THE SPIDERS (1919/1920)

This is a two-part silent film, in the spirit if not the specifics of the matinee serial genre. Two more parts were planned, but director Fritz Lang went on to different projects. The first half, The Golden Sea, begins with an older man frantically climbing rocks on a shore, being chased by someone. He scribbles a note, puts it in a bottle, and tosses it into the sea before being shot in the back with an arrow. In San Francisco, playboy adventurer Kay Hoog, favored to win an upcoming yacht race, suddenly announces that he's dropping out after finding that bottle. The note, from a missing Harvard anthropologist, hints that he has found a secret Incan civilization. by a "golden sea," which is sitting on untold riches. It also notes that he is being held to be a human sacrifice to the sun god. Hoog starts an expedition, as does an underworld group, the Spiders, led by high society woman Lio Sha. Their name comes from their calling card, a dead tarantula left next to the body of its victims. Hoog heads to South America, racing to catch a ride with a hot air balloonist who will drop him over the secret land. But Lio Sha is in hot pursuit with a bunch of cowboys she has hired to help her. At the land of the Golden Sea, Hoog falls for Incan princess Naela when he saves her from a huge snake. When Lio Sha is captured and held for sacrifice, Naela, who is against the sacrifice ritual, and Hoog save her. They all escape without the gold but with their lives. But as far as Lio Sha, once a villain, always a villain, and when she realizes she cannot have Hoog for her own, she takes a deadly revenge.

The second half, The Diamond Ship, begins somewhat obscurely but soon settles into another treasure hunt that sets Hoog against Lio Sha and the Spiders, this time looking for a Buddah-shaped diamond that will supposedly (as in the Fu Manchu stories) allow its owner to bring the Asian empire back to its former glory. Diamond dealer John Terry is suspected of having the gem and the Spiders kidnap his daughter Ellen to force his hand. This half feels fairly slapdash; it wasn't always clear to me where we were or what was happening. Some scenes feel out of context and unrelated to the main narrative. But both halves are fairly fun and you can turn off your mind and follow the shenanigans. Carl de Vogt as Hoog (pictured) is a sturdy hero, and Ressel Orla is good as Lio Sha. There are secret passages, poisons, the use of "hypno-telepathy" by a yogi, and even pirates in a plot thread in the last half of the second movie. Two more nifty developments: Hoog discovers a secret underground city beneath Chinatown, and later fits out a large crate with books and an electric light so he can sneak his way onto a cargo ship. The Spiders themselves remain a fuzzy presence—we know they are run by a small cadre of rich people but they are never better defined than that. The obscurity of the plot and characters probably adds to the movie's occasional dreamlike feel. Though not actually a serial, this will appeal to serial fans. [Blu-ray]