Then the great Lang is the well-known story of Madame Butterfly, which would bring the immortal Giacomo Puccini to the opera, in which a beautiful Japanese woman, of deep social and moral commitments with her culture, sees her father commit harakiri, commits suicide after protecting his daughter from a Buddhist monk; she will fall in love with a foreign man, they get married, but he must return to Europe. The girl stays, pregnant, waits him for four years, he finally returns, but he does it with a new European wife.

        

To Japan returns from a trip Daimyo Tokuyawa (Paul Biensfeldt), received by his daughter O-Take-San (Lil Dagover), their happiness is interrupted by a Buddhist monk (Georg John), he wishes the girl, and, rejected, tries force her to become a priestess; father and daughter refuse. At this, Tokuyawa then receives a gift from the emperor, a dagger that means that he must take his own life in 24 hours; he obeys, he commits harakiri. Then, European visitors arrive, and one of them, Olaf J. Anderson (Niels Prien), invades a sacred forest, forbidden to a foreigner, meets O-Take-San, who protects him. She, now turned into a geisha, is offered afterwards to the stranger, he is explained that, if he desires her as a spouse, he must marry her for 999 days. Hey agrees, they marry, they live in secret, the monk finds them, envies their happiness, but Olaf must return to Europe, promising to return soon. Time passes quickly, a child born of his romance is now four years old, the monk longs for the time to come to O-Take-San to be free, she must pay for her freedom, or return with him to the temple. She is helped by Prince Matahari (Meinhart Maur), who courts her, but she is loyal to Olaf, awaits him, while the monk demands she returns to the temple, tries to kidnap her son. Finally he returns, married to another woman, and O-Take-San makes a fatal decision then.

The extraordinary German filmmaker would close the first year of his unforgettable cinematographic career with the present film, the feature film that now occupies us, the fourth work of that year, we are about to celebrate a century of those days, a century since that old so. Those were years of a Fritz Lang who, after completing the first part of The Spiders, The Golden Lake, began fruitfully, with all four films mentioned in the same year, 1919, his debut year, and they feel like twinned films, with certain common edges. Also, since Lang's first two films are currently considered lost, the two parts of The Spiders and this film, in the middle of both, complete the first trio of feature films, therefore, that we have of the German. It is more than likely that those have been worked at some point, even simultaneously these four feature films, and that may be the origin of these common edges mentioned, as would be the case of the exotic theme, the characters, the places, or at least the sets that represent those places. Taking advantage of the sets of certain segments of The Spiders that took place in Asia, the director manages to capture the oriental environments, in this way the filmmaker serenely portrays the solemn Japanese environments, brimming with respect, tranquility, rectitude, the sets and costumes of the Oriental culture are portrayed in a pleasant way. It feels a good job to get those decorations, with those ornaments, in the dresses, in the details of the temples and other rooms, a positive element in the film in terms of setting, decoration and costumes, especially considering that it was a film shot in studio, which did not reach the displacements to the same area of ​​the actions. Again, a novel Lang already shows that he has developed sufficiency in the staging, he has seriousness to adapt a rich, complex work, of exotic elements, of a wealth that transcends artistic disciplines, a literary, musical, dramatic, cinematographic classic. Lang is ready for a few years after producing his biggest contributions to the cinema, shortly after the corset will be removed, all his genius will be released.

The road to great masterpieces is being leveled, film by film, the first features by the master were flowing, who continues polishing his style, the great moment is expedited, the master learned as fruitfully as quickly his craft, in order to be able to generate this picture. A picture which is a serious work, but we can definitely say that the best was yet to come, for the filmmaker and the world of cinema, was just the fourth feature film by one of the greatest filmmakers that ever existed. The immortal master gives us one more proof, a preview, a proem from his youth, of the versatility that he would never stop exhibiting throughout his career, since exotic themes would never fail to attract him, as evidenced by the films he would make decades later , in the 50s, the diptych of The Tiger of Esnapur and The Indian Tomb, both of 1959. It is then a unique film, at the beginning of his career, which makes us understand from another perspective that great variety in styles, that versatility which Lang always showed throughout his filmography. Thus, and with that prolegomena, we are introduced into a world where honor is the priority, compliance with the rules and commitments that society establishes, where it is better to die with honor than to live with dishonor, a powerful determination that will lead to a tragic end. Is a story that concentrates a lot of Asian culture, Japanese culture, a classic, a very Japanese story, a story of intense feelings, intense sufferings, a universal classic of various arts, which seduced even the great Puccini. Speaking of the picture and its qualities properly, there is a factor that also keeps repeating, in this and the initial movies of Lang, something normal, and this is that, after a third of the film, we can notice that it is not a feature that overflows technical virtuosity, Lang apparently kept all that prodigious visual explosion, all that technical domain, for his expressionist moment, for the most powerful stage in that aspect of his career, already just a few years away. Similarly, there is another common factor to the films of this era of Lang, again, something completely normal, were the years of the liberation of the camera, and therefore the cinematographic language, I mean the development of the camera, is a static camera mostly, lacking movement, and, therefore, lacking in greater expressivity.

