The Spiders Part 1: The Golden Lake

Rating:
Summary: Part 1 of Fritz Lang's restored penny-dreadful adventure
Review: "The Spiders" is considered by some as marking the beginning of the Golden Age of German silent film. Director Fritz Lang tells the story of an organized band of criminals who want to dominate the world. However, the plans of the Spiders are always foiled by the famous adventurer Kay Hoog (Carl de Vogt), clearly the Indiana Jones of his day. You can tell "The Golden Lake" was inspired by "The Perils of Pauline," as we see Kay Hoog take on the Spiders in a couple of gun battles, jump from a hot air balloon, and ends up not only rescuing the High Priestess of the Incas from being bitten by an asp, he discovers a giant underground gold mine and even has the decency to rescue his arch enemy from being served up as a human sacrifice. Actually, I wonder if Lucas and Spielberg knew about this film. This long lost film was restored by film historians David and Kimberely Shepard in 1979, using title cards drawn from the original German censorship records and Lang's only instructions for color tinting the film. Planned as a four chapter series, only the first two parts, "The Golden Lake" and "The Diamond Ship," were actually filmed. Gaylord Carter provides the original organ score for this film, which is basically a historical curiosity. Clearly this is "early" Lang and no where near the lost masterpiece film historians whispered about for years.

Rating:
Summary: Part 1 of Fritz Lang's restored penny-dreadful adventure
Review: "The Spiders" is considered by some as marking the beginning of the Golden Age of German silent film. Director Fritz Lang tells the story of an organized band of criminals who want to dominate the world. However, the plans of the Spiders are always foiled by the famous adventurer Kay Hoog (Carl de Vogt), clearly the Indiana Jones of his day. You can tell "The Golden Lake" was inspired by "The Perils of Pauline," as we see Kay Hoog take on the Spiders in a couple of gun battles, jump from a hot air balloon, and ends up not only rescuing the High Priestess of the Incas from being bitten by an asp, he discovers a giant underground gold mine and even has the decency to rescue his arch enemy from being served up as a human sacrifice. Actually, I wonder if Lucas and Spielberg knew about this film. This long lost film was restored by film historians David and Kimberely Shepard in 1979, using title cards drawn from the original German censorship records and Lang's only instructions for color tinting the film. Planned as a four chapter series, only the first two parts, "The Golden Lake" and "The Diamond Ship," were actually filmed. Gaylord Carter provides the original organ score for this film, which is basically a historical curiosity. Clearly this is "early" Lang and no where near the lost masterpiece film historians whispered about for years.

Rating:
Summary: A silent adventure
Review: Kay Hoog finds a message in a bottle floating near San Francisco. The message tells about a hidden Incan city filled with gold and gives the location for finding it. Intrigued, Kay tells his yacht club that he's going to find it. Later, Lia Sha, also a member of the club and the mysterious Spiders, steals the map and sets off for Peru, with Kay not far behind.

Thus, begins the Indiana Jones-like adventure which leads from Peru to a hidden city beneath San Francisco to a deadly cave in the Falkland Islands. "Spiders" from German director Fritz Lang, contains the first two parts of what was to be a 4-part serial. It's not the greatest of all adventure stories and has quite a few plot holes, but it's easy to see the influence it has on many of the adventure films of today. And, the acting is not bad, either.

The DVD transfers are scratchy but still very viewable. Not many extras, though.

Rating:
Summary: A silent adventure
Review: Kay Hoog finds a message in a bottle floating near San Francisco. The message tells about a hidden Incan city filled with gold and gives the location for finding it. Intrigued, Kay tells his yacht club that he's going to find it. Later, Lia Sha, also a member of the club and the mysterious Spiders, steals the map and sets off for Peru, with Kay not far behind.

Thus, begins the Indiana Jones-like adventure which leads from Peru to a hidden city beneath San Francisco to a deadly cave in the Falkland Islands. "Spiders" from German director Fritz Lang, contains the first two parts of what was to be a 4-part serial. It's not the greatest of all adventure stories and has quite a few plot holes, but it's easy to see the influence it has on many of the adventure films of today. And, the acting is not bad, either.

The DVD transfers are scratchy but still very viewable. Not many extras, though.

Rating:
Summary: An ancient treasure?
Review: The film: This Indiana Jones-type of movie put Fritz Lang on the map. It features the same mix of exotic locations and rollercoaster-action scenes like the Paramount-franchise from the 80ies. Alas, the film also shows that Fritz Lang had not yet reached the level of maturity and precision that is so prominetly featured in his later silent masterworks. Ok, the sets look great but the story is even more hokey than your usual adventure yarn. Even worse, the film features far too many of those scenes which are often done but work the least in a silent movie: shoot-outs. So I'm afraid I can recommend this film mostly to film-history-buffs (like me) or people that need all of Lang's films on their DVD-shelf. If you want to see why Lang is regarded as such a genius, you better check out "Die Nibelungen" or "Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler". The DVD: The film is very rare, and it shows: The people who restored it couldn't work with the best film-material but had to use what they got and so the print is quite scratchy and generally worn-out. But this is your only chance to see it, so let that not hinder you. Otherwise, besides some notes on the film-makers, there's not very much regarding extras on this DVD. One final, international note: It's a shame that this German film is not available at all in Germany, so congratulations to David and Kimberly Shepard who uncovered this long-believed lost film!