Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924)

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

Fritz Lang (writer)
Thea von Harbou (writer)

Release Date:

1924 (Poland)

Genre:

Fantasy | Drama | Adventure

Plot:

Siegfried, son of King Sigmund, hears of the beautiful sister of Gunter, King of Worms, Kriemhild. On his way to Worms...

Plot Keywords:

King | Dragon | Spear | Mask | Blood

Cast

Gertrud Arnold	...	Koenigin Ute
Margarete Schön	...	Kriemhild
Hanna Ralph	...	Brunhild
Paul Richter	...	Siegfried
Theodor Loos	...	Koenig Gunther
Hans Carl Mueller	...	Gernot
Erwin Biswanger	...	Giselher
Bernhard Goetzke	...	Volker von Alzey
Hans Adalbert Schlettow	...	Hagen Tronje
Hardy von Francois	...	Dankwart
Georg John	...	Mime, der Schmied / Alberich, der Nibelung
Frida Richard	...	Die Runenmagd
Yuri Yurovsky	...	Der Priester (as Georg Jurowski)
Iris Roberts	...	Der Edelknabe
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Fritz Alberti	...	Dietrich von Bern
Grete Berger	...	Hunnenweib
Hubert Heinrich	...	Werbel
Rudolf Klein-Rogge	...	Koenig Etzel
Georg August Koch	...	Hildebrand
Rudolf Rittner	...	Ruediger von Bechlarn

Also Known As:

Die Nibelungen: Siegfrieds Tod (Germany)
Siegfried
Siegfried's Death
Siegfrieds Tod (Germany)

Runtime:

Canada:140 min | Germany:143 min (restored integral version) | Germany:97 min | USA:100 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Germany:o.Al. | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Berliner Union-Film Studio, Tempelhof, Berlin, Germany

Company:

Decla-Bioscop AG

Trivia:

The dragon in the film is not a miniature. It is a full-scale puppet 60 feet long.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ti piace Hitchcock? (2005) (TV)

A classic epic adventure

This film depicts the epic story of the rise and fall of the great German hero, Siegfried. It follows the classic pattern of the young hero who overcomes one challenge after another, only to be defeated in the end through his own weakness. Siegfried's early adventure, where he fights and slays the dragon, is masterfully filmed, with a special-effects monster that is amazingly sophisticated for its era. Further tests of his valour and cunning are required before he can marry the Burgundian princess, Kriemhilde; chief among these are assisting his future brother-in-law, Gunther, the King of Burgundy, to win the hand of the Amazon queen, Brunhild. Aided by a cloak of invisibility, Siegfried fixes the contests between Gunther and Brunhild to defeat the imperious queen and delivers her unwillingly to Gunther. This service ultimately leads to his downfall, however, as he eventually confides in Kriemhilde his duplicity and she betrays his secret to the outraged Brunhild, who then seeks his death. Despite being made in the midst of the Expressionist era of filmmaking in Germany, this movie is largely naturalistic in its sets and acting. The Burgundian court, as befits its artificial and ceremonious atmosphere, is depicted through angular and stiff sets and costumes, somewhat reminiscent of the expressionist style, but there are not the disturbing distortions seen in such classic films as "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari".