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Frau im Mond is: (a) The first feature-length film to portray space-exploration in a serious manner, paying close attention to the science involved in launching a vessel from the surface of the earth to the valleys of the moon. (b) A tri-polar potboiler of a picture that manages to combine espionage tale, serial melodrama, and comic-book sci-fi into a storyline that is by turns delirious, hushed, and deranged. (c) A movie so rife with narrative contradiction and visual ingenuity that it could only be the work of one filmmaker: Fritz Lang. In this, Lang s final silent epic, the legendary filmmaker spins a tale involving a wicked cartel of spies who co-opt an experimental mission to the moon in the hope of plundering the satellite s vast (and highly theoretical) stores of gold. When the crew, helmed by Willy Fritsch and Gerda Maurus (both of whom had previously starred in Lang s Spione), finally reach their impossible destination, they find themselves stranded in a lunar labyrinth without walls where emotions run scattershot, and the new goal becomes survival. A modern Daedalus tale which uncannily foretold Germany s wartime push into rocket-science, Frau im Mond is as much a warning-sign against human hubris as it is a hopeful depiction of mankind s potential. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present for the first time in the UK the culmination of Fritz Lang s silent cinema, newly restored to its near-original length. SPECIAL FEATURES: Brand new film restoration by F. W. Murnau-Stiftung, Original German intertitles with newly-translated optional English subtitles, 36-page booklet which includes a newly revised analysis by Michael E. Grost on the film, and on Fritz Lang's body of work as a whole and more!
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By bernie
VINE™ VOICE
Format:DVD
Poor penniless Professor Georg Manfeldt has a theory that the moon has gold, lots of it, and why not? His rich friend Wolf Helius owns a rocket factory and it seems that he has sent everything up but people. Turns out his friend Wolf has a problem; the girl Friede that he secretly loves had no idea that he felt that way and married their mutual friend and head engineer Windegger in the factory. A sophisticated criminal element gets involved and wants to control the moon gold flow.
List off occupants:
Professor Georg Manfeldt (Klaus Pohl)
Wolf Helius (Willy Fritsch)
Hans Windegger, Ingenieur (Gustav von Wangenheim)
Friede Velten, Student astrologer (Gerda Maurus)
Gustav, Child stowaway (Gustl Gstettenbaur)
Der Mann, Criminal element (Fritz Rasp)
The Mouse (uncredited)
Everything is going along swimmingly until the obligatory lack of water, oxygen, and life.
This is not your run of the mill love on a rocket that "misfires" movie. Maybe because they took the time to flesh out the movie and not rush the story it turned out to be very sophisticated. There had time for intrigue and subterfuge as even the bad guys were well organized and believable.
Top writers and top director and UFA studios can only produce a masterpiece.
The models are very good and many of the real problems with space are anticipated and depicted, unlike some cheap remakes. I was disappointed to find that all they found on the moon is gold and not Louise Brooks; the title is misleading.
List off occupants:
Professor Georg Manfeldt (Klaus Pohl)
Wolf Helius (Willy Fritsch)
Hans Windegger, Ingenieur (Gustav von Wangenheim)
Friede Velten, Student astrologer (Gerda Maurus)
Gustav, Child stowaway (Gustl Gstettenbaur)
Der Mann, Criminal element (Fritz Rasp)
The Mouse (uncredited)
Everything is going along swimmingly until the obligatory lack of water, oxygen, and life.
This is not your run of the mill love on a rocket that "misfires" movie. Maybe because they took the time to flesh out the movie and not rush the story it turned out to be very sophisticated. There had time for intrigue and subterfuge as even the bad guys were well organized and believable.
Top writers and top director and UFA studios can only produce a masterpiece.
The models are very good and many of the real problems with space are anticipated and depicted, unlike some cheap remakes. I was disappointed to find that all they found on the moon is gold and not Louise Brooks; the title is misleading.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Worst things first. Despite being made by Fritz Lang and his then-wife and screenwriter Thea von Harbou only two years later, Frau im Mond aka Woman in the Moon is no Metropolis. It's as if Kubrick had followed 2001 with Destination Moon - a capable enough picture, but one for its day rather than for the ages. Even had it not been banned by the Nazis in 1937 because its depiction of rocket science was deemed too close to their secret rocket programme it probably would have been forgotten of its own accord. There's no grand vision, no striking design, only one real set piece and almost nothing to say. Made purely to cash in on the rocket craze that hit Germany in the late 20s and Fritz Lang's own enthusiasm for Hermann Oberth's pioneering theoretical work, the main attraction of `the first science fiction film based on scientific fact' is its visionary and surprisingly accurate (in parts) depiction of interplanetary rocket travel. Unfortunately to get to that you have to put up with a drawn out 74 minutes of melodrama, and once it reaches the Moon it waves goodbye to science and says hello again to melodrama.
