4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Fritz Lang Edition

Posted on December 5, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

Today, we celebrate the birth and the legacy of the great Austrian director Fritz Lang. Starting his career during the silent era in Germany, Lang was both a proponent of expressionism and an early critic of the Nazis and Adolf Hitler. Despite this and the fact that Lang’s mother was Jewish, Josef Goebbels attempted to recruit Lang to run Germany’s largest film studio, UFA. Lang responded to Goebbels offer by moving to Paris and divorcing his wife, who was an ardent Nazi. Lang eventually found his way to Hollywood, where he worked for the next twenty years. With films like Metropolis, M, Fury, Hangmen Also Die, Scarlet Street, and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, Lang proved himself to be a master of every genre and his influence is still felt to this day.

In honor of the man and his legacy, here are….

4 Shots From 4 Fritz Lang Films

Metropolis (1927, dir by Fritz Lang, DP: Karl Freund and Gunther Rittau)

M (1931, dir by Fritz Lang, DP: Fritz Arno Wagner)

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933, dir by Fritz Lang, DP: Karl Vash and Fritz Arno Wagner)

Fury (1936, dir by Fritz Lang, DP: Joseph Ruttenberg)

Silent Film Review: Metropolis (dir by Fritz Lang)

Posted on October 15, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Is 1927’s Metropolis a horror film?

If pressed, I could certainly make the argument that it could be considered to be at least partially a horror film. It’s work of German Expressionism, a cinematic movement that was definitely an influence on the emerging horror genre. It features a mad scientist named Rotwang (Rudolph Klein-Rogge), who designs a robot that he hopes he can transform into his lost love, a woman who instead chose to be with the wealthy and powerful Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel). The robot instead adopts the form of the saintly Maria (Brigitte Helm) and becomes a temptress who inspires a violent revolution in Fredersen’s city. At one point, when Fredersen’s son, Freder (Gustav Frohlich), falls ill, he has a hallucination of the machines under the city transforming into a demon the devours the workers. Later, statues of the Seven Deadly Sins come to life. The film ends with the message that “The Mediator Between the Head and the Hands Must Be the Heart,” which is exactly the type of empty slogan that repressive regimes have used to defend their own horrific abuses of power. It’s right up there with John Lennon’s Imagine as far as horrifying ideological statements are concerned. (The world will live as one as long as everyone imagines the exact same thing. Don’t ask what will happen to those who imagine something different than an empty world shaped by ideology.)

That said, Metropolis is, at best, a horror-adjacent film. As much as I want to hammer it into a straight horror film for the sake of October, Metropolis is better describe as being one of the first great science fiction films. Director Fritz Lang creates two visually stunning worlds, one on top of the other. Above ground, the city of Metropolis is all about towering skyscrapers, airplanes (at a time when they were still a novelty), high speed rail, and even the occasional zeppelin. It’s a sleek and beautiful city, where the inhabitants all seem to be rich and everyone is too busy enjoying the gardens and the clubs to truly pay much attention to what is happening beneath them. Underground is where one finds the machines that keep the city moving and also the anonymous workers who often risk their lives to keep those machines from breaking down. Underground, the city is dirty and dark and the workers go about their activities with the realization that things are never going to get better for them. Above ground, Metropolis is paradise but below it, the city is a hellscape.

Joh Fredersen is the man who created and controls Metropolis. His office is in the new Tower of Babel, a symbol of how there’s no communication between Fredersen and those who work underneath the city. He’s not an evil man, as much he’s just one who chooses to remain unaware about the conditions underground. When his son meets and falls in love with the peaceful activist Maria, Fredersen does not listen to either one of them but instead plots on how to discredit her. Fredersen’s old friend Rotwang has a robot but, what Frederson does not know, is that Rotwang has never forgiven Fredersen for marrying the woman that Rotwang loved. Rotwang creates his robot not to discredit Maria but to instead inspire the workers to destroy the machines and kill Fredersen’s son.

(Like so many other Marxist films, Metropolis ultimately doesn’t have much respect for the workers that it tries to uplift. They’re almost all portrayed as being easily led and incapable of thinking for themselves. At best, they’re noble savages. At worst, they’re drones.)

