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| Kay Hoog is way cooler than you |
Starring Carl de Vogt, Ressel Orla, Georg John
Produced by Decla-Bioscop AG
Kay Hoog is the handsomest, most awesome man in the world.
He's Indiana Jones. He's James Bond. He's got a dash of Chuck Norris. He's the ultimate adventurer playboy.
During the party that opens the action, all of the guests are wondering when Kay Hoog is going to arrive. Will he win the big yacht race against Japan tomorrow?
Hoog arrives with a message in a bottle. It's from a missing professor with a map to an Incan city of gold in Peru. He's not racing any yachts tomorrow. He's got a treasure to find. If any of the attendees hoping to see a boat race are put out, they are not letting on. Every man at the party wants to be him and every woman wants to be with him.
All except one, that is. Lio Sha leads the mysterious Spiders who also have designs on the Incan gold. They break into Hoog's mansion and steal the map. That does not sit well with our hero. He asks a friend to take him to Peru by balloon and parachutes from the basket. You get the sense he travels by balloon not because it makes sense, but because he needs to choose the most dangerous path. Hoog walks into the bad guys' lair and steals back his map (and another treasure map). A chase ensues, but of course our lead gets away. He's Kay Hoog!
Ultimately, Hoog and the Spiders descend upon the Incan city. Hoog rescues a priestess from a snake and she is immediately smitten. Why? Because he's Kay Hoog. That's why.
Sha is captured and about to be sacrificed, but Hoog saves her. Our hero escapes the city with his priestess, while Sha and the Spiders try to get the gold. But could a curse await the greedy, shadowy organization?
Spiders, Part 1 is silly, but a ton of fun. Lang keeps the action moving throughout, never allowing his camera to stay on one scene to long. Sometimes his editing is too frenetic and, particularly during the film's climactic showdown, you lose track of who is who.
Still, as a light adventure romp this was very entertaining. None of the actors have much to do, but that somehow seems okay. The film ends on a cliffhanger of sorts that leads to Part 2, released in 1920 (Spiders was originally to be a four part series, but only the first two were made).
Lang is a director on my shame list so I am anxious to see more of his work. There's a lot of promise here, but the execution is uneven. That said, Spiders may have been my most fun experience watching a 100 Years film yet.
*** out of *****
Watched on Netflix Watch Instantly
Photo from The Silent Era
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