Jordan Mattox

BBC’s radio program and podcast, In Our Time, aired a wonderful retrospective on the career and legacy of the influential director Fritz Lang (link here). Lang began his career in the silent period of film in Germany, but escaped or departed when the Nazis came to power and after he met and listened to Joseph Goebbels give a speech or two. After he left Germany, Lang had a prolific career in Hollywood where he made some of my favorite noir films. My favorite Lang are a mix of the silent era stuff, which is usually regarded more highly by the film snob types, and they are mostly not wrong, and then his later stuff like, my favorite, The Big Heat. If you have the stomach for silent, I think you should start with M, Metropolis, and then work your way through the Dr. Marbuse trilogy.