Fritz Lang's breathtaking early masterpiece — the film that made him famous and directly inspired the young Luis Buñuel to become a filmmaker. A young couple stops at a village inn, where the man is spirited away by a towering, cloaked figure: Death himself. The grief-stricken woman bargains for her beloved's life, and Death offers her three chances, each set in a different exotic time and place — Baghdad, Renaissance Venice, and Imperial China. Lang fills every frame with stunning architectural sets, pioneering special effects (including some of cinema's earliest convincing double exposures), and a poetic fatalism that would define his career. A ravishing fable about love, loss, and whether fate can ever be cheated.
Fritz Lang's breathtaking early masterpiece — the film that made him famous and directly inspired the young Luis Buñuel to become a filmmaker. A young couple stops at a village inn, where the man is spirited away by a towering, cloaked figure: Death himself. The grief-stricken woman bargains for her beloved's life, and Death offers her three chances, each set in a different exotic time and place — Baghdad, Renaissance Venice, and Imperial China. Lang fills every frame with stunning architectural sets, pioneering special effects (including some of cinema's earliest convincing double exposures), and a poetic fatalism that would define his career. A ravishing fable about love, loss, and whether fate can ever be cheated.
Lil Dagover
Young Woman / Zobeide / Mona Fiametta / Tiao Tsien
Walter Janssen
Young Man / Frank / Gianfrancesco / Liang
Bernhard Goetzke
Death / El Mot / Archer
Hans Sternberg
Mayor
Karl Rückert
Reverend
Max Adalbert
Notary / Chancellor
Wilhelm Diegelmann
Doctor
Erich Pabst
Teacher
Karl Platen
Pharmacist
Hermann Picha
Taylor
Paul Rehkopf
Gravedigger
Max Pfeiffer
Night Watchman
Georg John
Beggar
Lydia Potechina
Landlady
Grete Berger
Mother
writer
cinematographer
writer
cinematographer
cinematographer