Even seen today, Metropolis remains a technical marvel. The underground scenes, with their emphasis on huge machines that seem to dwarf the men who work on them, are still visually powerful while the above ground scenes still make Metropolis itself look like the type of city where many of us would want to live. The scenes in which the robot is transformed into Maria is a silent spectacle of lights, science and madness. Beyond that, the acting holds up surprisingly well for a silent film. Alfred Abel plays Fredersen not as being a tyrant but instead as just a man who has been rich for so long that he’s no longer aware of how anyone else is living. Rudolf Klein-Rogge turns Rotwang into one of the great mad scientists. And Brigitte Helm leads the worker’s rebellion with a nearly feral intensity. Her dance scene is a classic, with every move meant to seduce the citizens of Metropolis into destroying their own city.

Metropolis remains a visual feast and, over the course of nearly 100 years, it’s inspired countless other science fiction and horror films. Every film that features a dystopian future city owes a debt to Metropolis. It may only be horror adjacent but it’s still worth seeing this October season.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Visions of the Future

Posted on June 24, 2025 by Dazzling Erin

Who can see the future?

4 Shots From 4 Futuristic Films

Metropolis (1927, Dir. by Fritz Lang)

The Terminator (1984, Dir. by James Cameron)

Star Trek (2009, Dir. by JJ Abrams)

Prometheus (2012, Dir by Ridley Scott)

Scenes That I Love: The Future, as imagined by Fritz Lang’s Metropolis

Posted on January 2, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Metropolis (1927, dir by Fritz Lang, DP: Karl Freund and Gunther Rittau)

Since today is National Science Fiction Day, it seems appropriate that today’s scene that I love should come from one of the first great science fiction films! In this scene from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, we get a look at how the future was imagined in 1927. Lang really was not that far off!

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Fritz Lang Edition

Posted on December 5, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In honor of the man and his legacy, here are….

4 Shots From 4 Fritz Lang Films

Metropolis (1927, dir by Fritz Lang, DP: Karl Freund and Gunther Rittau)

M (1931, dir by Fritz Lang, DP: Fritz Arno Wagner)

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933, dir by Fritz Lang, DP: Karl Vash and Fritz Arno Wagner)

Fury (1936, dir by Fritz Lang, DP: Joseph Ruttenberg)

4 Oscar Snubs From the 1920s

Posted on March 12, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Oscars started out as an afterthought.

When Louis B. Mayer first proposed setting up what would become the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927, he wasn’t really that interested in giving out awards. Instead, he saw the Academy as an organization that would mediate labor disputes between the studios and the unions. He also felt that the Academy could basically be used to improve the film industry’s image, which had taken a hit from the rape trial of Fatty Arbuckle, the overdose of Wallace Reid, and the murder of William Desmond Taylor. When he and the other 35 founders of the Academy met to draw up the organization’s charter, the idea of giving out awards was mentioned only in passing. A committee would be set up to give out yearly awards to honor the best that Hollywood had to offer.

The first Academy Awards ceremony was held in a hotel ballroom in 1928. It occurred at the end of a private dinner and the awards were handed out in 15 minutes. The 2nd ceremony was the first to be broadcast on the radio. It was only when the Academy got around to the third ceremony that the Oscars started to transform into the spectacle that we know today. It was only then that people started to really pay attention to what was and was not nominated for Best Picture. And, as people started to pay attention, they also started to notice and talk about which films and performers were snubbed by the Academy.

Today, for Oscar Sunday, we’re taking a a decade-by-decade look at some notable Oscar snubs. We will start with those first three ceremonies.

1927 — 1928: The General Receives Zero Nominations

For the very first Oscar ceremony, two Best Picture awards were handed out. Wings won the Oscar for Best Production. Sunrise, meanwhile, won the Oscar for Unique and Artistic Production. Today, Sunrise is better remembered than Wings. Personally, I like both films. Thought it’s nearly a hundred years old, Sunrise remains visually stunning. Wings, meanwhile, features some thrilling aerial footage and a performance from the wonderful Clara Bow.

