Fritz Lang: Film Noir

Austrian director Fritz Lang has been noted as being exemplary in film noir by utilizing his stark visual style and moody representation of human characters, and has a history of making great classics such as Metropolis (1927), M (1931), Fury (1936), and The Big Heat (1953). Lang came to America to escape the rise of Nazi power in Germany in 1934, he was part of the German expressionist, and could skillfully direct drama-thrillers and epic science fiction dramas with ease, as noted by Foster Hirsch in his book, The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir, “Of the four major Germanic directors of noir - Fritz Lang, Robert Siodmak, Billy Wilder, and Otto Preminger - Lang is the most consistently incisive. In temperament, he is the quintessential noir stylist” (Hirsch 116). Lang had a longstanding career in Hollywood, making numerous films of many genres, and seems to focus on the human perspective of outcomes that are beyond their control. “Lang’s output over a period of almost forty years reveals a remarkable visual and thematic continuity. The director’s noir titles - The Ministry of Fear, The Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, Human Desire, The Big Heat, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt are a representative sampling - share strong thematic parallels. All concern victims of fate” (Hirsch 116).

“(Ford) went on to establish his reputation as an actor capable of playing lead roles across various genres, including westerns, dramas and romantic films. His many films included Gilda (1946), with Rita Hayworth, The Big Heat (1953), Blackboard Jungle (1955), The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956), The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963) and Heaven with a Gun (1969). From the 1970s he appeared mainly in supporting roles in television series“