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Interesting mixture of brilliance and stupidity


I just saw Spione (Fritz Lang: 1928) for the first time. I thought it was an interesting mixture of brilliance and stupidity. The camerawork was amazing and the same goes for the set and it has one of the greatest finale of all time.

Spoilers ahead!!!

But then there are some really stupid scenes like when Haghi (the bad guy) shoots him self in the head but still talks and stands on his own two feet. And if Haghi was so powerful why didn't he just have No. 326 shot in the beginning in stead of waiting it out. And why should a spy working for the government help a women who has just shot a man, like he does for Sonya. And why send Sonya to spy on him and then call her away in the middle of the dance to pick up some letters, blowing her cover and risking everything. Surely Haghi knew they had to be picked up and could have planed it better or sent someone else. And I have to say that the love story between No. 326 and Sonya was way too much over the top.

But don't misunderstand me. I think it was an fantastic film (8/10), better than Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler - Ein Bild der Zeit (1922). It was also interesting to see how much Bond has borrowed from it. It also reminded me of North by Northwest (1959) by Hitch. Not to mention Dr. Mabuse. I really felt like I was watching Dr. Mabuse nr. II.

I saw the Masters Of Cinema edition of the film (R2). The transfer is amazing. Extremely well done. I didn't care so much for the music though.


- This comment is most likely authentic and fairly close to what I intended to say -

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And why send Sonya to spy on him and then call her away in the middle of the dance to pick up some letters, blowing her cover and risking everything. Surely Haghi knew they had to be pick up and could have planed it better or sent someone else.
Well, as far as this point goes, Sonya was the one who had developed a hold over Jellusik - it wouldn't have worked to just send someone else, it had already been established that he was crazy about her, and would do anything for her. Haghi had to pull her away from the dance, because he'd just learned that the Japanese were planning to grab her at midnight that night (the Japanese embassy was bugged). So her cover was blown, and she had to be yanked out of her apartment that evening. The Jellusik business had to be wrapped up quickly, so she had to go over there right away and conclude the negotiations for the papers. She never went back home - Haghi arranged to have her apartment cleaned out while she was away. Haghi probably wouldn't have chosen to interrupt her "mission" of seducing #326 (he didn't know yet that she was really falling in love with him), but he had no choice on the timing, because he had to stay one step ahead of his enemies, and the Japanese intelligence people were on the point of catching her.

The story you are about to see is true. No names were changed because no one was innocent.

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Thank you for that Rosabel. Yes you are most likely right there.


- This comment is most likely authentic and fairly close to what I intended to say -

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As for the question of why 326 didn't give Sonja up: it was one of those love at first sight moments. He was supposed to be a gentleman, kind at heart, although admittedly not a very good spy.
Exactly - she was playing the lady in distress, she's beautiful, she faints and is helpless...naturally he's going to come to her rescue. Haghi devised the whole plan that way because he knew that 326 would react that way, and so this would be the best approach. He decides to rescue her before he even hears her story, describing how she had to shoot the cad in self-defence as he was trying to rape her. When 326 hears that, she becomes the perfect victim, and he never suspects that she's lying to him.

I think Lang's whole point is that it's not just 326 who fails, the whole "official" apparatus is hopeless - the Secret Service is honeycombed with traitors and informants. Haghi is just like Mabuse - the police have no hope of outwitting him, he's miles ahead of everyone else. His plans only fall apart when he ends up with a traitor on HIS side, because Sonja falls in love.

The story you are about to see is true. No names were changed because no one was innocent.

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Or, more accurately, when he allows himself to fall in love with one of his agents, who in turn falls in love and becomes a traitor.
You're quite right - Haghi's judgment is clouded by his emotions. He SHOULD have had Sonja killed immediately, once he realized that her loyalty was compromised. It's what he would have done to anyone else. But he wants everything - he wants to win against the Secret Service and the Japanese and 326, and he wants Sonja too. So he keeps her alive, and keeps trying to hold onto all the strings instead of doing the smart thing and abandoning the troublemaker. Nobody else really realizes this, though, not even Sonja (it's interesting that she doesn't try to make any use of her power over him, she just completely refuses to cooperate) because outwardly he keeps on functioning the way he always has, and everything seems to be going well right up until the last moment. I think Lang IS saying that love is the grit that destroys the running of every well-oiled machine for manipulating and controlling people.

The story you are about to see is true. No names were changed because no one was innocent.

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Haghi does not die in the end. When he finds himself surrounded at all sides by the police during his performance, he simulates shooting his head to conclude his act and therefore save himself from the humiliation of an arrest in front of his audience. The applause at the end makes much more sense in this context, anyway.

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He does? That probably makes more sense, but it takes some of the chill out of the ending.

black and white movies were better

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Spione is a bit of a strange film. The opening 20 minutes is interesting then it tends to drag for the next hour as the love story element is introduced and built upon but the drama and espionage element is then given precedence in the last hour which I thought was excellent. I'm not sure how many different versions exist with English intertitles but I saw a restored version on Sky Arts in the UK and I have to be honest the soundtrack is very amateurish and does not help the film at all. Overall for me it's an 8/10.

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That makes sense that Haghi doesn't die - he appears to shoot his headpiece. It was kind of strange that his pistol seems to fire blanks at the musical notes and the giant fly, but fires a real bullet towards 326 and Sonya - shattering the glass of a fire box.

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