Ministry of Fear Fritz Lang Digital Life VHS

Ministry of Fear
starring: Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke, Percy Waram
directed by: Fritz Lang

Used Price: $4.99
Collectible Price: $14.99
Third Party New Price: $23.00

Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780783224886
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, HiFi Sound, NTSC
ISBN: 0783224885
Label: Universal Studios
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Universal Studios
Release Date: April 28, 1998
Running Time: 87 minutes
Sales Rank: 17457
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: October 16, 1944

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- Lang Battles Nazism
Fritz Lang was one of the greatest directing talents to ever emerge from German cinema. Born in Vienna, he migrated to Berlin following service in World War One and became one of Germany's premier directors.

When Hitler came to power, however, Lang found himself at a potentially deadly crossroad. He was summoned by Joseph Goebbels, the Third Reich's infamous Director of Propaganda, and was offered the position of becoming the regime's head of filmmaking.

The sagacious director knew a trap when he saw it. He was aware that the Nazi regime was aware of his opposition to everything it stood for as well as one other important fact. While Lang was a practicing Catholic, his mother was Jewish, a fact of which Goebbels and Hitler were surely aware.

Lang believed that his life was at stake. He left quickly by train that evening and proceeded to Paris, leaving behind his wife and ... Read More

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- Ding Dong Bell
Maybe Graham Greene didn't like this movie, but he was like every other author and thought his every word was gold. The movie skips all the dreary insane asylum scenes but one, and goes straight to the heart of things, in the county fair, or fete, a concept which people in the USA probably were saying, "What did he say? Fate?" No, it's a fete, and Milland walks in directly after having been let out of the asylym, hearing the music at the train station while buying a ticket out of Ledbridge. He asks the station agent, "Where's the music coming from?" and when told it's the fete, he asks if he could leave his clothes and suitcases on a little bench outside the station while he investigated, had a little unnocent fun after being cooped up for 2 years having killed his poor wife in a Dr. Death sort of provide-me-with-poison-please-darling murder case. In Graham Greene's novel, of course, the hero was headed for a ... Read More

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- Not Perfect, but a Good Wartime Mystery
The background story to "Ministry of Fear" is that Director Fritz Lang did not have complete control over production. This shows and becomes more obvious as MF progresses. As MF opens, lead Ray Milland is released from an asylum. He has done time for the mercy killing of his wife. With time to burn before his train leaves, he wanders into a fair and wins a cake. Inside the cake is a secret message intended for German agents in England. The bad guys realize this and want the cake back. The chase is on! RM escapes a hit on the train! Back in London, Milland hires a private dick but the agents kill him and implicate RM. With a murder rap on his record, Milland has to stay on the run and away from the Law. This is the fun part for the viewer! London seems full of spies; how can RM tell friend from foe? Throughout, the relatively unknown supporting cast is excellent. Salvation arrives in the form of Percy Waram, a tough, ... Read More

Rating:

- Someone Left the Cake Out in the Train
Stephen Neal has spent 2 years in an asylum for what was judged as a "mercy killing," and when his sentence is completed, he leaves to find a world gone mad. It is 1944, the height of WWII, and it all starts with a cake. Neal wins a cake at a fair, and while on the train to London, is nearly murdered for it. He is then swept into a world of Nazis, spies, bogus fortune-tellers, and sinister people with aliases. We see the plot unfold from Neal's eyes, and are as perplexed as he is; trying to figure out the meaning as one is watching is a hopeless task.

Based on a novel by Graham Greene, the direction by Fritz Lang is excellent, and it has an atmospheric, eerie score by Victor Young. The real beauty of this film is in the superb cinematography by Henry Sharp, with a use of light/shade contrasts that are spectacular, and the composition of each scene a work of art. Added to this is the attractiveness of its ... Read More

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