Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge (1924)

Originally posted to Facebook on 10/5/2017

Our fourth film from 1924 was Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge, the follow-up to Siegfried, again directed by Fritz Lang and written by Thea von Harbou. It takes place shortly after the previous movie, and stars Margarete Schön as Kriemhild. Most of the other cast also carries over from the previous movie, including Theodor Loos as her brother King Gunther, and Hans Adalbert Schlettow as his advisor Hagen Tronje. One addition to the cast is Attila the Hun, played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge, who also played the title character in Dr. Mabuse. Early in the film Kriemhild agrees to marry Attila, with the intent of using him to seek her revenge. Once in his kingdom, she conspires to invite her brother and his retinue to visit. The conflict escalates once they arrive, and Gunther and Hagen Tronje are eventually besieged, surrounded in a dining hall by Attila's army. This film is much more focused and intense than the previous film -- there are no dragons or subterranean treasure hordes -- and, I think, it is better for that single-mindedness. Schön does not give a particularly varied performance, but she is a strong and forceful presence, unlike the previous film where she largely played a more supporting role to Siegried. It must be said too, that, unlike the previous film, in which Siegfried was represented as more or less heroic, in this film Kriemhild is depicted as obsessed and borderline unbalanced; she is clearly the protagonist, but she is not shown entirely sympathetically.

The movie does, though, have some of the same questionable markers of German nationalism as the previous film. The Huns, for instance, are portrayed as essentially subhuman, which is probably the film's deepest flaw. Klein-Rogge, in fact, wears so much make-up for his depiction of Attila that I did not recognize him until I looked the movie up later on IMDB.

For our next film we return to 1922, for our sixth and final film from that year: When Knighthood was in Flower, our first film starring Marion Davies. We watched this one out of order because it was recently restored using a kickstarter campaign, and did not arrive until we had finished all of the other 1922 films (and the 1923 films as well.) The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT.