[go: up one dir, main page]

    Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsEmmysSan Diego Comic-ConSummer Watch GuideToronto Int'l Film FestivalIMDb Stars to WatchSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayMost popular celebsCelebrity news
    Help centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign in
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Les araignées - Le lac d'or

Original title: Die Spinnen, 1. Teil - Der Goldene See
  • 1919
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 21m
IMDb RATING
6.5/10
1.6K
YOUR RATING
Les araignées - Le lac d'or (1919)
AdventureDramaWestern

Kay Hoog finds a message that indicates that some Incas are still alive, but the secret organisation "Die Spinnen" wants the Incas' gold....Kay Hoog finds a message that indicates that some Incas are still alive, but the secret organisation "Die Spinnen" wants the Incas' gold....Kay Hoog finds a message that indicates that some Incas are still alive, but the secret organisation "Die Spinnen" wants the Incas' gold....

  • Director
    • Fritz Lang
  • Writer
    • Fritz Lang
  • Stars
    • Carl de Vogt
    • Lil Dagover
    • Ressel Orla
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.5/10
    1.6K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Fritz Lang
    • Writer
      • Fritz Lang
    • Stars
      • Carl de Vogt
      • Lil Dagover
      • Ressel Orla
    • 17User reviews
    • 23Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 nomination total

    Photos3

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster

    Top cast13

    Edit
    Carl de Vogt
    Carl de Vogt
    • Kay Hoog
    Lil Dagover
    Lil Dagover
    • Sonnenpriesterin Naela
    Ressel Orla
    Ressel Orla
    • Lio Sha
    Georg John
    Georg John
    • Dr. Telphas
    Bruno Lettinger
    • Diamantenkönig John Terry
    Edgar Pauly
    • Vierfinger-John
    Paul Morgan
    Paul Morgan
    • Diamantenexperte
    Meinhart Maur
    • Bücherwurm
    Friedrich Kühne
    Friedrich Kühne
    • All-Hab-Mah
    Paul Biensfeldt
    Gilda Langer
    Gilda Langer
    Harry Frank
    Harry Frank
    Hans Lanser-Ludolff
    • Partygast im Klub
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Fritz Lang
    • Writer
      • Fritz Lang
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews17

    6.51.5K
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    7AlsExGal

    Earliest surviving film from director Fritz Lang...

    This serial-esque action epic is told in two parts. In the first part, "The Golden Lake", man-of-action Kay Hoog (Carl de Vogt) heads for South America to look for a secret city of Incas living in temples much as they did centuries ago. They have a Harvard professor prisoner, and are also sitting atop a huge gold mine. Kay is challenged in his quest by the Spiders, a secret multi-national criminal organization. Their chief agent Lio Sha (Ressel Orla) has the hots for Hoog, but she won't let that get in her way of taking the gold for her gang. Kay makes cute with Inca priestess Naela (Lil Dagover), which really peeves Lio Sha. In the second part, "The Diamond Ship", Kay Hoog is once again racing against the Spiders, this time in search of the Buddha diamond, a fabulous gem that is foretold to be the great emancipator of Asia from the control of the West.

    There's a lot going here, with secret societies, hidden cities, cowboys, pirates, guys dressed like ninjas, a samurai, safecrackers in top hats and domino masks, human sacrifice, clairvoyants, hot air balloon rides, and much more. Despite the 137 minute running time, I was rarely bored, although the first half is much better than the second. It also ends rather abruptly, as this was originally intended to be quickly followed up by another 2-hour, 2-part installment in the war between Hoog and the Spiders, but that never got made. Instead, Lang was inspired to bring Mabuse to the screen, and the rest is history.

    Forgive me for reviewing both episodes together, but things just fit together better in this format.
    Athanatos

    Immature Lang

    A surprisingly weak film. The pacing is haphazard. The special effects are ineffectual. It's hard to believe that these pitiful sets were from the set designer for The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. The actors use guns the way that inexperienced toddlers might. And the Americans, Peruvians, and Inca all look very, very German. This film is only for the compleatist, desiring to view all of the films of Fritz Lang or of this genre. Don't come here for entertainment.
    6JoeytheBrit

    The Spiders - The Golden Lake review

    An early adventure movie from Fritz Lang featuring Kay Hoog, a dashing adventurer who bears more than a passing resemblance to Indiana Jones, and who was originally to be the hero of a series of four movies, only two of which were ever made. Hoog, as played by Carl de Vogt, is something of a solemn character lacking in dynamism, but he's locked in a pleasingly involving battle with the sinister Die Spinnen organisation in his search for a hoard of Inca gold. The film takes itself a little too seriously on occasion for what is essentially a Boys Own story, but Lang keeps it clipping along at a fast enough pace to keep his audience entertained.
    Snow Leopard

    Entertaining Adventure Story With Imaginative Settings & Visuals

    This first episode of Fritz Lang's "The Spiders" is an entertaining adventure story, and it is particularly notable for its imaginative settings and visuals, and for the way that each sequence leads smoothly into the next. The story is far-fetched, of course, but Lang tells it quite well, and it makes for enjoyable viewing.

    The basic setup of the sinister organization of "Spiders" involves some of the themes that Lang used in more detailed form in his Dr. Mabuse movies. Here, the story is strictly for entertainment purposes, and as such it works well. Ressel Orla is suitably elegant as the leader of the "Spiders", and she usually makes the best of her opportunities.

