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[tab title="Movie Review"]

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Fritz Lang brought Woman in the Moon to life a mere two years after his most important film, Metropolis. It is a less ambitious adventure but still manages to break the established rules of the time period as it combines science-fiction with espionage and romance and delivers an exciting and modernized look at a moon shot. It was, using the astrophysics of the era, a state-of-the-art release, combining super-spies with real science. It is also Lang's final statement in the silent era.

Unfortunately, the first serious-minded science fiction movie is often overlooked. Well, not anymore. Kino Classics brings Woman in the Moon out of the shadows of Metropolis with their release of F. W. Murnau-Stiftung's 2K restoration of the film on blu-ray.

Written by screenwriter Thea van Harbou (also Lang's wife), Woman in the Moon is a tale of humanity's potential for achievement. It also – with scientific input from Hermann Oberth, one of the developers of the V2 rocket – serves as a cautionary tale concerned with casting doubts about violating moral codes for the sake of achievement.

Ramping up the espionage and melodrama first, Lang uses harsh lines and shadows for empathy as the narrative opens on the now-shamed Professor Mannfeldt (Klaus Pohl), laughed out of work by his belief that there is gold on the moon. He is visited in his draft-riddled dwelling by Helius (Willy Fritsch), an entrepreneur with a serious jones in his bones for space travel and his assistant Friede (Gerda Maurus), who is already set to marry his other assistant Windegger (Gustav von Wangenheim).

Little do these two men know that their dreams of fortune and glory are soon to be realized thanks to the ultimatum presented by The Man Who Calls Himself Walter Turner" (Fritz Rasp), an American businessman with shady ties to a cartel of spies. Through in an incredible amount of pulpy plundering – including a stowaway kid and his comic book collection – and you have the ingredients to Woman in the Moon.

Lang's final silent film is a fanciful trip to the moon with narrative twists and turns that, reminiscent of serial melodramas from the 1930s, seems to predict the direction our entertainment AND our destinations would go. The rocket in the movie launches from a pool of water. Research how water is used in today's launching of rockets. The novice explorers use several different parts of the ship to get to the moon and back. It's as we did it. And, finally, just watch in awe as the surface of the crater-wrecked moon literally rolls out in front of the divided space travelers. See how it brings them together; there is a poetry to this pulp.

Foretelling Germany's own wartime push into rocket-science, Woman in the Moon – banned by Nazi Germany – finally has its day in the sun.

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[tab title="Film Details"]

MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime: 95 mins
Director: Fritz Lang
Writer: Fritz Lang
Cast: Klaus Pohl, Willy Fritsch, Gustav von Wangenheim
Genre: Comedy | Sci-fi
Tagline: Woman in the Moon
Memorable Movie Quote: "If you should fall down those stairs again, I will not be there to catch you."
Distributor: Ufa Film Company
Official Site:
Release Date: February 6, 1931
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: February 23, 2016
Synopsis:A tenacious scientist blasts off for the moon in hopes of riches that may be found there.

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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - February 23, 2016
Screen Formats: 1.28:1
Subtitles: English
Audio: German: LPCM 2.0
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Single disc (1 BD)
Region Encoding: A

Digitally restored in HD from 35mm archival elements and accompanied by a piano score by Javier Perez de Azpeitia, Woman in the Moon on blu-ray is an exquisite release. This black-and-white feature is dense with stark shadows and – in spite of its age – manages to keep defined lines throughout. Digital artifacts are not problems here. Presented with the original German language art intertitles that were preserved as flash titles in the source material, the movie is literally new in almost every way.

Supplements:

Commentary:

• None

Special Features:

If the 2K restoration by F. W. Murnau-Stiftung wasn't enough for you to purchase Kino's release, then the fascinating 14-minute documentary covering the making of the movie isn't either.

• Woman in the Moon: The First Scientific Science Fiction Film (14 min)

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