Therefore, we have again a history of conventional treatment, filmed and structured in a conventional, linear way, it is a flat picture in its language and in its narration, as the story itself portrayed, linearity is not broken, there are no greater virtues nor brilliance techniques, actions, and the follow-up of them, are the center of everything. But always, or at least almost always, there are exceptions, and there are those exceptions with the sequences in the garden where they live, O-Take-San and Olaf, The Temple of Tea, between the most pleasant sequences, the best achieved, the different, for everything in them unfolded, all in that beautiful garden, where the symbol of peaches blossoms. In that way, in the middle of the homogeneous conventional treatment of the movie, we will find some scenes, those sequences, where the tender love flows between the frustrated lovers, moments adorned with the most pleasant frames, some frames that are enriched when finally that camera shows a certain mobility, a certain movement, an unbeatable moment certainly to awaken in its warm dynamism, enriching those sequences, finally we see sequences of a treatment, of a sensitivity different from the others. We will see again folowing orders by Lang Lil Dagover, being she protagonist in The Spiders, picture also very linked was to Lang, project whose accomplishment frustrated that Lang directed The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920); actors still not very renowned participated in the German director's films then, and in this film the greatest acting achievement of the Dagover is not perceived. It is not a film in which the performances feel particularly outstanding, perhaps the story did not demand much at the histrionic level, but in any case there is an excesive lukewarmness in the interpretations of the protagonists. It is a film that was considered lost for years, and not many decades ago was found, in a Dutch film library, giving to it the respective restoration and putting into circulation; it is therefore a recovered film, as there have been other cases, films, greater or lesser extent, which were thought to be completely lost, or complete versions that were lost. Those are cases of lost and recovered cinematographic jewels, that make us think that there is still hope of recovering some other of those silent wonders that are considered missing. As we see, there are reasons to appreciate this film, one of the first films whose history and development is fully Japanese, everything happens, it is portrayed, on Japanese soil, with the element of the geisha, the priests of Buddha, and all solemnity is captured, that tenacity, that commitment, that love and that suffering of the immortal and tragic story of Madame Butterfly, another one of those silent cinema films needed to see.

The Spiders (1919) - Fritz Lang

A unique film that we have on this occasion, from the time when an unforgettable giant of cinematographic art was still in formative years, 1919 was the year in which Fritz Lang would give the world his first works, his first steps as a filmmaker, and he would do that generating three films. This would be the third film of the giant director, after the debutante Halbblut, and then Der Herr der Liebesin, however it is this sadly the first in chronology that is still preserved to this day, a picture not without its curious and memorable details. Just to mention some of those details, this was a huge movie, initially planned to shoot in four films, in four feature films, The Golden Lake would be the first, work for which Lang lost the offer of Erich Pommer to direct The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the legendary mother film of German expressionism; later, The Diamond Ship was produced, the second episode of the four, but that was the end of the project. The film, in any way, narrates the adventures of a wealthy aristocrat, who finds a mysterious parchment that informs of formidable treasures from the Incas in Peru; the parchment is stolen by the secret agency The Spiders, and he, along with other characters, will pass incidents in order to reach the fabulous treasure despite the spies. 

                  

A subject on an island throws a parchment in a bottle into the sea. Then, in a distinguished group gathered in San Francisco, Kay Hoog (Carl de Vogt) has found that parchment, the same one that a mysterious subject steals. Hoog, together with the beautiful Lio Sha (Ressel Orla), identify the thief as a member of the secret society The Spiders, and embark for the treasure that the scroll indicated was from the ancient Inca Empire. They arrive first to Mexico, while The Spiders embarks as well. Already in Peruvian lands, the Incas plan a human sacrifice and thus return their former lost imperial glory, Hoog and Sha are captured, he is saved by Naela (Lil Dagover), beautiful priestess of the Sun, who makes him escape from sacrifice. Hoog and Naela return to America, they get attracted, this unhinges Sha, who murders the priestess; Hoog swears revenge. Sha, leader of The Spiders, begins to make moves with her people to locate valuable diamonds, while Hoog looks for her and goes into Chinatown in search of information, and works with diamond tycoon John Terry (Rudolf Lettinger). Sha also continues to look for the jewels, there are trips by sea, they go into a cave, there are ancient corpses and jewels, there she finally finds Hoog, she catches him, but he escapes. Back in London, apparently Sha has died, and Terry finds his daughter, kidnapped.

This film is one of those classic works, one of those movies, that time has been aging and becoming works of not very easy access, and even more, of greater complexity in its complete and fair analysis due to the circumstances that have surrounded its production, and above all the destiny itself of the work originally conceived by its author. Yes, it is important, it is necessary to contextualize the feature film, although it sounds obvious, because contextualizing is a necessary step for any appreciation of an artistic work, that way we understand that by this film we stopped seeing this German giant at the head of Caligari's project, is Lang before being Lang, before the giant was born, before Expressionism existed or was born as an artistic movement, before everything, before the master produced the enormous jewels that years later would come, and change the cinema forever. It is therefore this, a conjunctural feature, and forever will remain the unknown, the knowledge that Lang could have directed Conrad Veidt and Werner Krauss, and enlarge even more, if it applies and if possible, his huge figure, which is already extraordinarily adorned with works of the stature of Doctor Mabuse (1922), The Nibelungs (1924), Metropolis (1927), all jewels of the seventh art. This is a film so unique that we will find a Lang still without his main cinematographic imprint, the most obvious of his audiovisual guidelines were not defined by then -although it is true that the domine would take almost nothing to do it, in reality-, not ceasing to be a remarkable moment to see a future master, even taking his first formative steps. So much so, that we see him embarking on a film of exotic adventures, filming those exotic adventures and peripeteias, in equally exotic settings, this at least in intention, because no less certain is that the film was not filmed in the ancient Peruvian land, the country that gave birth to the writer of this article, by the way. Not a few pretend to see in this film a future, perhaps a wink or a proem to the future Westerns that Lang would later shoot in Hollywood studios; but in any case, it is a very atypical picture, as atypical as it is appreciable.

So we see the Indians, the Incas, native Americans, exoticism in humans, and that exoticism will increase even more when entering the Chinatown, chinese neighboor, a greater variety in human elements, which also enhances that exoticism in the adventures, according to the media of the time, such as trips by sea, excursions to old abandoned caverns, even trips in a hot air balloon, remarkable adventures, in which we will even find magic and spells. As a brief parenthesis, another detail to note will be how the ancient races, the ancient civilizations, the Inca natives and the natives of Asia, both want a rebirth of their culture, they want their lost glory and power to be recovered. Similarly, Lang will try to capture, although with moderate success certainly, the Inca environments, the emperors children of the Sun, the ostentatious temples, with the conspicuous stones of multiple angles, heritage of humanity, everything configures a representation, something scarce of pomp and pageantry, of a millennial environment, lost. Also, for the same thing mentioned of austerity in the final representation, it also feels like a pending, as a lamentable waste, not having captured the stunning and majestic South American locations, the landscapes, the great Peruvian Andes, certainly not something allowed by the budget. Probably it was a prohibitive ambition to shoot in Cuzco itself, being a delight to imagine Lang in Machu Picchu; many years later, his countryman Werner Herzog, yes that would seat cathedra and school rolling immortal films in the Peruvian jungle. But continuing in that line, for that reason it is also noted a certain frugality in showing the temples, one of the wonders of the rich Inca culture, that was another of the details that highlighted the American culture, and ends up being another detail in which the picture was a bit short in its representation; the distance was evident, just to mention the difference of one art to another, with the Italian cinema and its overwhelming and epic realism, with its huge representations, light years ahead in that aspect of the German audiovisual vein. Preponderance is given to the raids, shootings, fights, actions, adventures, the vicissitudes are the center of everything, it is given primacy to this over greater technical skills, either in the management of the camera, or in manufacturing and use of large sets. This leads to a continuity, a causality in the actions that are the core of the film, unusual a feature of Lang in which the succession and linearity of events is so conventional, is largely an adventure film, where the adventures are everything, and where a soon, succinct and concise prolegomena unfolds. There, the first thing we see is an old man, without further explanations, introducing the old paper into a bottle, then throwing it into the sea; we do not have more information, but we already know that this paper is valuable, we already know that an adventure is coming, it is about to happen.