That said, it’s still a bit unfortunate that Buster Keaton’s The General received not a single nomination, despite being eligible for the Oscars. Today, The General is recognized as being a comedic masterpiece. However, when it was initially released, it struggled at the box office and many in Hollywood resented Keaton’s independent streak. As a result, The General became one of the first films to be snubbed by the Academy.

Metropolis (1927, dir by Fritz Lang, DP: Karl Freund and Gunther Rittau)

1927 — 1928: The Academy Ignores Metropolis

The very first Best Actor winner was Emil Jannings. Jannings was German and struggled with English but, during the Silent Era, that wasn’t a problem. However, the coming of sound petty much ended Jannings’s Hollywood career. He returned to Germany, where he remained a star. He would go on to star in several Nazi propaganda films and was reportedly one of Hitler’s favorite actors. When the war came to an end, Jannings took to carrying his Oscar statuette around with him in the hopes that it would win him favor with the Allies and allow him to avoid having to go through the denazification process. It didn’t work and Jannings retired from acting. He died in Austria in 1950.

Personally, I think it would have been nice if the first Oscars hadn’t honored someone who would later star in Nazi propaganda films. And the Academy had the option to do just that, as Fritz Lang’s Metropolis was released in the United States in 1927. Metropolis was not only one of the first great science fiction films but Lang was one of the many German directors who would come to Hollywood after the Nazis came to power, Honoring Metropolis would have allowed the Academy to honor someone who refused to compromise with the Ministry of Propaganda. Unfortunately, neither Metropolis nor Lang were nominated.

1927 — 1928 and 1928 — 1929: Lon Chaney Is Not Nominated For Best Actor

Poor Lon Chaney. Widely considered to be one of the best actors of the silent era, Lon Chaney, Sr. was never nominated for an Oscar. London After Midnight is a lost film and West of Zanzibar is only partially complete but, speaking as a horror fan, I would have loved it if the Academy could have nominated him for either one of those films. If nothing else, it would have opened the door for the horror genre.

1929 — 1930: The Cocoanuts Is Ignored

Imagine how different Oscar history would have been if the Academy had early on started a tradition of honoring comedy? The Marx Brothers were not fans of their first released film but audiences loved The Cocoanuts. Unfortunately, the Academy was not quite ready to embrace comedy and, as such, this became the first (but not the last) Marx Brothers film to be snubbed.

Agree? Disagree? Do you have an Oscar snub that you think is even worse than the 4 listed here? Let us know in the comments!

Up next: The 1930s brings a depression and a lot more snubs!

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Fritz Lang Edition

Posted on December 5, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In honor of the man and his legacy, here are….

4 Shots From 4 Fritz Lang Films

Metropolis (1927, dir by Fritz Lang, DP: Karl Freund and Gunther Rittau)

M (1931, dir by Fritz Lang, DP: Fritz Arno Wagner)

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933, dir by Fritz Lang, DP: Karl Vash and Fritz Arno Wagner)

Man Hunt (1941, dir by Fritz Lang, DP: Arthur C. Miller)

Cleaning Out the DVR #24: Crime Does Not Pay!

Posted on September 17, 2019 by gary loggins

cracked rear viewer

We’re way overdue for a Cleaning Out the DVR post – haven’t done one since back in April! – so let’s jump right in with 4 capsule reviews of 4 classic crime films:

SINNERS’ HOLIDAY (Warner Brothers 1930; D: John Adolfi) – Early talkie interesting as the screen debut of James Cagney , mixed up in “the booze racket”, who shoots bootlegger Warren Hymer, and who’s penny arcade owner maw Lucille LaVerne covers up by pinning the murder on daughter Evalyn Knapp’s ex-con boyfriend Grant Withers. Some pretty racy Pre-Code elements include Joan Blondell as Cagney’s “gutter floozie” main squeeze. Film’s 60 minute running time makes it speed by, aided by some fluid for the era camerawork. Fun Fact: Cagney and Blondell appeared in the original Broadway play “Penny Arcade”; when superstar entertainer Al Jolson bought the rights, he insisted Jimmy and Joan be cast in the film version, and…

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6 Good Films That Were Not Nominated For Best Picture: The 1920s

Posted on February 24, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Academy Awards, 1929

They’ve been giving out Oscars for 91 years and, since the beginning, good films have often been snubbed.

