As mentioned previously, in “Impossible Voyages” I’m watching and writing about a run of new (to me) science fiction films to be watched over this year (and possibly beyond). You can read the rationale and ground rules here. In the meantime, we are advancing from 1928 to 1929 with this movie, #9 in this series.
Spoilers Ahead
Woman in the Moon [Frau im Mond] (1929)
Directed by Fritz Lang
The Story: Entrepreneur Wolf Helius teams up with disgraced scientist Professor Georg Manfeldt to mount an expedition to the moon, which the professor believes if rich with gold. The mission also includes Helius’ assistants, engineer Hans Windegger and astronomer Friede Velten, who also are engaged even though Helius is actually in love with Friede. A ruthless businessman calling himself Walter Turner blackmails Helius to allowing him to accompany him on the mission as well, and finally a young boy named Gustav stows away on board the ship as well.
One they finally arrive on the moon (which is fully habitable), Windegger panics and becomes desperate to return to earth as soon as possible. Manfeldt and Turner discover gold as predicted, but in the process Mandfeldt is killed. Turner tries to steal the ship to return on his own but is killed in the ensuing conflict. Damage to the oxygen supply means someone has to stay behind on the moon. The lots fall to Windegger, but seeing how heartbroken he is Helius drugs him and stays behind instead. After the ship leaves, he is surprised to discover that Friede, having realized she is in love him, has stayed behind with him.
Starring: Willy Fritsch as Helius, Gerda Maurus as Friede, Klaus Pohl as Professor Manfeldt, Gustav von Wangenheim as Windegger, Fritz Rasp as “The man who calls himself Walter Turner” and Gusti Stark-Gstettenbaur as Gustav. The English credits that I saw included a group of scientists and rich people who work with for Walter Turner credited collectively as “The brains and the checkbooks,” and Josephine the mouse who is taken into space by Professor Manfeldt is apparently played by an actual mouse named Josephine.
Comments: Woman in the Moon is a beast of a movie. Directed by the great Fritz Lang (best known to me for Metropolis, M and Scarlet Street), it’s a long and slow movie nicely shot and well executed, but whose ambitious story feels strangely short-changed by some abrupt pacing choices. Those mostly come toward the end of the film, when the main characters are exploring the moon–but given that this is what we’ve been waiting around for the whole movie to see, it feels especially disappointing. Before that, the movie takes such a long time developing its characters and concepts that it feels like maybe it could have stood to be 45 or 60 minutes longer to fully payoff everything it had been setting up.
As I think about it, I realise that most of these imbalances surround the character of Professor Manfeldt, who is played with lots of interesting personality by Klaus Pohl. Woman in the Moon starts with a long sequence where protagonist Helius goes to see him, and we see clearly how this once respected scientist has fallen from grace due to his unorthodox view that the moon is a source of untold riches to be exploited–literally, it’s full of gold. This doesn’t just come across in a handy exposition-filled flashback, but through some excellent production design and characterization in the “present”. There’s a particularly memorable image of the Professor propping up a chair, which is missing a leg, with textbooks.
The Professor’s backstory informs his choices and motivations going forward. It’s why he is so determined to get to the moon when Helius comes along and offers to partner with him, and its why he impetuously steps out of the spaceship before they have checked whether the far side of the moon has a breathable atmosphere (spoilers: it does!) He sets off without his colleagues to find gold and (more spoilers) he does–his excitement resonating through the caverns with an inventive use of subtitles.
The story seems to be building to some sort of momentous confrontation between Manfeldt and the highly suspicious “Walter Turner”, so it’s with great disappointment that the character’s ends his story by just abruptly tumbling down a crevasse to his death.
I don’t know if there is supposed to be some sort of comment going on here about the dangers of greed or obsession, but end result is a promising story thread just vanishing with an interesting character literally falling off screen. There is one shot of his dead body a bit later on, but most of the other characters never even learn what happens to the Professor, and the whole “gold on the moon” concept is just dropped.
The fate of Walter Turner is a bit more interesting. He gets a gripping knock-down brawl with Helius, Windegger, and especially Friede (with the poor girl almost losing an arm in the effort to keep Turner out of the spaceship at a critical point) that results in his death.
He even gets a bit of a mournful send-off from those he was threatening–something that seems a bit weird considering how easily the Professor is just forgotten by the story.
But still, all the business with Turner on the moon doesn’t fully payoff all the time we’ve spent with his machinations earlier in the movie. So much of the plot in the first half focused on his machinations against Helius and the way he got himself onto the expedition at all. His later decision to try to abandon the others feels unwarranted, as well as strategically unsound (we have no reason to think he knows how to fly the spaceship, for instance).
It could have all worked if Turner had deliberately killed Professor Manfeldt, or otherwise intentionally caused his death. If that had led to a conflict with Helius, then they guy would have a reason to rush back to the ship and try to take off on his own. As it is, things come across as forced and a bit random.
But then maybe I’m unjustifiably applying a modern perspective to things. Just because the movie doesn’t satisfy all my 21st century standards for story structure, character arcs and set-up / payoff dynamics…is that a reason to dismiss it?
Well, no of course. I do think they are still weaknesses, but there is a lot about Woman in the Moon to admire. In addition to the cool camerawork and design (which continue throughout the whole film), there’s pretty much everything to do with the spaceship and the actual trip to the moon itself. It’s all fascinating and amazingly detailed. We see the crew dealing with the immense pressure put on them by the acceleration into space, with life in zero-gravity, and with the fragility of the equipment they are dependent upon.
And we see them face both the awe and the existential dread of being so far from the earth for the first time.
We see, for the first time in film according to some things I’ve read, a rocket that launches in two stages and that uses liquid fuel. And apparently for the first time ever inside or outside of a movie, we see a rocket that uses a countdown to time its launch. Of course, it’s not scientifically plausible by any metric–the main character’s “space suit” seems to just be a particularly wooly sweater, and parts of the ship itself look more like the inside of subway more than anything else, but it’s incredibly rich and immersive, and helps to make up for the film’s weaker spots.
Woman in the Moon ends with the revelation that Friede has stayed behind on the moon with Helius, having seen Windegger’s breakdown and realising that he doesn’t really love her.
The tenderness between Helius and Friede has been present throughout the whole movie–perhaps not quite enough to justify such a momentous decision from her, but still it’s more smoothly presented than the out-of-nowhere ending to Manfeldt’s story. And of course Windegger’s breakdown has made it clear that he is interested more in his own survival than he is in his betrothed.
But Friede’s decision, which is revealed in the last 40 seconds or so of the movie, is one of the least surprising final twists that I have ever seen in anything. The movie’s title makes it obvious what she is going to do, even if the rest of the film had not. I kept waiting for the crew to meet a woman on the moon, but when they didn’t, it’s clear that the Friede herself is the one being referred to. It makes the last minute of the movie a bit less fun than it could have been.
In the midst of the movie’s ponderous seriousness, there are a few light moments. One of the earliest of these is when Gustav, the young boy who does odd jobs for Helius (and later stows away on the space ship!) hurries downstairs by sliding on a handrail by a huge staircase. And later, there are some amusing antics with everyone while experimenting with zero-gravity.
But one of my favorite inclusions is the presence of Josephine the mouse. She’s seen early in the film as Professor Mandfeldt’s roommate / pet, and later is brought by him to the moon! Aside from a few gags, she doesn’t factor into the story all that much, but I was pleased to see she survives to the end of the movie (she’s visible on the bed that Windegger has passed out on right at the end.) Apparently, the turbulent experience was not enough to take out little Josephine, even though it nearly killed all the humans on the crew.
