Spies (1928)

recommended

Brilliant and touching

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Fritz Lang is one of my favorite directors and ''Metropolis'' is my favorite film. I love ''Woman in the Moon'', ''M'', and ''The Testament of Dr. Mabuse''. ''Spies'', sadly, is incredibly average. Don't get me wrong, this film has great moments. The opening is thrilling. The train scene is suspenseful. And the last 10 minutes are really good. Everything in between is uninteresting and drawn out. I got bored a lot (this is coming from somebody who loves 2001: A Space Odyssey) and found myself looking at the time displeased. I usually despise when studios cut films (Metropolis), but Paramount was smart in cutting this from 130 minutes to 90 minutes. I got the pleasure of seeing an original Paramount copy at the Denver Silent Film Festival and found myself enjoying Spies much more. In conclusion, ''Spies'' has some standout sequences, but is a major step down from ''Metropolis''

I first saw this movie many years ago, completely unrestored and in a severely edited version but I was still carried away by the breath taking style and the twists and turns of the plot about a super spy who wanted world domination. So I was very happy to find this Kino edition with an hour of previously unseen footage. Like Lang's earlier film, "Dr. Mabuse", Haghi (Rudolph Klein-Rogge) is a master criminal extraordinare who leads several different lives - as a bank president and also as a circus clown. He is always one step ahead of the Russian, Japanese and German secret service, steals treaties and operates a radio network that brings him up to date headlines through a transmitter in his office. He has men working for him day and night, including a fruit vendor who stealthily parks his wagon in the street, cutting off a car chase and starts throwing cocoanuts which are really hand grenades."Throughout the world strange events transpire".... It is the world of spies and secret agents and disappearing ink and once again Lang holds up to ridicule the pompous bureaucrats and petty officials. A local vagrant has received a summons to appear before the local police. Willy Fritsch's introduction is a marvel of pantomimic acting but after being hustled into the station we find that he is really "No. 326" - one of the country's sharpest agents. He is put on the trail of Haghi and Haghi, in turn, puts one of his most beautiful operatives, Sonia (Gerda Maurus) in his way to seduce him. It is love at first sight (a bizarre date has them at a boxing match which also doubles as a nightclub, when the match is finished patrons instantly start dancing around the ring). When Haghi finds Sonia questioning her loyalty he captures and imprisons her at headquarters then sends another look alike agent, Kitty (Lien Deyers) out in her place. It is Kitty's job to charm the Japanese diplomat (Lupu Pick) and she does, appearing at first as a waif caught in the rain, then gradually insinuating herself into his life - until she has all the secret documents and his only recourse is to commit hari-kari.The last thirty minutes starts with an explosive train crash - both Sonia (who is on one last mission - Haghi says if she will fulfill it he will spare "No. 326"'s life, but of course he is lying) and "No. 326" are aboard. From then on there is a non stop last minute rescue and then on to the music hall for a final showdown.Rudolph Klein-Rogge was a master character actor but because most of the time Haghi was behind a desk, he didn't have a lot to do. Willy Fritsch went on to become Germany's (and Hitler's) number one actor, more at home in frothy, frivolous musicals. Lien Deyer was a discovery of Lang's and "Spies" was her first film. She and her husband fled to America during the upheaval of Germany in the 1930s but after that nothing much went right for her.

SPIES is a German thriller from director Fritz Lang. Low budget black & white silent with subtitles; only later drawing any appreciation. Lang co-scrips with his then-wife Thea Von Harbou. A very good plot involving Russian espionage and assassination in London, with a subplot concerning Japanese loyalties. Rudolf Klein-Rogge plays Haghi, the wheelchair-bound mastermind of Russian spies,that hides his true identity by playing a sideshow clown. His dirty dealing comes from a secret room in his own financial building. Haghi has trouble with a defecting spy Sonya(Gerda Maurus), who may be pulling a double-cross in protecting a good guy, Agent 326(Willy Fritsch), from harms way.Suspense builds to an unexpected climax. Very little actual special effects, no fade-outs and plenty of close-ups vacillating scene to scene. Other players: Lien Deyers, Fritz Rasp, Hertha Von Walther and Lupu Pick.

"Spies" is much more entertaining than you would expect an old German silent movie to be, and at first, it's hard to say why. The character types are familiar from hundreds of other spy movies: a villain who is bent on world domination and has multiple secret identities, a beautiful blonde who works as a spy for the villain, a dashing enemy agent who falls in love with the female spy. The plot is fairly ludicrous, though it moves along briskly and provides for some great set-pieces, such as an exhilarating chase scene. But despite all the clichés found in "Spies," the movie still feels fresh and vital. You get drawn into the world of the film and accept the clichés, rather than becoming distracted by them. I'm sure most of the credit for this has to go to the director, Fritz Lang. His films ("Metropolis," "M") often have a very dark world view, but the overall tone of "Spies" is escapist adventure-fantasy. It aims to provoke thrills, not shock or outrage. Lang creates some stunning visual compositions and proves to be a very detail-oriented director—he delights in close-ups of spy gadgetry! His innovative use of montages, dramatic lighting, camera movement, and other techniques gives the film an interesting stylization. I'm writing this review after watching the 90-minute American version of "Spies". But I had such a good time that I may have to seek out the 146-minute version!