The opening hour and a quarter is the biggest problem, padding the length out and taking its own sweet time setting up characters and plot points that could have been done in less than a third of the time. Heartbroken over the woman he loves, Friede (Gerda Maurus), deciding to marry his best friend Windegger (Gustav von Wagenheim), wealthy Wolf Helius (Willy Fritsch) finally decides to make the trip to the Moon in the rocket he's designing, spurred on more by emptiness than by the theories of the ridiculed and ruined Professor Manfeldt (Klaus Pohl) that the mountains of the Moon are rich in gold.... Read more ›
The opening hour and a quarter is the biggest problem, padding the length out and taking its own sweet time setting up characters and plot points that could have been done in less than a third of the time. Heartbroken over the woman he loves, Friede (Gerda Maurus), deciding to marry his best friend Windegger (Gustav von Wagenheim), wealthy Wolf Helius (Willy Fritsch) finally decides to make the trip to the Moon in the rocket he's designing, spurred on more by emptiness than by the theories of the ridiculed and ruined Professor Manfeldt (Klaus Pohl) that the mountains of the Moon are rich in gold.... Read more ›
15 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By DH Dixon
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is the only Fritz Lang film that I feel entirely happy with. Its depiction of a flight to the moon is both forward-looking and revealing but also quaint in its historic art, and the silent acting is of a very high order with quite a lot of depth in the characters. This film is great fun and perfectly excellent.
By Rufus Yells
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Arrived on time at at a good price. While not Lang's finest hour, it's a looooooong way from unacceptable - familiar themes and some top camerawork.
5.0 out of 5 stars
M-A-G-N-I-F-I-C-E-N-T !! An impressive silent SF film, which inspired Werner von Braun and dozens other rocket scientists
5 April 2013
By Maciej
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is the second of great silent SF movies made by Fritz Lang and although not as immensely great and universaly known as "Metropolis", it is certainly a very major film! Below, you will find some more of my impressions, with some limited SPOILERS.
PRECISION: this is the review of "Masters of Cinema" restored 163 minutes long version of this film.
"Frau im Mond" begins with the great dream of a manned expedition to the Moon shared by two unlikely friends. One of them, professor Georg Mannfeldt (Klaus Pohl), is an old scientist, considered by his pairs as a madman or a fraud and living in most abject poverty. The second, Wolf Helius (Willy Fritsch), is a gifted engineer and very succesful businessman, owner of a major industrial company. Together they decide to build a giant rocket and go to the Moon, looking for gold which they hope will cover the immense cost of this enterprise. This is described in the very beginning of the film. The performance of Klaus Pohl as an old half-mad scientist is absolutely unique - those first minutes of the film, you really WANT to see them!
What happens next? Well, quite a lot indeed, because this is a long film. Some sinister forces will intervene, acting through The Man, a nameless archi-villain played magistrally by actor Fritz Rasp, who with his unique physionomy and great talent steals absolutely every scene he appears in (he also played a quite sinister character in "Metropolis"). As the title clearly suggests, a young woman will also play a considerable role - this is in fact one of the first films in which a woman who is also a serious scientist appears... There will be a love triangle, lots of trouble during the space trip, more trouble on the Moon and a very good, VERY surprising ending.... Read more ›
PRECISION: this is the review of "Masters of Cinema" restored 163 minutes long version of this film.
"Frau im Mond" begins with the great dream of a manned expedition to the Moon shared by two unlikely friends. One of them, professor Georg Mannfeldt (Klaus Pohl), is an old scientist, considered by his pairs as a madman or a fraud and living in most abject poverty. The second, Wolf Helius (Willy Fritsch), is a gifted engineer and very succesful businessman, owner of a major industrial company. Together they decide to build a giant rocket and go to the Moon, looking for gold which they hope will cover the immense cost of this enterprise. This is described in the very beginning of the film. The performance of Klaus Pohl as an old half-mad scientist is absolutely unique - those first minutes of the film, you really WANT to see them!
What happens next? Well, quite a lot indeed, because this is a long film. Some sinister forces will intervene, acting through The Man, a nameless archi-villain played magistrally by actor Fritz Rasp, who with his unique physionomy and great talent steals absolutely every scene he appears in (he also played a quite sinister character in "Metropolis"). As the title clearly suggests, a young woman will also play a considerable role - this is in fact one of the first films in which a woman who is also a serious scientist appears... There will be a love triangle, lots of trouble during the space trip, more trouble on the Moon and a very good, VERY surprising ending.... Read more ›
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
this aint no metropolis
If you are expecting an extension of the Metropolis hype here, you will be disappointed. The story line is exceedingly weak. And the film is long winded. Read more
Published 23 months ago by C. A. Z. Pierides
3.0 out of 5 stars
Echoes of the 1950s -- in 1929
You'd think you were watching a spaceflight film from the 1950s. All the ingredients are there. A homemade spaceship with room for standing, cabinets with dials and levers, a few... Read more
Published on 8 Mar 2011 by J. A. Eyon
4.0 out of 5 stars
The last silent movie of F. Lang (1890-1976).
Pushed by the mirage of supposed gold mines on the moon aboard a spaceship rocket part a German expedition with four men and one woman (plus a clandestine) on board. Read more
Published on 15 Feb 2010 by Massimo Santilli
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