Speaking now of the technical quality, of the staging and realization of the film, the rigidity and visual and technical linearity will almost never be broken, we will observe very few resources that break that visual and narrative convention, just a few superimpositions of frames, as resources that break that plain. Few close-ups will be appreciated, almost always mid-shots and long-shots, few technical resources, it was a rookie Lang, it is very much a commercial product, it is a product born, thought of entertainment. Inevitable was also, given the nature and configuration of the story, that more than one wants to see previous elements of future adventure films, being the most daring who see here the decalogue, the canons of the genre of adventure films, future Indiana Jones serial pictures. It is said that the canonical elements are already here, the germ of that later contemporary stream of features seems to have been based on feature films like the present, and we appreciate the future genre of adventures and voyages, in the style of the aforementioned character if you want, that commercial style that is not where Lang stands out, and we end up appreciating a film that in the global result, feels flat, linear, conventional. Also, among the few other different resources, we have shadow games in some sequences in Asia, pressing and threatening the spiritual being to find one of the jewels that they seek; within the general austerity of the movie, that brief sequence is one of the segments that, with a certain timid air, remit -with lukewarmness but at least it does- to the expressionist darkness and twist. There is a seriousness in the staging, manifested, as was normal for the time, the end of the first decade of the last century -and the last millennium as well-, with a static camera, not very mobile, this we will see soon from the sober initial images of the gourmets, then a few first minutes that do not allow to appreciate much more technical virtuosity. It is very interesting to note, however, that, as already mentioned, there was a common incident of this film with Caligari, Lang lost the opportunity to direct it, the project finally falling into the hands of Robert Wiene and generating the imperishable expressionist work that we all know; despite this, to that small disagreement, we can identify common visual elements, images that refer us to the film with Caligari, such as the famous stairs, repeated staircases, as well as some chiaroscuros that refer us to the dark aesthetics of expressionism. Apparently, Lang drank from the same inspiring sources, after all. Some license will have to accept the history, the filmmaker, being the uppercase, the almost unforgivable fact of the idiomatic jump, seeing that an American explorer understands perfectly with an Inca native, a Quechua speaker; it is certainly a huge license, but it is the toll that we will have to pay, to overlook in order to appreciate the depth of the story. Another license, almost as great, is to see natives, Inca Indians still coexisting among contemporaries adventurous aristocrats, is the toll to see the history. It is unavoidable to point out that the present article is based on a very atypical work, because as it was said, The Spiders was composed initially of four stories, of which only two were produced, both audiovisual segments with a chronological space, with a separation of a few months; despite this, those are works that can be considered independent, lasting together, more than three hours. But the one who writes had access to another version, another cut, a cut that, frankly, I do not know exactly where or how it was born, and that has a duration, joining both chapters, of two hours and seventeen minutes, with obvious mutilations; an example undoubtedly of the aforementioned, the circumstances to which the years submit to features of the classical period, with different versions or cuts circulating. With the aforementioned, it is a pity, then, but we must consider that we have unfinished adventures here, the end of the second film, The Diamond Ship, evidences that; it is said that even Lang had already prepared the scripts for the next two films, which completed the cuatríptico, something that never saw the light. The film in a trial perhaps bitter, ends up being of greater value as a film born in a tessitura, as a trivia or cinematic curiosity, that as a cinematographic jewel itself, it is inevitable to finally feel the film as not one of the greatest productions of the giant German director. However, and although it goes without saying, Lang is a key director for the study of cinema, a fundamental part of the silent cinema, it is necessary to appreciate this conjunctural film, a moment in which then, in a certain way, the adventure film genre was born.

