The spiders
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The spiders |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1919 / 20 |
| length | restored version: 137 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Fritz Lang |
| script | Fritz Lang |
| production | Erich Pommer for Decla Bioskop AG |
| camera | Emil Schünemann (1st part), Karl Freund (2nd part) |
| occupation | |
| |
Die Spinnen is a two-part feature film by Fritz Lang , made by the German film production company Decla Bioskop AG . The first part, entitled Der goldene See, premiered on October 3, 1919 in Berlin, the second part, Das Brillantenschiff , premiered on February 6, 1920.
The Spiders Part 1: The Golden Lake (1919)
British explorer Fred Johnson is held captive by an Inca tribe in a jungle city. He manages to escape to the sea and drop a message in a bottle before being killed by an Inca warrior. Months later, the message in a bottle was fished up off San Francisco by the young millionaire and sports sailor Kay Hoog . Hoog leaves immediately to rescue the missing man and to dig up the fabled treasure that Johnson was looking for. The secret society "The Spiders", led by the millionaire Lio Sha, got the information about the treasure by stealing the letter in a bottle. Lio Sha recruits a crowd of daring gunslingers in Mexico to find the ruined city and bring the Inca treasure into the possession of the "spiders". Kay Hoog is the first to reach the Inca city in a tethered balloon and saves the life of the priestess Naela, who is attacked by a snake. The grateful Naela warns him about her bloodthirsty tribe, hides him in the Inca city and shows him the legendary golden lake, which lies in a cave, is fed by an underground waterfall and contains immeasurable gold treasures. Lio Sha has since been captured by the Inca. She should die a sacrificial death on the occasion of a solar festival. Kay Hoog saves Lio Sha at the last second. The "spiders" invade the Inca city. There is an open fight. The treasure hunters reach the golden lake, but there trigger a self-destruct mechanism and drown when the cave is flooded. After a dramatic and action-packed fight with the Inca, Kay Hoog and Naela manage to flee to the open sea, where they are picked up by a ship. Back in San Francisco, Lio Sha confesses her love to her adversary Kay Hoog. The latter rejects her because he and Naela are a couple. The jealous Lio Sha then has Naela murdered. Kay Hoog swears revenge on the "spiders".
The Spiders Part 2: The Ship of Diamonds (1920)
The second film begins with a diamond robbery by the "spiders" in a bank. Kay Hoog manages to track them down and, together with the police, organize a raid on their headquarters. The iron house of the "spiders" is stormed when they are just gathering for a conspiratorial meeting. After an action-packed fight, the "spiders" barely escape through a back exit. In the house of the "spiders" you can find the access code to a conspiratorial crime club in San Francisco's Chinese district . It is an underground city, guarded by tigers and dominated by illegal casinos and opium dens . Kay Hoog gains entry there and overhears Lio Sha, who is currently chartering a sailing ship. The "spiders" plan to use it to find a huge diamond in the shape of a Buddha head , which should give its owner control over the whole of Asia . Hoog is discovered, captured and taken in a box on the journey of this “ship of diamonds”. The trail of diamonds leads to India , then to the diamond magnate John Terry in London . There Hoog can free himself and flee from the ship. When the "spiders" break into Terry's house without finding the diamond, they take Terry's daughter hostage. It turns out that one of Terry's ancestors hid the legendary diamond in the Falkland Islands . The diamond ship of the "spiders" is already on the way there. Hoog hurries after. In the treasure cave on the Falkland Islands there is a showdown between Kay Hoog and the "spiders" led by Lio Sha. Kay Hoog can find the diamond and hide it safely before the spiders catch up with it and overwhelm it. At night, poisonous gases rise from the depths of the cave and kill Lio Sha and the entire expedition of the "spiders". Kay Hoog manages to break free and barely survives. He returns to London and gives Terry the diamond. Meanwhile, the police have tracked Terry's kidnapped daughter. In a hotel she is freed from the violence of the "spiders".
meaning
The spider contains elements that were often quoted in adventure films of later decades: the sporty, adventurous millionaire with a hat and leather jacket, the villain with a doctorate, the missing Harvard professor, the gold mine, the holy lake, the escape with the help of a hot air balloon , the Inca temple, the Inca priestess.
background
Adventure films with exotic or historical locations were produced in large numbers in Germany after the First World War . As a result, the films appeared in the production company's “Decla adventure class”. Due to the commercial success of the first part of the film Die Spinnen , Fritz Lang had to take over the direction of the feature film Das Cabinet des Dr. Leave to Caligari Robert Wiene and instead finish Das Brillantenschiff as quickly as possible.
The two films were shot in Hamburg and Berlin (interior shots). An exclusive contract was signed with Heinrich Umlauff's Ethnological Museum in Hamburg to equip the exotic film sets . The film structures were erected in Hamburg-Stellingen on the grounds of the zoological garden by Carl Hagenbeck and were designed by Hermann Warm , Otto Hunte and Carl L. Kirmse . Originally the production of two more "Spider" films was planned. The scripts for The Secret of the Sphinx (3rd part) and Um Asiens Kaiserkrone (4th part) had already been written, but they were no longer produced.
restoration
In 1978, an American version of the film with English subtitles by David and Kimberley Shepard was restored. A new musical accompaniment was composed by Gaylord Carter and recorded on a cinema organ . The copy for the restored version with music was obviously pulled at too high a speed (probably at 25 frames / second instead of the 18 frames / second that was probably used for the recording and was common in 1919). This fact shortens the total playing time of the two parts by about a quarter to a total of 137 minutes and is also evident when looking at the film. Like the original, the restored version is viraged . A new DVD edition from Kino Lorber (USA release date February 28, 2012) is supposed to bring improved speed as well as image improvements.
Web links
- The spiders at filmhistoriker.de
- The spiders Part 1: The Golden Lake in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The spiders Part 2: The Diamond Ship in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The spiders 1st part: The golden lake at filmportal.de
- The spiders 2nd part: The ship of diamonds at filmportal.de