(Flash Review)An early example of an intricate spy story with the stunning Lang cinematography. Telling an intricate spy tale in the silent era did make it a little tricky to follow all the moving parts for me. Yet there was good character development and it felt like a proper spy movie with deception/double crossing, political influences and pressures as well as a shrewd and powerful bad guy. Mix in a romantic spy angle, is it love or a set up, and end with a really exciting final act and you have a winner.

"Spione" or "Spies" is another Fritz Lang silent film from over 85 years ago. It is of course as always with him still in black-and-white and runs for no less than 145 minutes. At least, this applies to the version I watched. Maybe yours is different as there are, as always with these old films, many different versions out there, most of them restored. The cast includes several fairly famous actors from other pretty well-known silent film classics, such as Rudolf Klein-Rogge. The novel here came from Lang's longtime companion Thea von Harbou and the 2 also came up with the script. But only Lang directed as always.I must say I was a bit disappointed with this one. It has a couple good moments, but the material is not as good in quality to justify a quantity of almost 150 minutes. I like good spy movies, especially tense ones, but I cannot say this is one of them. Maybe it would have been at 100 minutes max. In any case, it would have been a lot better than this one here. I have seen several films of Lang and while I would not say it is his worst, it is also nowhere near his best. There are several sequences that drag a lot. As a result of all this, I cannot recommend the watch. Disappointing experience. Thumbs down.

Spione is a mixture of brilliance and stupidity. The camera-work was amazing and the same goes for the set. And the film has one of the greatest finale of all time.Spoilers Ahead!!! But then there are some really stupid scenes like when Haghi (the bad guy) shoots him self in the head but still talks and stands on his own to feet. And if Haghi was so powerful why didn't he just have No. 326 shot in the beginning in stead of waiting it out? And why should a spy working for the government help a women who has just shot a man, like he does for Sonya? And I have to say that the love story between No. 326 and Sonya was way too much over the top.Spoilers Finished!!! But don't misunderstand me. I think it was an fantastic film (8/10), better than Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler - Ein Bild der Zeit (1922). It was also interesting to see how much Bond has borrowed from it. It also reminded me of North by Northwest (1959) by Hitch. Not to mention Dr. Mabuse. I really felt like I was watching Dr. Mabuse no. II.I saw the Masters Of Cinema edition of the film (R2). The transfer is amazing. Extremely well done. I didn't care so much for the music though.

Before I watched Spies I wasn't aware it was a silent film, although with it being directed in Germany in the Twenties I probably should have figured that out. As a result, I was caught a little off-guard for the opening scenes, but you quickly get used to it, and it's quite surprising how little you miss dialogue in terms of plot progression, as lengthy conversations are neatly summed up in a few lines.That being said, if you don't have the patience for it (and unfortunately I don't), the silent dialogue prevents you from really engaging with the film, and to be honest, at two and a half hours, its absence is more than noticeable. The longer the film goes on (and let's face it, it does go on) the more frustrating the "conversations" become, as characters "talk" for around thirty seconds, only for the summaries to be a short sentence. While I appreciate that pacing contributes to the film's suspense, it does become ridiculous, and you're left to wonder why it's all taking so long. The silence also obviously hampers the acting, but they all appear to be types anyway (look out for the terrible moustaches), and the score doesn't really help much (the version I saw had one added by Donald Sosin), often sounding like some guy has had a bit too much fun with his keyboard (the car chase music is particularly bad).However, it is fantastically well set-up and shot, especially considering it is nearly eighty years old, and the stylistic influences on later directors such as Hitchcock are obvious. It is probably for this reason that it has stood the test of time. As a story it is also quite interesting and clever, it just suffers from some tedious pacing issues.So overall, if you have the patience and the two and a half hours, it's worth watching as it is well shot and has an interesting storyline. However, if you have little patience and a short attention span, you're likely to come away from Spies a little frustrated.