Les araignées - Le cargo d'esclaves

The first Spiders movie was a relatively small and focused adventure. The second is bigger and far less focused, moving from one to location to the next in an amorphous mystery that doesn't so much escalate with increasing stakes but just kind of lurches from one thing to the next. There had been planned two more episodes in the Spiders saga, but they got canceled. I can't find reasoning for it, but I would imagine it to be simply financial. They didn't make the kind of money needed to recoup investments, and Fritz Lang went off to make smaller dramas for a couple of years. I suppose the German appetite for adventure stories wasn't that deep at the time.

Kay Hoog (Carl de Vogt) is out for vengeance against the criminal enterprise The Spiders and, in particular, one of their members Lio Sha (Ressel Orla) after Sha killed Hay's love at the end of the previous episode. The Spiders are on the move, though. They are determined to find a special diamond, formed in a way that resembles Buddha that, if used correctly, will give them control of all of Asia. There's an unexplored set of ideas about imperialism here with the Spiders trying to overturn one imperialistic regime to replace their own while Kay does not seem to concern himself too much with the question at all. It's an interesting beginning of subtext that the movie is completely unconcerned with mining.

Anyway, Kay has to pursue the Spiders into an underground Chinatown in San Francisco (kind of a proto-Big Trouble in Little China) where he gets clues and stows aboard a Spider ship (the eponymous diamond ship) that is headed towards South America. They receive a telegraph from Fourfinger John (Edgar Pauly) that John Terry (Rudolf Lettinger) has the diamond in his possession due to his relationship with the man who discovered it hundreds of years before. Kay finds this information out by sneaking out of a shipping box at night, complete with silly looking ninja-like outfit, and reads the telegraph message. In England, the Spiders kidnap Terry's daughter Ellen (Thea Zander) as leverage to get Terry to reveal to them the location of the diamond. Kay escapes the ship, connects with Terry, and together they discover that it is probably hidden in a secret treasure cave on the Falkland Islands. So...the chase moves again to the Falklands for the final confrontation.

I have nothing against globe trotting adventures, but the structure has to be there to support the move from one place to the next. It isn't helped by the fact that most of what we see are simply sets that could be pretty much anywhere. We're not even getting an exciting moment on Big Ben or something. It's just a room in England. The mystery itself feels really amorphous, like the people involved are bumbling from one thing to the next, spinning their wheels and getting no closer for most of the film. The trip down to Chinatown is a great example. It gets Kay on the boat, but we get no advancement in the mystery. That advancement, the notice that Terry may know where the treasure is, comes while they're going towards South America, is surprisingly thin. It doesn't feel like an advancement, and Terry not knowing is unsatisfying as well. The advancements we do get are so small that it feels more like the movie is just elongating the action to fill out the runtime.

That being said, it's not a complete slog. At only 104 minutes, all this action does keep the thing moving. The brisk pace doesn't let the film get too bogged down in the meaningless detail of the mystery. The few bits of action are clearly filmed, and the production design is nice, though not as fun or impressive as the Incan city set in the first film or the Japanese city in Harakiri.

This isn't exactly the worst film I've ever seen, but it is a surprisingly ineffective mystery and thriller. It feels like a young filmmaker getting ambitious and working too quickly to iron out important narrative details.

As with many serials, the end may just be the beginning. See part two "The Diamond Ship".

In part, two Kay Hoog who previously captured the secret of the Diamond Ship from the mysterious cabal "The spiders" has sworn revenge on Lio Sha for transgressions made in part one.

While the Spiders seek a diamond-shaped while the head of Buddha for their nefarious purposes. Kay seeks to spoil their plot. Again we get to go to exotic places leading to the Falkland Islands. Fortunately this time enough loose ends are sufficiently wrapped up so we do not have to wait for part three (which will never come.)

This is the second part of a planned quartet of films, which renowned director Fritz Lang chose to make in preference to the better-known Cabinet of Dr Caligari. Since his first two films are lost, these adventure flicks (which he also wrote) are the earliest glimpses we can see of his budding style. Please refer also to my comment on part one of The Spiders for more information and analysis.

The first part of The Spiders had a plot that was flimsy and flexible enough to make any excuse for the next action set piece. Part two slows things down to a more realistic pace, and yet the plot is equally thin and literally holey. Whereas part one more or less continuously followed the exploits of hero Kay Hoog, part two is filled with digressions and minor characters, and is occasionally hard to follow. There are also some inexplicable gaps where a title card replaces action – for example when Hoog is captured in the underground city, we are told this rather than shown it. Missing footage perhaps, although there is nothing to suggest this is the case. As in part one, there is a great variety of locations, and Lang's imagination is constantly throwing up new ideas, but unlike the first part the action sequences are few and far between.

Turning now from story to technical style, part two is largely set in interiors, which is all the better for Lang to get the angles right. You can see evidence of that angular, impersonal approach to shot composition that is there in all his pictures, even the B-movies he made in the 50s. Often, the arrangements appear to be simply for aesthetic taste, but here and there is method and meaning to it. Lang likes to show off the height or depth of an interior set, making his characters appear small. In many scenes the environment seems to be hemming the actors in and dictating their movements. Towards the end he shows the spider gang in small rooms with not much space between the camera and the back wall, emphasising their trapped position.

But Lang's growing confidence with space is not enough to save The Diamond Ship. The first picture, in spite of its flaws, had a certain charm in its innocent and pure adventure. The sequel has all of the flaws and none of the charm.

This episode is a worthy continuation in the series. As in the first part there is a lot of action. The search is on for the Buddha shaped diamond. This is the sort of film that inspired Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Die Spinnen 2.Teil:Das Brillantenschiff/Spiders part 2:The Diamond Ship(1920) is an entertaining sequel with much intrigue, suspense, and cliff hangers. I enjoyed this movie more than Part One because of the climatic confrontation between the hero of the film and Lio Sha. Lio Sha is a villain much like the famous Irma Vep of Les Vampires. Fritz Lang was still developing his style when he directed Spider Part(1920) so the genius of Lang is not evident yet. Another film that is a collector's item for fans of Fritz Lang and old silent pictures. Precusor to the director's Dr. Mabuse films and his World War 2 themed features.