Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast

A thoroughly researched examination of the life of the renowned director not only looks at the great volume of Lang's work, but also at his personal life, including the question of whether or not he murdered his first wife.

Fritz Lang directed Metropolis, M, Liliom, Fury, The Big Heat, and many other of the cinema's enduring masterpieces. But in Patrick McGilligan's assessment, Lang "lived his life--and cultivated his legend--with the glinted eyes of a maniac." Until his death in 1976, Lang carefully manipulated the events of his past, omitting his first wife's mysterious death, his tyrannical treatment of his associates, and his many liaisons with famous women. In this superbly researched and riveting biography, McGilligan peels Lang's autobiographical fictions to reveal the facts about these omissions as well as his flirtation with Nazism, his alleged Communist affiliations, his sadistic tendencies on the set, and his unparalleled cinematic genius.