Sometimes, a film is snubbed because it was too groundbreaking to be embraced at the time of its initial release. Sometimes, a film is snubbed because it was directed by the wrong person or it dealt with subject matter that was considered to be too controversial for the Academy to embrace. Sometimes, a film is snubbed because of a lack of publicity or a studio that failed to launch an effective awards campaign. And, sometimes, a good film is snubbed because it’s been a very good year and there’s only so many available slots.

There’s a lot of reasons but what it all come down to is that good films sometimes don’t get nominated for best picture.

So, in honor of those films, I’m going to take a decade-by-decade look at some of the best films that were not nominated for best picture. We’ll start with the 1920s, with the founding of the Academy in 1927. Here are 6 good films from the 20s that were not nominated for best picture!

It (1927, dir by Clarence G. Badger))

One of my favorite silent films of all time, It featured not only one of Clara Bow’s greatest performances but also a storyline that, at the time, was considered to be rather daring. Clara plays a shopgirl who never allows her love for her boss to interfere with her efforts to protect both her roommate and her roommate’s baby from two meddling welfare workers. Though It was not nominated for Best Picture, Clara Bow did star in very first film to win the top award, Wings.

Metropolis (1927, dir by Fritz Lang)

Having been released in the United States in January of 1927, this visionary German film was eligible to be nominated for best picture but it sadly went unnominated. Science fiction was a genre that long-struggled to get any meaningful recognition from the Academy. Fortunately, that appears to have changed a bit over the past few years.

The Jazz Singer (1927, dir by Alan Crosland)

The Jazz Singer has not aged particularly well and it’s impossible not to cringe when Al Jolson shows up in blackface. However, it was the first commercially successful film to incorporate sound recording and, as such, it pretty much changed cinematic history. In fact, it was such a game changer that legend has it that the Academy ruled it ineligible to compete for best picture because it was felt it would be unfair to all of the silent nominees. Instead, The Jazz Singer was given a special honorary award.

The General (1927, dir by Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton)

Though Buster Keaton’s Civil War epic was made and screened in 1926, it didn’t receive a wide release until 1927, making it eligible for the first Academy Awards. However, since the initial critical and commercial reaction to the film was rather middling, The General was snubbed. Only later would the film be reevaluated and recognized as a classic screen comedy.

The Road to Ruin (1928, dir by Norton S. Parker)

This low-budget, independently made and distributed film became the second highest grossing movie of 1928, therefore showing that a film made outside the studio system could be a success. With its storyline about a teenage girl who gets caught up in a world of drugs, sex, and general decadence, it established many of the exploitation film tropes that are still in use today. The Road to Ruin was a Lifetime film before Lifetime. For that alone, it should have been nominated.

Pandora’s Box (1929, dir by G.W. Pabst)

G.W. Pabst’s classic melodrama is another film that wasn’t appreciated when it was originally released and therefore, both it and Louise Brooks were snubbed by the Academy. It wouldn’t be until the 1950s that Pandora’s Box finally started to receive the acclaim that it deserved.

Up next, in an hour or so, the 1930s!

Clara Bow in It (1927)

Fever Dreams: Fritz Lang’s THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW (RKO/International Pictures 1944)

Posted on January 19, 2019 by gary loggins

cracked rear viewer

Back in 2016, I did a post expounding on one of my favorite films noir, 1945’s SCARLET STREET . This dark masterpiece of corruption starred the titanic trio of Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea in a sordid tale directed by German legend Fritz Lang, with moody cinematography courtesy of Milton Krasner. Recently, I viewed a film this team made the year previous, THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW, with a screenplay by producer Nunnally Johnson. Comparisons were inevitable, but though there are certainly similarities between the two films, this one stands on its own as a powerful entry in the film noir canon. With all that talent, would you expect anything less?

Robinson plays college professor Richard Wanley, an intellectual lecturing on the psychology of homicide to his students. He’s a happily married father of two kids, left alone while the fam visits relatives. Whaley goes to his…

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