Many of us make a concerted effort to see as many of the films of our favorite directors as we can. While you may be familiar with most or all the films of Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, or Quentin Tarantino among those still making films, and Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford among classic film directors, how familiar are you with the works of lesser-known directors such as Fritz Lang?

I bring up Lang because as familiar as I am with his work, it never fails to astonish me how different the films he made are from one another as he moved from Germany to France to the U.S. and back to Germany for his last three films, before going into retirement in Beverly Hills.

Born in Vienna in 1890, Lang made his writing and directorial debut in Germany in 1916, reaching the height of his silent film career with the 1927 sci-fi classic, Metropolis, which has been released on home video numerous times, most notably by Kino Lorber in 2010 with 25 minutes of restored footage in the complete 2 hour-33 minute complete version of the film.

Set in a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the film focuses on the son of the city’s mastermind who falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences. Alfred Abel, Gustav Frolich, Rudolph Kein-Rogge, and Brigitte Helm star in Lang’s still enormously admired film.

Lang’s first talkie, M, about the hunt for a child murderer was released in Europe in 1931 and the U.S. in 1933. The film, which made an international star of Peter Lorre as the murderer, has also been released many times on home video, most notably by Criterion in 2010. That version includes a previously-filmed 50-minute interview with Lang, who died in 1976, conducted by William Friedkin among its many extras.

Criterion released a DVD version of Lang’s second and final German talkie, 1933’s The Testament of Dr. Mabuse starring Rudolph Klein-Rogge as the criminal who continues to rule the underworld through hypnosis after death. The U.K.’s Masters of Cinema released a Blu-ray of the film in 2012.

Lang’s only French film, a 1934 remake of Frank Borzage’s 1930 version of Liliom, was released on DVD, as was Borzage’s version, but both are difficult to find. Charles Farrell starred in Borzage’s film while Charles Boyer starred in Lang’s version of the film that was immortalized by Rodgers & Hammerstein as the musical Carousel.

Warner Archive released Lang’s first American film, 1936’s Fury on Blu-ray in 2021. Film buffs still insist that Spencer Tracy should have gotten his first Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a wrongly accused prisoner who barely survives a lynch mob instead of for his waterfront priest in the same year’s San Francisco which is also available on Blu-ray from Warner Archive.

Sylvia Sidney, who starred opposite Tracy in Fury also starred opposite Henry Fonda in Lang’s You Only Live Once in 1937 and George Raft in his 1937 film, You and Me, both of which were romantic films noir. You Ony Live Once was released on Blu-ray by Classic Flix in 2017, and You and Me by Kino Lorber in 2024.

Changing genres, Lang directed the classic westerns, The Return of Frank James with Henry Fonda in 1940 and Western Union with Robert Young and Randolph Scott in 1941. The former was released on Blu-ray by Twilight Time but it is hard to find. The latter was released by Kino Lorber in 2016 and is still available.

Lang’s great World War II classic, 1943’s Hangmen Also Die! based on a real-life assassination of a Nazi official in Czechoslovakia. Lang was a runner-up in the New York Film Critics polling for Best Director. Released on home video many times, the definitive version was Cohen Media’s 2014 Blu-ray of the film’s 2012 restoration which is out-of-print.

Nazi spies uncovered in England by Ray Milland was the subject of Lang’s 1944 thriller, Ministry of Fear which was released on Blu-ray by Criterion in 2013.

Kino Lorber has released both of Lang’s Edward G. Robinson-Joan Bennett-Dan Duryea’s mid-1940s shockers, The Woman in the Window and Scarlet Street, on Blu-ray, the latter in 4K.

Of the eight films Lang made between 1952 and 1958, only 1953’s The Blue Gardenia is currently unavailable on home video, although it is available for streaming on Amazon Prime for a fee.

Lang’s 1952 western, Rancho Notorious starring Marlene Dietrich and Arthur Kennedy was released on Blu-ray by Warner Archive in 2023. Lang’s same year melodrama, Clash by Night starring Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Ryan was also released on Blu-ray by Warner Archive in 2023.

The director’s masterful 1953 crime thriller, The Big Heat starring Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame has been remastered for its 4K upgrade to be released by Criterion in July.

Lang’s steamy 1954 film, Human Desire, also starring Ford and Grahame along with Broderick Crawford, is a remake of Jean Renoir’s La Bete Humaine, both of which are based on a novel by Emile Zola. It was released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber in 2023. Criterion released La Bete Humaine on Blu-ray in 2014.

Lang’s 1955 film, Moonfleet, is an interesting action-adventure film steeped in gothic horror starring child actor Jon Whiteley and Stewart Granger as his protector. Warner Home Video released it on Blu-ray in 2019.

Dana Andrews and Rhonda Fleming lead the mid-level star cast in Lang’s New York City hunt for a serial killer in 1956’s The City That Never Sleeps. Warner Archive released it on Blu-ray in 2018.

Like Moonfleet, French critics appreciated Lang’s so-so thriller, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, starring Dana Andrews and Joan Fontaine more than their American counterparts. Warner Archive released this, the last of the director’s Hollywood films, on Blu-ray in 2018.

Happy viewing.