the comedy is over
by Douglas Messerli
Thea von Harbou (screenplay, based
on her novel), Fritz Lang (screenwriter and director) Spione (Spies)
/ 1928, USA 1929
Watching Lang's fascinating spy film
the other day, I was struck by just how many of the tropes and scenes he used
in this film which have appeared in nearly every spy story since. The glamorous
women who work, willingly and unwillingly, with the evil forces—in this case
the Russian beauty Sonya Baranilowa (Gerda Marcus), the beautiful opium addict
Lady Leslane (Hertha von Walther), and the murderous waif Kitty (Lien
Devers)—might all be home in any James Bond adventure. The evil and always
obedient nurse is spoofed in the Austin Powers series. The mad evil villain, in
this case, is the gruff banker Haghi (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), a type who appears
in almost every spy tale I have seen from Hitchcock to, once more, the James
Bond series. Even Lang's incidental scenes create traditions; isn't it required
that in dark spy stories the hero must, at some point, take the slightly evil
heroine-spy to a boxing match? But in Spione Lang takes it one step
further by quickly converting the boxing ring into a dance floor, where the two
quickly step off in a fox trot.
How appropriate, moreover, that the villain should be a banker. Every "Occupy Wall Street" supporter ought to rent this movie immediately.
What is truly stunning about Lang's film is its deep sense of paranoia.
The dark, shadowy rooms and streets of the great director's film are literally
lined with spies, from the offices of the head of the Secret Service, Jason
(Craighall Sherry) to the plush booths of restaurants, from the opium dens to
public train stations. Nearly everywhere one might go in Lang's dizzying world,
spies are at work. Late in the film, when our hero, No. 326 (Willy
Fritsch)—with his number again reminding us of 007—sends a telegram,
immediately behind him comes a man who has magically been able to copy the
message by placing a mechanism beneath the writing table. Earlier a miniature
camera is found on one of the assistants to the Secret Service head. Even
though Doctor Masimoto (Lupu Pick) sends out three false copies of the signed
Japanese Peace Treaty, the waif he has kindly taken in discovers the real
document in his suitcase and steals it. In the world of Spies there is
literally no safe haven, no shelter where one can hide from evil intrigues.
What is equally disturbing is the number of deaths, most of them
self-inflicted, that Haghi causes. Blackmailed into spying on her own husband,
we can only imagine that Lady Leslane will seek out the opium den even more
often in the future; discovered as a betrayer of his country, Colonel Jellusic
(Fritz Rasp) shoots himself; Dr. Masimoto, upon realizing that Kitty has
tricked him and stolen the Peace Treaty, ritually disembowels himself. Left in
the unhooked last train car in a tunnel, Agent 326 seems destined for death. He
survives to later round up Haghi's minions. And the former spy Sonya is
redeemed through his salvation.
Yet the mad banker Haghi is missing. In a switch that reveals the
topsy-turvyiness of Lang's vision, 326 discovers that Haghi is also a Secret
Service agent, 719, who hides his identity as the circus clown Nemo. Tracked
down and faced by his pursuers, Haghi puts a gun to his head and releases the
trigger. The comedy is over.
But perhaps the drama had just begun. Marcus was having an affair with
Lang during the filming, despite the fact that Lang's wife, the screenplay
writer von Harbou and former wife of Klein-Rogge, was also working on the set.
Los Angeles, November 9, 2011
Reprinted from World Cinema
Review and Reading Films: My International Cinema (Los Angeles:
Green Integer, 2012).
No comments:
Post a Comment