Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Well, well... Even if you're a fervent admirer of Lang's silent films, this early one - the first part of a two-part unfinished four-part serial(!) - will leave you in doubt about Fritz's narrative skills. (His directorial skills aren't that evident either, but here and there one senses his talent for building up atmosphere.) The pic's just pure juvenile nonsense, which wouldn't be half as bad, were it not for the long ponderous stretches in between the childish action scenes.But the whole affair almost gets by on its amiable innocence.4 out of 10 Inca treasures

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.

In San Francisco, the sportsman Kay Hoog (Carl de Vogt) tells to the members of a club that he has found a message in a bottle with a map from a Harvard's professor telling about a treasure of an Inca lost civilization still alive. He decides to go to Peru to seek the gold. However, members of the secret criminal organization "The Spiders" leaded by Lio Sha (Ressel Orla) break in Kay's mansion during the night and steal the map. Kay Hoog travels to Peru, where he retrieves his map and a document about the Diamond Ship from The Spiders. Later he saves the Priestess of the Sun Naela (Lil Dagover) and brings her to San Francisco. However, The Spiders kill Naela and Kay Hoog promises revenge for the death of his love."Die Spinnen,1. Teil - Der Goldene See" is so far the weakest movie of the Master Fritz Lang that I have seen. The silly adventure is messy and pointless, with the (weak) hero going to the Inca civilization without supplies and returning engaged of their priestess that falls in love with him without any explanation. The Incas are destroyed by the criminals, and in the end I really did not like the story of this film. Anyway, Kay Hoog seems to be the source of inspiration of Indiana Jones. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "As Aranhas Parte 1 – O Lago Dourado" ("The Spiders Part 1 – The Golden Lake")

Whoever likened this one to RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK certainly knew whereof he spoke. He might, as well, have likened it to some of the adventures of the pulp heroes that followed. "Kay Hoog" reminds one more than a little of both Lamont Cranston (The Shadow) and Clark Savage (Doc Savage). (The Shadow, quintessential man of mystery- and the very first "Dark Knight"- was also thought to be one Kent Allard. If one were to take Savage's first name first and add to it the Kent, you end up with- voila- Clark Kent. Funny, innit?) Like Indiana Jones, Hoog isn't above pilfering the artifacts of an ancient civilization (though his thefts are often more blatant and less "charmingly roguish" than Jones's). Unfortunately, this two-parter is a far cry from subsequent serials (from any era) in terms of overall quality. One of the first indications that something is amiss vis a vis the cinematic storytelling is a scene where desperados on horseback, quite literally breathing down his neck, simply watch as Hoog escapes their clutches in a hot air balloon. Why they don't bother to shoot down the balloon is just one of the many movie-making mysteries that plague these two films.The second half of this two-parter is even worse than the first. Granted, this was one of the first ever serials and, as such, should be cut a bit of slack- but there are limits, even, to tolerance. (At one point, the capture of the hero is effected not on screen, but in the narration itself! Talk about cutting corners...) Fritz Lang happens to be one of the greatest filmmakers to ever make films; unfortunately for those of us who admire most of what he did, THE SPIDERS is a bitter pill indeed to swallow...