Memorable, crazy movie

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Spione seems like a spin off of the great and amazing Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler of six years earlier. Look at the parallels: both stories are about diabolical masterminds (Mabuse/Haghi) who commit grand crimes against society involving sabotage and high finance, carried out by a small army of agents planted in all the right places at the right time. The mastermind in both cases is played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge. Both films kick off with a spectacularly filmed theft of top secret contracts or treaties. In both films the criminal uses or kidnaps beautiful young women who are rescued by the hero in a cliffhanging climax. The main difference between Spione and its predecessor is the increased use of technology and gadgetry: everything from sophisticated radio and telephonic networks to a miniature lapel camera and of course invisible ink. Spione has more rapid action and no formal structure, but as a result is somewhat confusing. But as long as you know who the good guy is you can root for him, even if you're not quite sure what he's up to from scene to scene.Among the colorful cast is a gorgeous young actress named Lien Deyers as one of Haghi's minions who tricks a Japanese spy (Lupu Pick) out of his secret documents; she inexplicably faded into obscurity after this film. The main female star, Gerda Maurus, does very well in a demanding role as Haghi's main agent who falls in love with the enemy and pays dearly for the insubordination. Willy Fritsch is less macho than his "Mabuse" counterpart Bernhard Goetzke, but quite charming and persuasive as a government spy who first appears in disguise as a scruffy tramp. Fritz Rasp lends his well-honed creepiness to the role of an agent named Jellusic who is based on Col. Redl of Austria-Hungary.Spione is packed to the brim with mechanical cleverness and striking visual variety but it lacks one vital component: originality of plot and concept. It copies too much from Mabuse. Not the best of Fritz Lang. But even lesser Lang is better than the best of most other directors.

One of things that I think attracts young film fans to German cinema from the Weimar period is that it displays a striking stylistic extremism that captivates modern viewers not yet used to silent cinema. This ranges from Murnau's technical effects extravaganzas, to Lubitsch's off-the-wall comedy creations and, of course, Fritz Lang's angular architecture and comic-book sense of adventure.A mistaken impression with these pictures is that they got to be so stylised because of a higher degree of artistic freedom in the European studios. However UFA studios were just as much about collaboration and commercialism as those in Hollywood. While individual directors did have a lot of control over the look of their pictures, these overt styles owe more to the influence of German theatre, as well as German literature, painting and the opera.As with any cinema, anywhere, one of the most important collaborators is the screenwriter. No matter how strong or attention-grabbing your visual style is, if you haven't got the story, you haven't got anything. Spione features one of the best efforts from Lang's collaborator and wife Thea von Harbou, and is in many ways a tightened-up reworking of Dr Mabuse. Whereas that earlier picture was full of unnecessarily long title cards, Spione is far more succinct, allowing the audience to fill in the gaps. Importantly it begins with a lengthy piece of pure silent storytelling, which helps to engage us before bombarding us with verbal information. Harbou's characters are also very strong. It's a nice touch to make arch-villain Haghi wheelchair bound – a man who is weak in body but strong in means and influence.Lang himself was by now a master of his own highly individual technique. Space and set décor should be important to every director, but Lang is probably the only one who tells his stories more through architecture than through actors. With rooms so bizarre and angular they would probably drive most people mad if they had to live or work in them, Lang sets a tone for each location, and thus for each scene. Narrow corridors give a sense of entrapment; open doorways leading onto larger spaces give a sense of uneasiness; crisscrossing diagonals carve up the screen, often drawing our attention to things and people. One thing that especially stands out in Spione is that way Lang often creates compositions that are almost-but-not-quite symmetrical. Just as a great colour director like Vincente Minnelli might throw in a splash of blue to offset (and thus bring to life) a shot full of shades of red, Lang adds for example the nurse standing to one side of an otherwise symmetrical shot of Haghi sat at his desk.Even Lang's choice of camera position was strictly angular. He is either to one side, detached from the action, or he is right inside it with actors staring straight into the lens. He rarely uses, say, opposing over-the-shoulder shots that many directors would for intimate dialogue scenes, but his methods were nonetheless effective. Spione in fact features one of his most beautifully constructed romantic scenes in the first meeting between Willy Fritsch and Gerda Maurus. Lang begins with the camera to one side, simply filming the meeting as a casual observer. He then begins placing the camera between them, interspersed with close-ups of hands or other objects, making us experience the growing emotional intensity as well as that slight feeling of awkwardness. We then return to a shot to the side of the actors, but closer this time, as they move in for their first kiss. In spite of his reputation Lang could be incredibly tender and sentimental at times.Exaggerated acting tends to be part and parcel of that over-the-top nature of German silent cinema, and in the case of Lang's features it is often particularly apt given the comic-book style characters and situations. Spione is no exception, but it is nice to see the normally animated Rudolf Klein-Rogge getting to underplay it a little as a cool and collected villain. Lupu Pick also gives a very deep and emotionally complex performance as the Japanese ambassador.The upshot of this collaboration is an incredibly exciting and satisfying picture, even though it is rarely referenced as one of Fritz Lang's best. If it is remembered at all it is usually for its resemblance to later gadget-based espionage thrillers, as well as containing many of the suspense building techniques later employed by Hitchcock, such as letting the audience in on things the characters do not know. It is, nevertheless, among the most carefully constructed, exciting and purely enjoyable of Lang's silent pictures, and an improvement on the better-known Dr Mabuse.

This is great film making.The whole 'James Bond' spy genre came from this film. It has it all. First, we have Haghi, the physically flawed (here wheelchair bound, and exhaling cigarette smoke out of only one nostril) but evil genius masterminding a global plot. He's played by the great Rudolf Klein-Rogge, who was the too hammy Rotwang in 'Metropolis' (1927); he totally dominates the film in terms of screen time and acting. In his 'evil' disguise (he has two others) he looks just like Lenin! Then we have the Secret Service spy hero, known as Number 326 (Willy Fritsch), who falls in love and has an affair with his Russian spy counterpart, Sonya (Gerda Maurus). Even the 'dialog' sequences between Haghi and Sonya have a Bondish flair! There's the female spy who seduces the Japanese diplomat to steal the Secret Treaty with Japan. Then there's the (seemingly) international cast of Germans, Japanese and a black bartender, and the movement between countries. There are the high tech gadgets, from the buttons on Haghi's desk, to the lapel mini-camera, and the screen relaying spy messages and the abundance of spies, moles and counterspies. Then comes the suspenseful plot to kill 326 on a train going to 'the border.' Finally, the exciting, dangerous rescue of Sonya, and the last undoing of Haghi. All this in a silent movie of 1928! The masterful cinematography by Lang and his crew make this film immensely watchable. There are fantastic dissolves and rapid cutting, great close framing, and wonderful tracking shots. What a text book of film making! The addition of a modern soundtrack to the KINO version, which uses various instruments (piano, flute, bassoon, koto, bongos and other instruments) in solo, duet, trio and ensemble passages is little more than amazing, and is without a doubt one of the most appropriate soundtracks ever made for a silent film. The music adds emphasis and feeling to every shot. One of the best moments is when the Japanese diplomat, deeply guilt ridden for allowing the evil spy Kitty (Lien Deyer, in her first film) to seduce him and steal the Treaty, commits ritual suicide (seppuku) in a tatami mat room, with koto and piano playing a duet symbolizing the clash of cultures. Masterful! Another fantastic modern soundtrack is the KINO one for 'Woman in the Moon' (1929), also directed by Lang and also starring Gerda Maurus and Willy Fritsch.There are a couple of minor glitches, however. Willy Fritsch is not a rough, tough sexy Bond figure, but just moons over Sonya like a little puppy dog whenever he sees her; but Gerda Maurus as Sonya, aware of her dual role as his enemy / lover though he at first is not, does a much better job because she displays the range of conflicted feelings appropriate to the role, and without overacting. The other problem is the train wreck. It's not really made clear what train Sonya was on and why she wasn't involved in the crash of the two trains. This problem may have stemmed from the fact that this film has been reconstructed from various sources, primarily from an Austrian print.So I'll give it a 9, not a 10, but it is certainly a film to be seen, and guaranteed to be enjoyed by anyone whether knowledgeable about silent films or not.

Fritz Lang's attention to detail, lighting, and pacing build the tension steadily throughout this fine film. The use of innovative techniques such as moving cameras in a car chase, special effects in the famous train wreck scene, and terrific sets with wonderful art deco and expressionist touches make this visually stunning. The careful viewer will see film techniques, visual forms, and story telling techniques that are reflected in later films from Alfred Hitchcock to the James Bond series. Rudolph Klein-Rogge is a master as the evil mastermind Haghi, and the ending is thrilling and full of surprises. If you've never seen a silent film, if you never thought you could enjoy early cinema, Fritz Lang's "Spies" will change your mind forever.