Spiders (Spinnen)
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Synopsis
Kay Hoog finds a message that indicates that some Incas are still alive, but the secret organisation "Die Spinnen" wants the Incas' gold...
A desperate, haggard-looking man puts a message into a bottle, and is able to throw it into the sea just as he is shot by an arrow. Some time later, well-known sportsman Kay Hoog announces to a large audience that he has found the message, which tells of a lost civilization that possesses an immense treasure. Hoog immediately plans an expedition to find it. But Lio Sha, the head of a criminal organization known as the Spiders, plans her own expedition, and she is determined to get the treasure for herself.
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Details
Language: Silent
Year of production: 1919
Length: 2 hr 18 min
Country: Germany
Directors:
Producers:
Actors:
.... Kay Hoog
Ressel Orla
.... Lio Sha
Georg John
.... Dr. Telphas
Lil Dagover .... Sonnenpriesterin
POST YOUR REVIEW REVIEWS FOR: Spiders (Spinnen)
Baxter Martin
created on:
2007-02-15 20:46:49
The Spiders
The Spiders (1919, Ger., Fritz Lang)
The Indiana Jones of the early twentieth century film world is on display here. Forgotten Incan cities of gold, a Chinese underworld in San Francisco, a diamond ship in Asia, treasure maps, an Incan princess, opium dens, tiger ‘guards,’ 007-ish gadgetry, and of course murder, love, and mystery! It sounds like this might turn out to be one of the cheesiest, most laughable films of all time. Perhaps one that would leave any sense of realism aside and acts in a manner which forgets that the film is silent after all. Nope. Not Lang. Ever the master of detail (maybe even psychotically so), Lang makes sure this fantastic far fetched story is told in the most believable way possible. He even hired ethnographers to make sure the costumes and sets were correct. No white men playing Indians over here. They might play a Chinese man or two though, perhaps a middle eastern or three. But no Indians!!!
The story involves one Kay Hoog, a ‘millionaire adventurer’ who is more interested in the annonated preservation of cultural artifacts than looting for personal wealth, although with that house one wonders…Mr. Hoog’s opponent is the leader of the international criminal enterprise ‘The Spiders,’ Lio Sha. Adding injury to insult, Hoog has spurned Lio Sha’s offer of joining forces in the criminal life as well as love and so has to contend with his enemy on personal as well as business fronts. Based in San Francisco, the story takes us to different locales in South America and Asia and the level of detail keeps us within a realm of belief. Originally intended to be a 5 part serial, Lang could only make ‘The Golden Sea’ and ‘The Diamond Ship.’ The first involves the aforementioned characters racing to get to a forgotten Incan city loaded with gold and the latter a famous ‘buddha-head stone’ diamond originally lost from a diamond ship some centuries ago.
This film has all the interest of an Indiana Jones movie. It tackles a fantasy-like world that somehow exists right along side ours, or underneath it! The dramatic acting can be a bit over the top but it adds a sense of humor Indy would be proud of. It is amazing that Lang’s mastery of his craft is evident so early on.