Die Nibelungen **** (1924, Paul Richter, Margarete Schön, Hanna Ralph, Theodor Loos, Gertrud Arnold) – Classic Movie Review 8703

Director Fritz Lang’s 1924 German silent classic The Nibelungen [Die Nibelungen] stars Paul Richter as Siegfried, who marries the princess of Burgundy, Kriemhild (Margarete Schön) but Queen Brunhilde (Hanna Ralph) plans his murder.

Lang’s beautifully crafted, bombastic adaptation of the 13th-century German saga of intrigue, death and revenge is overflowing with misty forests, fairy-tale castles and massive battles and features a dragon-slaying hero. The dragon is a full-scale 60 ft puppet.

This gorgeous-looking, quite magical, classic German silent fantasy adventure drama film was a German patriotic salute, and it was reputedly popular with Hitler, though need not stop us admiring it. Its popularity with Hitler is ironic as the Vienna-born German film-maker Lang was an anti-Nazi mainly because of his Catholic background and fled Germany to Paris in 1933, having rejected the job of head of the German Cinema Institute offered to him by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

The Nibelungen [Die Nibelungen] is in two parts: Siegfried (143 minutes, restored) and Kriemhild’s Revenge [Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache] (144 minutes, restored).

Also in the cast are Theodor Loos, Gertrud Arnold, Bernhard Goetzke, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Georg John and Hans Adalbert Schlettow.

In 1920, Lang began a relationship with actress and writer Thea von Harbou, who wrote the scripts for Dr Mabuse, The Gambler (1922), Die Nibelungen (1924), Metropolis (1927) and M (1931) with him. They married in 1922 but divorced in 1933.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8703

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