Director: Fritz Lang
Year: 1928
Run-time: 2 hr 30 min
Source: Hoopla
It's great to see a relatively unknown Fritz Lang film on the list, although anyone looking for another iconic piece of German Expressionism will be disappointed. Spies is a much more straightforward action-espionage thriller, more along the lines of Les Vampires or Fantomas. The lineage from those predecessors is clear, although Lang's film has benefited from a decade's advances in editing.
The first twenty minutes give the impression that our hero, Agent 326, is a suave James Bond prototype - he certainly looks the part, and seems capable enough as he quickly uncovers an enemy double agent in his midst. However, that impression is dispelled as he gets quickly duped by an enemy spy ring led by an evil-eyed bank president and a femme fatale henchwoman (whose love for our hero causes her to switch sides almost immediately).
From my cursory overview, it would seem that Spies is still part of an earlier era of espionage films in which storytellers felt uneasy having the good guy be a master of deception, so instead let the villains have all the fun. When the good guys prevail, there's usually a lot of sheer luck involved, and that's certainly the case here. Nevertheless, it's still a strong and well-acted film, and even though it's close to 3 hours, it keeps the suspense high. As long as you don't mind a little cheese with your action.
Year: 1928
Run-time: 2 hr 30 min
Source: Hoopla
It's great to see a relatively unknown Fritz Lang film on the list, although anyone looking for another iconic piece of German Expressionism will be disappointed. Spies is a much more straightforward action-espionage thriller, more along the lines of Les Vampires or Fantomas. The lineage from those predecessors is clear, although Lang's film has benefited from a decade's advances in editing.
The first twenty minutes give the impression that our hero, Agent 326, is a suave James Bond prototype - he certainly looks the part, and seems capable enough as he quickly uncovers an enemy double agent in his midst. However, that impression is dispelled as he gets quickly duped by an enemy spy ring led by an evil-eyed bank president and a femme fatale henchwoman (whose love for our hero causes her to switch sides almost immediately).
From my cursory overview, it would seem that Spies is still part of an earlier era of espionage films in which storytellers felt uneasy having the good guy be a master of deception, so instead let the villains have all the fun. When the good guys prevail, there's usually a lot of sheer luck involved, and that's certainly the case here. Nevertheless, it's still a strong and well-acted film, and even though it's close to 3 hours, it keeps the suspense high. As long as you don't mind a little cheese with your action.
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