Destiny (1921) - Fritz Lang

This is a film that was able to leave imperishable imprint in many major names in the history of cinema, both actors and filmmakers felt impacted by the visual force and history properly portrayed by the master Fritz Lang, master among cinema masters. Working already with his wife and at the same time collaborator, his screenwriter and spouse Thea von Harbou, immerses us in a metaphysical story, which would serve as reference for later giants, passing from Luis Buñuel, who said that with this film he completely defined his desire to be filmmaker, the prodigious Ingmar Bergman was also overwhelmed by the force of the film, and even Douglas Fairbanks literally delayed the release of this movie to copy some special effects on a picture of his own. Enormous the background of a film, the work of an enormous director, in which he narrates the metaphysical story of a young woman, whose fiance suddenly disappears, Death has taken him, and the female, by interceding with the lugubrious tyrant, is given the opportunity to save him, has three opportunities that involve three different lives on earth; she must act to save her beloved. Without being so blinding, nor as mediatic as the stories of Mabuse, of The Nibelungs or Metropolis -capital works of its author-, this is an extraordinary feature.

                

To a retired village, a young couple arrives, a girl (Lil Dagover) and her boyfriend, (Walter Janssen), without imagining that Death awaits them. There, reside the mayor (Hans Sternberg), the notary (Max Adalbert), the doctor (Wilhelm Diegelmann), all dismayed by the mysterious arrival of a stranger (Bernhard Goetzke), who acquires a land next to the cemetery, which protects with huge walls. The boyfriend disappears, with the stranger, she has visions of souls, among which is her beloved; he finds the stranger, Death, who offers her something, shows her three candles, three human lives to be extinguished, if she manages to save even one of them, he will return the life of her beloved. In the first story, a caliph (Eduard von Winterstein) celebrates in Bagdad, whose sister (Dagover) has a forbidden love affair; they are discovered, he must die, something that, disregard how hard she tries, can not avoid. Second story, in Venice a girl and her fiancé are in love, but separated by her obligation to marry a powerful swordsman, and again, despite her attempt, does not prevent the young man's death. In the third, the emperor of China (Károly Huszár) wishes to have fun, orders his best sorcerer to entertain him, otherwise he will decapitate him; after misfortune, he also dies, but Death has one last chance for the poor girl.

In this, one of the most influential films of the immortal german director, we will find many elements that make it such an essential film, of necessary revision for the enthusiast of silent cinema, the solemn lost period of the seventh art, and at the moment when the picture was produced, the great change, the arrival of sound, was still a chimerical project. As a legend indicates at the beginning of the movie, the feature bases part of its history on an old and popular german song, traditional in its culture and that Lang presents divided into six tales, structured according to the stories through which a mortal woman tries to defeat Death, and ultimately, she will end up achieving it. Immediately, the filmmaker shows us one of the greatest attractions of his film, that is, his representation of Death, a quick, somber representation, in which we can even see some glimpses of what Dreyer would later express in his Vampyr (1932), shown with shots, static shots, which are combined intelligently and precisely with other elements. These frames reinforce the character of the personage, contrasting it with the sky, contrasting it with a cross, generating contrast with the somber and threatening presence of the fatal entity. Then that dark death will still flow, with its great wall, the undaunted face of Bernhard Goetzke, a disturbing figure, hermetic, threatening, distant, hieratic, and yes, also tired, the feature that undoubtedly makes this film a reference without likewise, the concept of a tired death, as an alternative spanish-title prays, weary of its existence and what it generates in men, fascinating concept. A Death that interacts with humans, whom it envies, and to whom it narrates its jaded condition, its bizarre sadness, tired of its curse, of seeing human suffering, of reaping its hatred for obeying God. We find ourselves with a complex character, Death, that force against which the human can not do anything, before which he is helpless as the flame of a candle, humanizes the inhuman, the superhuman, unthinkable destiny, the misunderstood villain emerges, a figure as pathetic as fascinating, a great novelty at the dawn of cinema.

