Fritz Lang, who was born in 1890 in Vienna, was a unique talent in movie history. After a series of expressionist masterpieces such as Die Nibelungen (1924) and Metropolis (1927) he directed the early sound picture M (1931) a crime movie about a child killer which established many of the conventions of the genre. Having great hatred of the Nazis and with Jewish ancestry he left for America in 1933, embarking on a prolific new career in Hollywood.

A range of films followed across various genres but the main emphasis was on film noir, where his taut direction was ideally suited to morally complex thrillers about innocence and guilt, law and order, mob violence, psychopathy, fate and irony. If Hitchcock generally focused on an innocent protagonist, Lang often did the opposite, creating many tough, brutal, tightly made thrillers which were also hugely entertaining.

His Hollywood masterpiece was undoubtedly The Big Heat (1953), one of the greatest thrillers ever made, The complex plot around gangsters involves a number of striking female characters, a morally duplicitous plot and one of the most famous scenes (think coffee) in film history.

A decade earlier, Lang had been more playful with the fatalistic The Woman in the Window (1944), a clever and ingenious narrative featuring the great Edward G Robinson in standout form. A brilliant murder melodrama rated as one of the best noirs ever made.

You Only Live Once (1937) is considered one of the first film noirs and stars Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney as a couple forced to go on the run when one of them is framed for murder.

Our screening of The Big Heat on 6 October will be preceded by a talk on Fritz Lang’s Life and Movies.