Overrated

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

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.

For having a relatively low budget, the film's style and overall art direction are immensely impressive.

When a woman's fiancé disappears, Death gives her three chances to save him from his fate.This is the sort of movie that made an impact in its own time. Douglas Fairbanks purchased the American rights, to delay its general American release while he copied the effects of the Persian segment for his 1924 "The Thief of Baghdad". Luis Bunuel has said this is the film that got him interested in movies, and apparently Alfred Hitchcock has praised it as well.I would not praise it quite on the level either of them did. It is not Fritz Lang's best film by a long shot, nor the best film of the German Expressionist era. But still worth seeing, if for no other reason than it is a Lang film, and stars Lil Dagover, arguably the greatest actress of the Weimar period.

Watched it on the big screen, big happiness. I expected music, but there was none, was watching it in complete silence except for the humming of the projector. And the mumbles of the old guy who talked to himself. It was a little unusual at first, but perfect and beautiful. Death takes the life of a young man, and his girl goes to heaven hell limbo whatever and there gets three chances to save his life, saving either one of three lives. Every one of these stories is set in a different historic age and that tickled my love for the costumed period pieces. First part is the 1001 Night Persia with some impressive action sequences, second is the renaissance Venice, the least interesting or innovative part of the film, and the third is the ancient China, a comic segment with innocent racist depiction of Chinese people, perfect special effects, flying carpet, miniature army, biggest sword ever and transfiguration spells. The closing sequence is somewhat intense. Sets are not as artistic as in Caligari, but more than in Nosferatu. To compare it with two other German expressionist films I watched. Special effects are impressive, better then in some films made even 40 years later. Bernhard Goetzke (Death) is brilliant, so scary, charismatic, constant. The girl is tepid, no skill nor sex appeal.

A young couple encounter Death in a country tavern while on a journey, and he claims the man. The man's young wife tracks Death down and pleads with him to return her husband to her. He promises to do so if she can prevent any one of three imminent deaths, each represented by a burning candle that has nearly burned out.The subject of death is a ripe one for the cinema, and probably the most famous example of a living person attempting to bargain with death is Bergman's The Seventh Seal, but this silent movie from Fritz Lang is possibly more accessible to the casual viewer. Death here is something of a sympathetic character - and he is a character rather than just a representation - slavishly following the laws laid down by God, but wishing for a release from his responsibilities. He's played here by Bernhard Goetzke, a hollow-cheeked man with searing eyes who certainly looks the part.All of the principle characters play multiple roles, perhaps to emphasise the inevitability of death for us all and the futility of attempting to escape it (or maybe to cut down on costs - who knows?) The film looks great, with some striking images and impressive sets. It's true that the film does drag a little in the second act in which three short stories are played out, taking the action away from the main story and thus bringing that part of the film to a screeching halt.Der Mude Tod is one of those films that will no doubt entrance lovers of silent or early German cinema but which is unlikely to convert many to the genre. Fritz Lang's direction is crisp and imaginative and there's something almost intangible about it that suggests a young director at the outset of his career.

Der Mude Tod (the German title is infinitely better than the generic Destiny) consists of three short stories and a bigger overarching one that bookends the film. The first title card reading "Some time at some place" sets the tone somewhere between myth and fantasy and the iconic appearance of a grim, black-clad Death only confirms that. When he claims the life of a young girl's lover, she travels to his lair to plead for him. His lair, a patch of land near a graveyard hidden from a titanic wall, is like a garden of death and when a huge door opens in the previously impenetrable wall the stairs mysteriously lead upwards.Even if Fritz Lang places his Hades up, the concept of a lover pleading to Death for the life of her beloved one is Orphic through and through. Death challenges the girl, each challenge being one of the three stories. All of them are tragic tales of unrequisite love and succeed even as they retread (by now) familiar ground. The second story's ironic finale is a treat even if the logic behind it is a bit shoddy.What really makes Der Mude Tod such a fascinating piece of silent cinema is the finale. Death gives a final chance for the girl to reclaim her lover - to bring him another soul in exchange before midnight. It is then through the small encounters the desperate girl has with an old pharmacist, a mangy beggar and two nagging old nurses that the movie offers those little pieces of insight into human nature that make every great film worth watching. The moral of the case here is that no matter how old, poor, ill and down-trodden one is, life is too precious to give away. A more melodramatic director would just have someone graciously offer the girl his life. Lang instead offers us the understanding that "life is like this!".Der Mude Tod would have been good enough as it is but it's also a treat to look at. The sets and costumes are all quality work, expressionistic enough to be felt but not exaggerated to the point of distracting from the story. Suffice to say this is really a must-see for fans of silent cinema.