Back in black

Alex Coolman

Anxiety, deep shadows and death: they’re the gritty building blocks of

film noir, the cinematic style that flourished in America when European

war refugees got behind Hollywood’s cameras in the late 1930s and early

1940s.

Foremost among the practitioners of the gorgeously dark mode of

filmmaking was Fritz Lang, who was one of Germany’s most famous directors

when he fled the deadly politics of his homeland in 1934.

What happened next in Lang’s career is the subject of a film series that

begins Oct. 22 at the Orange County Museum of Art. The three pictures

first produced by Lang after his arrival in the United States -- “Fury,”

“You Only Live Once” and the bizarre “You and Me” -- form the core of the

program, “Fritz Lang, Master Director: German Expressionism in American

Film.”

The films chart a course from Lang’s most accessible work to a picture so

odd and unconventional that it continues to divide the opinions of

audiences today, said Arthur Taussig, adjunct film curator for the

museum.

“Fury,” made in 1936, features Spencer Tracy as a man who nearly loses

his life to a lynch mob and sets out for revenge. It’s a thoroughly

“noir” picture, with a bleak take on human standards of justice and a

visual scheme that’s in love with extremes of light and dark. Despite the

challenging vision of the film, it was a box office success when it was

first released.

Taussig attributes the warm reception of “Fury” to an essential humanism

that underlies even its darkest moments.

“The amazing thing is that [Lang] opts for humanity,” in the film,

Taussig said. “It goes against all his personal experience.”

Lang had left not only his career behind in Germany, but also his

anti-Semitic wife, who was a Nazi sympathizer.

“That he could step back out of himself and see a larger perspective is

remarkable,” Taussig said.

But if this initial effort proved successful, Lang was to have more

difficulty in making his subsequent works conform to American

expectations of proper cinema.

In “You Only Live Once,” released in 1937, the hopefulness of Lang’s

first American film suddenly drops out of the frame.

Henry Fonda plays a loser who keeps on losing despite his efforts to

reform and the encouragement of love interest Sylvia Sidney. Society, in

Lang’s grim view, won’t allow some men to live any life except that of

the outcast. The film didn’t do as well as “Fury,” but it was a success

compared to what was about to come.

The last work of Lang’s early American period, “You and Me,” seemed to

strip away even more of what had made his first effort a popular success.

“‘You and Me’ is still more introverted,” Taussig said. “It’s blocky. It

seems ill-constructed and yet it is fascinating and unique and incredibly

complex.”

Not only is the movie visually challenging, its content is emotionally

off the beaten path as well. Lang produced what was essentially a

gangster picture, but he did so in a way that juxtaposed corny

sentimentality with the pessimistic social vision of his previous film.

To make matters even stranger, he threw in a few scenes whose logic can

easily elude the viewer. At one point, outlaws in prison spontaneously

begin chanting in a kind of proto-rap that Taussig characterizes as both

compelling and utterly bizarre.

“Everyone I’ve shown it to has either loved it and found it fascinating

or said it’s the worst thing they’ve ever seen,” Taussig said.

When it was released in 1938, “You and Me” was a box office flop, a

project that set back Lang’s career for several years.

It was some time before Lang was able to work again and when he was

finally able to do so, it was under a 20th Century Fox contract that

significantly limited his creative control.

The trio of Lang movies, from the initial, popular hit to what Taussig

calls “one of the strangest films ever made in Hollywood,” paved the way

for later noir classics like “Double Indemnity.”

The idea of rapping gangsters, however, never gained much popularity in

cinema circles. “You and Me” may have simply been too creative for its

own good.

“It’s a gangster musical art film,” Taussig said of the movie. “He

invented his own genre there.”

FYI

WHAT: “Fritz Lang, Master Director: German Expressionism in American

Film”

WHERE: Orange County Museum of Art, 850 San Clemente Drive, Newport Beach

WHEN: “Fury” plays Oct. 22, “You Only Live Once” plays Nov. 19, “You and

Me” plays Dec. 10. Show time is 6:30 p.m.

HOW MUCH: $5, $3 for museum members

PHONE: (949) 759-1122