Woman In The Moon

1929: A Space Odyssey
I had heard of Fritz Lang's WOMAN IN THE MOON for many years and had seen stills from it in sci-fi film anthologies but I was never sure if I would ever get to see it. Now that I have seen it I was totally unprepared for how taken I would be with it. It is absolutely astonishing how forward looking this film was (is). From a technical standpoint it was the 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY of its day. The latest technology of 1929 was used by Lang to depict a trip to the moon 40 years before it actually happened.

The attention to detail, always a Lang trademark, is on full display here. German scientists were consulted on the rocket and space sequences and chillingly give us a glimpse of the technology that would be employed by the Nazis during World War II. Even more chilling and prophetic is how the principal heavy is the spitting image of Hitler minus his mustache (and Hitler wanted Lang to be the Third Reich's filmmaker!). In addition to the technological aspects the human side of...

About TIME!
Well we finally get to see the full 161 minute version. Some of you may know that in 1930 the founders of the American Interplanetary society invited Swiss aviation pioneer Robert Esnault Pelterie to speak to their membership in NYC. As part of the event they decided to translate this Lang masterpiece into English. Unfortunately for the rest of us they gutted it down to about 80 minutes. Not only did they remove all the "non-space" stuff but they actually re-wrote the story by creating new title cards. Consequently the new version made little sense. Well finally here we have the uncut original with all title cards intact and a story line which actually makes sense. The print is almost perfect and the company in Europe are to be applauded for resurrecting this brilliant piece of work. German rocket pioneers Otto Willi Gail, Willy Ley and Hermann Oberth consulted on the space flight section and it shows. Visuals are a real treat and you can actually read much of the details such as...

Die Frau im Mond
Painstaking direction by Fritz Lang combines with sometimes ridiculous overwriting by wife Thea von Harbau to produce a mixed masterpiece. The movie can be described as 1) crime thriller segueing into 2) eerily prescient science fiction descending into 3) soapy melodrama. Lang's influence is most obvious in the middle section but the cumbersome plotline slows down the beginning and end.

We open with handsome Doctor Helius chewing scenery with an aged professor driven into poverty and near-insanity by the rejection of his theory that the moon's mountains are full of gold. The good Doctor still believes in him, as do the 5 potentates (!) who control the world's gold supply and wish to corral the moon's as well. This introduces an underworld spy played quite suavely by Fritz Rasp.

We also meet the eponymous Woman, Gerda Maurus, a lady with expressive eyes, no particular figure and a rather bad hair-do. She is a jolly sort, though, as well as a much stronger...

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