20 Best Fritz Lang Movies, Ranked (original) (raw)
Published Aug 27, 2023, 5:31 PM EDT
Jeremy has more than 2500 published articles on Collider to his name, and has been writing for the site since February 2022. He's an omnivore when it comes to his movie-watching diet, so will gladly watch and write about almost anything, from old Godzilla films to gangster flicks to samurai movies to classic musicals to the French New Wave to the MCU... well, maybe not the Disney+ shows.
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Even if you've never seen a movie directed by Fritz Lang, you've undoubtedly seen a movie that was heavily inspired by the legendary Austrian filmmaker. He worked as a director for just over 40 years, directing some of the greatest silent movies of all time in Germany throughout the 1920s (many written by his then-wife, Thea von Harbou) before fleeing the country in the 1930s, and then working as a prolific director in Hollywood for about a quarter of a century.
During his time making films, there was no genre that Fritz Lang was afraid of touching, and it's meant that his fantastic body of work proves influential to a range of movies, including sci-fi films, thrillers, film noir movies, action films, horror, and crime/gangster movies. What follows are some of his very best films, with plenty holding up to this day as masterpieces, despite them all being multiple decades old now. They're ranked below, starting with the very good and ending with the all-time classics.
20 'The Tiger of Eschnapur' (1959)
Image via Fantoma
By 1959, Fritz Lang was nearing 70 years old, and his filmmaking output was winding down to some extent. Though his final film came in 1960 (The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse), the two-part epic that begins with The Tiger of Eschnapur feels like it could serve as a grand finale for Lang's work as a whole.
It's certainly grand, with the two films together running for a lengthy 198 minutes. They ought to be watched fairly close together, too, because this first part - setting up the dramatic love triangle between a dancer, a German architect, and an Indian prince - really only can serve to tell half the story, if that.
19 'The Indian Tomb' (1959)
Image via Central Cinema Company
The Indian Tomb follows right on from The Tiger of Eschnapur, coming out the same year and telling the second part of the story which is sometimes known as Fritz Lang's Indian Epic. The mix of melodramatic romance and pulpy adventure continues, with the dancer and architect both trying to flee from the prince and his pursuing forces.
Taken as a whole, the two movies in the Indian Epic duology are easy to admire, certainly have memorable sequences, and notably stand out for being shot in color while the majority of Lang's films are in black and white. They haven't aged perfectly, and the length means things drag a little in places, but the two films are still impressive achievements, especially considering how late they came in Lang's career.
18 'Clash by Night' (1952)
Image via RKO Radio Pictures
To most viewers, the thing about Clash by Night that would jump out the most is that it features Marilyn Monroe in a supporting role, and was released one year before films like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire made her an even bigger star. But for Fritz Lang fans, the film might stand out for not really exemplifying any genre, besides perhaps drama, broadly.
There's a little romance here, but it's an unusually straightforward melodrama when compared to the other films in Lang's body of work, seeing as they often functioned as crime movies, sci-fi movies, adventure films, or examples of the film noir genre. As a straightforward drama about living life and the ups and downs of love, Clash by Night is pretty solid, albeit not nearly one of the most memorable of Lang's movies.
17 'Secret Beyond the Door' (1947)
Image via Universal Pictures
Speaking of drama of the "melo" variety, Secret Beyond the Door kicks off more like a thriller/film noir sort of movie, but does find itself becoming more of a melodrama as it goes along. It's about a woman getting into an abrupt relationship with an older man, only to find he has some kind of dark past, the evidence of which he keeps stored in mysterious rooms inside his large house.
It unfolds at a slow pace, but does ultimately benefit from being very atmospheric and having the typically strong visual style one would expect from a Fritz Lang movie. It gets the job done and holds up nicely for its time, though isn't nearly one of the very best titles Lang directed during his second phase, so to speak, as a filmmaker (the Hollywood films done after leaving Germany).