And of course, the filmmaker knows how to transfer that dark tonic of the character to the film in its entirety, with powerful chiaroscuros that will be distributed during the film, something completely logical, because we are talking about one of the great expressionist masters, with all the visual power, the use of black and white, light contrasts, the palette of technical resources usual for the german. So, stands out of the crowd the portentous sequence of her, the protagonist, interviewing with Death, inspiring passage of geniuses, we appreciate those strong contrasts, black and white that reinforce the powerful image of this sequence, perhaps that huge white staircase, just perhaps, had to do a bit with the conception of another similar sequence in Him (1953), by Luis Buñuel, confessed artist inspired by this feature film. There are also the inevitable frames superimpositions, everlasting and inescapable tool of the Expressionists, with serenity but with determination and sharpness they are parading diverse overlayed shots, one of the watchword resources of the expressionist aesthetic. Repeated overlays will happen later, at different moments of the film, showing hallucinations, appearances, souls, spirits many times, and we will see final superimpositions for the lovers' deaths, which seem sordid unfoldings; certainly very employed the resource. Also appear the stairs, another element that refers to expressionism, abundant, twisted many times, dark, populate much of the first segment, stairs on fire in the final story also, another variety of this element. Also flows the parchment that moves alone, great trick that the filmmaker apparently achieved by photographing shot by shot to give the impression of movement; there is the flying carpet as well, good tricks that Douglas Fairbanks would then upgrade, copy and improve in his own work, The Thief of Baghdad (1924). There is also the moment of the small humans that entertain the chinese Emperor, a great example of technical versatility. The film thus stands out with a great use of the expressionist language, because even without the feature landing completely in this current, it takes advantage of its tricks, its resources; at the dawn of the twenties of the last century, of the last millennium, when cinema was being born, Lang had already developed a recognizable language, a language already defined and recognized by the whole world. What has been said, the film may not be overflowing with expressionism, as other masterpieces would do, it is difficult not to be overshadowed by such wonders, but it has rigor, symmetry, its staging is more than correct.

It was the eighth film, the eighth production for an artist who had very well defined his cornerstones, all the seriousness and rigor of the german master, who technically continues developing his language more and more, but at the level of topics we can find a lot of what will always be his work. Death, darkness, magic, demons, supernatural elements, an already formed Lang, his personal print as director is already there, we will see Shiva, and even takes fantastic elements from the Grimm brothers, prefiguring much of what we would see in The Nibelungs (1924). Among other resources deployed, there is first the cup that becomes an hourglass, a symbol of the time that is ending, of the imminence of death, an irrefutable destination; there is also the detail of the flame of the candle that becomes a baby, a baby in the arms of Death, a potent and powerful sequence that exemplifies the ordeal of Death, a misery that has moved and hated even the supernatural entity. In that sense, it is excellent the figure of the flames, the fragile flames of the candles, symbolizing the equally fragile human lives, and there will be other symbols, like the dark owl; it is also interesting the way in which Lang portrays humans, to whom on some occasion, through magic, relates to pigs. In the history the main characters are printed concisely and quickly, with respective epithets that depict some human qualities, his Excellency the mayor, his Eminence the reverend, his Wisdom the doctor, his Precision the notary, in a picture where the main actors repeat in the leading roles of the stories. In this context we are presented with the varied stories, without any link or common bond, a small tradition begins to narrate episodes in this way, the exoticism of three very different places, similar dynamics that we would see later in Wax Works (1924) by Paul Leni, probably also influenced by Lang. In the story, to solve the girl's drama, she will ask for other lives for Death in exchange for the return of the one she loves, but of course, no one wants to die, regardless of the complicated situation in which one finds oneself; she has a final chance, but before the face of the innocence of a baby, she is unable to exchange that life for her boyfriend's. However, at the end of the sordidness, love is stronger than death, in death, it is completed and consumed to the maximum that love, as one of the final messages says, who rejects his life, will win it, we will appreciate the lovers and death, retiring, dark before the horizon, almost as in The Seventh Seal (1957). Rounding out that idea, we have Buñuel, Hitchcock, Bergman, Fairbanks, conspicuous and illustrious constellation of notorious names impacted and influenced by the great work, by this little great masterpiece, irresistible for spectators and cinema people. It is an attractive film, but always overshadowed when compared to the major epics of the director, a very serious film, however, it is inevitable that it pales next to the other major works of Lang, is what it has to be a genius of cinema, with so many and so capitals masterpieces to his credit, being this a serious and firm proposal, is not the climax of the filmmaker's production. Necessary feature, necessary to review it, required for the follower of the best cinema.