Friedrich Christian Anton “Fritz” Lang
(December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976)
Here’s Fritz Lang directing Robert Young and Randolph Scott in Western Union (1941). Couldn’t find a shot of him working on his wonderful, whacked-out 50s Western, Rancho Notorious (1952).
William Friedkin did a terrific documentary on Lang, basically just a filmed interview. I highly recommend tracking it down.
The earliest Lang silents (which I’ve never seen) are now on DVD for those interested. I’ve seen everything he’s done from DER MUDE TOD/DESTINY on and starting with those early ones I’m inclined to watch them all again now, including ones I’ve seen a fair number of times.
Lang didn’t make many Westerns, but he was on record as liking the genre and wanting to do them. The two early ones–THE RETURN OF FRANK JAMES and WESTERN UNION–are pleasing genre pieces if not among his greatest movies; they both have wonderful color among their other virtues and in WESTERN UNION, Randolph Scott has one of his best earlier roles.
But ultimately, Lang did make his mark on the genre. RANCHO NOTORIOUS is a key Lang film, and one for which he wrote the original story. It is surely one of the great Westerns. Somewhat offbeat, though aware of all the genre motifs, but isn’t its individuality in its favor. That one never wears out for me.
Sorry, Toby, I somehow overlooked that link and didn’t know you’d done a piece on RANCHO NOTORIOUS before I had found your blog but now I’ve just read it (along with the comments) and I think we see it pretty much the same way. I was aware of all the production stories. I never really care what people say about those things or what problems came along. It’s the results that count. The movie’s supposed flaws are very superficial, and its strengths profound.
It’s great of you to give a birthday greeting to one of the greatest of all directors.
That was one of my favorites of my earlier posts, when I was still trying to find the right tone for the book and blog. I was also really happy to find that people liked that film, since so many people I run into do not.
This, to me, is one of those films that was made better by its constraints — much in the way Jaws was improved by the fact that the shark didn’t work. The indoors-as-outdoors stuff, as fake as it is, suits the film, and helps give it a real fairy-tell feel. It seems very much in keeping with Lang’s silent stuff.
One of my best movie-nut experiences was at a monster movie convention in the 90s. Forrest Ackerman of Famous Monsters magazine was there, and in his honor, they ran Lang’s Metropolis, his favorite movie. It was the last day and the crowds were thinning out. I sat with him in the nearly-empty screening and got a live commentary better than on any DVD. He’d spoken with Lang, had a replica of the robot, outlined the different versions and how they compared to what we were watching, and on and on. Oh, and while all this was going on, he let me wear Karloff’s ring from The Mummy.
Though not a 50s Western, The Return of Frank James is a crackerjack Western — and one of my favorites from the 40s!