    The opening message-in-a-bottle scene sets the tone, establishing tension and mystery right away. From there, Lang builds up the story nicely, as the characters learn about the hidden treasure and compete with each other and with other adversaries to find it. His style here is similar to that in some of the best of contemporary action movies, such as the Indiana Jones films. Most of the scenes work well in themselves, and once it gets going, each scene also moves the story ahead immediately to the next scene, without letting you pause for breath.

    Lil Dagover also adds a lot in her role as the priestess. Carl de Vogt is adequate as the hero Hoog, but he does not have a lot of presence or charisma, and most of the energy level in the characters comes from the female leads.

    This episode got "The Spiders" off to a good start, and it is the best of the two segments that Lang actually filmed. It does not have the deep themes found in Lang's best movies, but as entertainment it works quite well.
    6Steffi_P

    "The golden treasures of the ancient Incas are far more inviting"

    In 1919 Fritz Lang passed up the opportunity to direct the now better-known Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, arguably the first German Expressionist Film, in order to make this apparently lightweight and simplistic adventure yarn. This is perhaps a surprise for those who see Lang as obsessed with deep and dark psychological studies but, in truth, Lang had a passion for easygoing comic book fare. Here Lang gets to indulge an action-adventure streak that carries through his work right up to his Indian diptych of 1959.

    It has to be said, the story of The Spiders' is paper-thin. Lang would construct far stronger plot lines in his collaborations with Thea von Harbou, but he penned this one on his own. His approach to storytelling is almost childlike, full of bizarre turns and constantly changing location and pace, as if to cram in as many ideas as possible. Yes, it's altogether flimsy and lacking in any depth, but it barely matters when the plot functions largely as an excuse for leading onto the next action set piece. It actually also occurred to me that Kay Hoog abandoning his yacht race to embark on a search for treasure might be a tongue-in-cheek reference to Lang's rejection of the Caligari project. Unlikely, but it would be very apt.

    As to Fritz Lang's abilities as a filmmaker, well, he had a fair way to go still in terms of grasping the form. In terms of staging action he follows the parallel editing techniques of DW Griffith. That's not a bad thing in itself, it's just that sometimes there's not enough correlation between the individual shots, and it gets a bit confusing as to where everyone is in relation to each other. Take for example the opening scene where an Inca stalks an explorer. We can infer that they are wandering around on the same cliff edge, but we don't really sense the danger the hunted man is in. Lang could have solved this by throwing in a point-of-view shot of the Inca looking down at the explorer or, better still, have the Inca appear in the frame behind and above him in a long shot. It's as if Lang knows what the script demands, but can't visualise the finished product and isn't experienced enough to know what will and won't work.

    What is distinctive about The Spiders however, and what makes it recognisable as one of Lang's, is its use of space. Lang trained as an architect at one point in his youth, and this is reflected in his shot composition. The sets here were designed by Hermann Warm, and they are very impressive so Lang was almost obliged to show them off, but it's the way he shoots them and the actors within them that is unique to him. While they are not as stark and stylised as the very typically Langian sets of the Dr Mabuse films or Metropolis, they are used in the same way. Lang often shows characters dwarfed in massive rooms, even when normal film convention would demand a mid-shot. He also likes to form geometric patterns in his shots, often with converging or criss-crossing diagonals. In fact, so good is Lang at showing off the architecture in The Spiders, it's actually to the detriment of the actors. He hasn't yet learnt how to focus our attention on the most important points of action.

    For all its flaws, The Spiders can be enjoyed as the pure and simple adventure flick that it is at heart – leaping from espionage to western to human sacrifice at the drop of a hat. It's very much in the tradition of Indiana Jones or the Tintin books (in fact it may well have been a direct influence on Prisoners of the Sun). The only trouble is there are far betters books and films in that tradition, so perhaps this is really one for Fritz Lang completists only.

    More like this

    Les araignées - Le cargo d'esclaves
    6.1
    Les araignées - Le cargo d'esclaves
    Les Trois Lumières
    7.6
    Les Trois Lumières
    L'image vagabonde
    5.9
    L'image vagabonde
    Les espions
    7.5
    Les espions
    Madame Butterfly
    5.6
    Madame Butterfly
    Le Dr. Mabuse
    7.8
    Le Dr. Mabuse
    Les Nibelungen : La Mort de Siegfried
    8.1
    Les Nibelungen : La Mort de Siegfried
    La femme sur la lune
    7.3
    La femme sur la lune
    Le métis
    6.8
    Le métis
    Les Nibelungen : La Vengeance de Kriemhild
    7.9
    Les Nibelungen : La Vengeance de Kriemhild
    Der Herr der Liebe
    5.8
    Der Herr der Liebe
    Quatre hommes pour une femme
    5.9
    Quatre hommes pour une femme

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Originally planned as a series of four films. The last two parts not made were titled 'Um Asiens Kaiserkrone' (part 3) and 'Im Spinnennetz' (part 4).
    • Connections
      Edited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: Une histoire seule (1989)

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 5, 1920 (Denmark)
    • Country of origin
      • Germany
    • Language
      • German
    • Also known as
      • The Spiders - Episode 1: The Golden Sea
    • Filming locations
      • Decla Lot, Tierpark Hagenbeck, Hamburg, Germany
    • Production companies
      • Decla-Bioscop AG
      • Decla-Film-Gesellschaft Holz & Co.
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 21m(81 min)
    • Sound mix
      • Silent
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.33 : 1

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb App
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.