16 'While the City Sleeps' (1956)
Image via RKO Radio Pictures
The premise of While the City Sleeps sounds fairly ordinary at first, given at its most basic, it's about a serial killer on the loose, and the hunt to find the person responsible. Yet the angle it takes to exploring this tried and true plot line is what makes things a little more interesting, given the main characters here all work for a newspaper, and are competing to find the killer first.
It ends up being a pretty well-paced and constantly engaging movie, even if the whole mystery part is downplayed, leaving little intrigue to the investigation, and more hoping audiences will find the competition to identify the killer suitably exciting. It's an interesting early critique of the media, and a solid exploration of how morbid stories attract both journalists and readers of news.
15 'Ministry of Fear' (1944)
Image via Paramount Pictures
Ministry of Fear is a gripping thriller film made during World War II, and set during the global conflict, too. Its main premise concerns a man who's been released from an asylum after two years, and finds the world outside to be dizzying and paranoia-inducing, even more so when he comes into contact with a shadowy spy ring.
For those who like Alfred Hitchcock movies where a protagonist is constantly out of their depths and second-guessing everything, Ministry of Fear should satisfy. It keeps the paranoia high, and the pace pretty fast, getting by thanks to its style and unwillingness to drag anything out, even if the core premise and the screenplay might not be particularly amazing or engrossing by thriller/film noir standards.
14 'Destiny' (1921)
One of Fritz Lang's earliest silent film classics was 1921's Destiny, which is now more than 100 years old. Despite its age, it still has plenty to offer, even if quality-wise, it might fall just a tiny bit shy of the other classic silent films Lang directed (he truly made some of the all-time best, as will be demonstrated below).
Its premise sees a young woman encountering Death, and then Death itself telling her three different stories, all of which are visually depicted to the audience. It's an eerie and certainly inventive movie, with Fritz Lang playing around with certain fantasy - and even some mild horror - tropes to great effect.
13 'You Only Live Once' (1937)
Image via United Artists Corp.
You Only Live Once is a crime/drama movie that feels like a precursor to the film noir genre, though it also has a story that contains a good deal of romance. It's only 86 minutes long and feels rather straightforward, with its premise seeing a desperate couple getting in trouble with the law, and then living their lives on the run from lawmen in pursuit.
It's not a direct retelling of real-life Depression Era figures Bonnie and Clyde, but it was loosely inspired by their exploits. It's a movie that feels pretty boundary-pushing for something released during the 1930s, and is also notable for being one of Henry Fonda's first movies, with the actor going on to become legendary thanks to roles in films like 12 Angry Men and Once Upon a Time in the West.
12 'Woman in the Moon' (1929)
Image via UFA
By 1929, talkies had already been around for two years, and silent films were on the way out. As such, Woman in the Moon ended up being the final silent movie Fritz Lang ever directed, but it was a truly radical and impressive science-fiction epic in every way, meaning the silent film era of Lang's directorial career certainly went out with a bang.
It's a film that aimed to depict a trip to the moon with as much scientific accuracy as was possible back in the 1920s, and notably came out exactly 40 years before humanity did actually set foot on the moon. It didn't predict everything correctly, but some of it is surprisingly accurate, and it's also just a fun, emotional, and well-paced epic to boot, making it arguably Fritz Lang's most underrated movie.
11 'Fury' (1936)
Image via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Between leaving Germany in 1933 and beginning his career directing in Hollywood, Fritz Lang made a single French fantasy film called Liliom. This makes 1936's Fury his first American film, and it was a seriously strong English-language debut, being an engaging crime/drama movie about a man arrested for a crime he didn't commit.
Considering it was his Hollywood debut, Fury is a remarkably strong film, and one that tells a serious story well throughout its brisk 92-minute runtime. It also benefits from having Spencer Tracy in the lead role, being committed as always and really delivering when it comes to selling the fear and stress his character is experiencing.