Disc Reviews

Frau Im Mond Review

• 7th Sep 2014

The release of Frau im Mond, or as it was known in the USA and Britain, Woman on the Moon is one of the more curious of Fritz Lang’s films from the pre-Hollywood career. At just under 3 hours it is a very long grind getting through with really only the middle section of the film of any real interest. The film is more melodrama with some science fact, some theory, science-fiction and a liberal smattering of silliness for the last half. Frau im Mond fell in between some of Lang’s most impressive films, such as the seminal pre-1950s science-fiction films, Metropolis (1926), Spies (1928) and M (1931) and was to be the director’s last silent film. As much a classic science-fiction it is, Metropolis was also a film with a good deal of kitsch melodrama.

It’s not until about halfway through the film that we actually get to the meat of the matter with the rocket launch itself. The film begins with Professor Manfeldt (Klaus Pohl) recollecting being laughed at by his peers for his theories on how to send man to the moon with the added attraction of there being large gold deposits there. For many years Manfeldt goes unrecognised for his ideas until he comes across a young scientist and engineer called Wolf Helius (Willy Fritsch) who believes in Manfeldt’s ideas and the pair begin designing a rocket ship together. Helius takes on a couple of assistants, including an assistant called Friede (Gerda Maurus) who he falls for but happens to be engaged to one of the other assistants. Also getting involved is a corrupt American capitalist called Turner (Fritz Rasp). On the day of the launch itself Lang goes into a good deal of detail about how the rocket will travel to the moon, its launch and the landing. For this Lang hired the services of two of Germany’s leading rocket scientists, Hermann Oberth, Rudolf Nebel and a young 18-year-old Wernher Von Braun who would later go on to design the V2 ballistic rocket bomb, one of Hitler’s super weapons of World War II before being whisked away by the American’s at the end of the war to design the rockets for NASA’s Apollo rockets. It was these rockets from Braun that eventually led to man landing on the moon. In addition the countdown too, “10…9…8…” was also a detail from the film that would pre-empt the NASA countdown and is said to be taken directly from this film on Braun’s recommendation. UFA’s Babelsberg Studios outside of Berlin through much of its budgets into the sets and even experimented with the first liquid fuel rockets.

Once on the moon scientific fact reverts to melodrama and a dropping of any scientific plausibility. For not only is there water and gold on the moon but there is also air which means that the ‘astronauts’ are not required to wear any kind of space suit. Once on the moon the story turns into a typical German mountain film (a popular genre film in the Fatherland) of the type Leni Riefenstahl would act in. Lang was a director renowned for perfection and over filming his films. Made by UFA studios, who made most of Lang’s films they certainly had the budget to throw at a Lang film, but was the end result worth it? The film is difficult to work through and perhaps the best way to view it would be through a couple of sittings rather than in one go. As already mentioned the film is very melodramatic with some requisite melodramatic over acting. Where the film is at its strongest is with the design of the rocket itself, the launch and some of the scientific explanations. The interior of the rocket, while minimal is also interestingly impressive with straps aplenty with the ship’s crew having to use them to stop them from floating off. The launch, with the shape of the rocket and the gantry scaffolding is very similar to those launched by NASA to get man to the moon. This prompted Hitler to ban the film from being shown after 1937 in case the Allies took any ideas from his rocket scientists.

Less science-fiction than it is melodrama with some scientific ideas the extras on the disc includes the usual quality booklet one would expect from Eureka! with essays and a 15 minute German documentary about the films science fact which is one of the best parts of the disc. The quality of the image is typically sharper and even has an additional 10 or so minutes from the previous Eureka! release of the film.

Chris Hick