The Spiders (1919)|Part One: The Golden Sea|Part Two:The Diamond Ship

This film prevented Lang from working on "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" which was assigned to him by producer Erich Pommer. He also planed on the third in the series being entitled The Secret of the Sphinx and For Asia's Imperial Crown, but unfortunately for the world they never materialized.

A film buff's dream, Spiders is comprised of two episodes from an unfinished silent serial from Fritz Lang. Filled with excitement and adventure, it tells the story of a brave explorer who is questing for the fabulous Incan diamond. To get it though, he must keep ahead of the powerful Spider cult, who want it for their own evil purposes. The episodes were originally titled "The Golden Lake" and "The Diamond Ship." Many of the techniques and production designs Lang experimented with in this aborted series, he later refined in his classic Dr. Mabuse films. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Running Time: 137 mins
The Spiders (1919)

I am not usually bothered by poor film quality but this one had a distracting knack of changing color (sepia tones) for every scene from green, blue, red and etc. Also the scratches and imperfections on the film was also of the poorest quality I have seen.

For an adventure film much like Raiders of the Lost Ark it tried to create excitement and drama but with little special effects and mostly stationary film shots it lacked luster like more recent films have. It seems that the underlying story line could be redone to take advantage of the better cinematic skills of today. Anyone out there that wants to take on such a challenge?

Sorry Fritz, I only rated this a 3 just as the average Blockbuster person has rated it.