GERMAN SUBTITLES with live English translation.

Gradually the pre-Destiny Langs - both those written and those directed by him - are beginning to emerge. This film was reconstructed in Berlin a few years ago, and oddly has never been shown in New York until now. All that was known about it until then were the sketchy details to be gleaned from original reviews cited in Lotte Eisner's book on Lang - reviews that were contradictory in praising it for its ingenuity and condemning it for its confusion, though consistent in applauding its strong visual sense. Confusing it most certainly is, and the titles (re-written into German from Spanish titles!) don’t always help. There are more titles than are really needed, and if we occasionally skip a title it will only be because it is redundant. Nevertheless, for Lang devotees, it's a real find if an uneven one. It's the kind of melodrama that would have been made by Douglas Sirk in the late 30's with Zara Leander starring. But Lang ignores the fact that it is supposed to be about the woman, and concerns himself far more with the sub-plots and underworld characters (including good old Rudolf Klein-Rogge), constantly threatening to turn it into Dr. Mabuse. He never does, but that threat is what keeps it so visually interesting - especially in a well-preserved and color-tinted print. (We don't have an Archive Night program this session; perhaps tonight's program should have been so designated, but both films are so interesting in their own way, and so unlikely to be shown again in the near future, that we didn't want to risk losing part of an already specialised audience).

Program finishes 10.10.
Discussion follows.