THEA VON HARBOU

Thea von Harbou was born in German in 1888. She is most famous as the screenwriter of "Metropolis", Fritz Lang's masterpiece. She was a German screenwriter in the 1920s, and she and Lang were married to other people when they met in 1920, but they both divorced and married each other the following year. They collaborated on "Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler", "Metropolis", "M", and also most of Lang's other best remembered movies of the 1920s and early 1930s. But in 1933, when Hitler became more powerful, von Harbou embraced his philosophies while Lang rejected them, and that caused them to divorce, and Lang fled to the U.S. In 1934, von Harbou wrote and directed "Elisabeth und der Narr", followed by "Hanneles Himmelfahrt", and these were the only two movies she directed, and both embraced Hitler's philosophies, which may help explain why they are so little known today! Of course, once he settled in Hollywood Lang directed the classic "Fury" in 1935, and many classic movies over the following years. At the end of World War II, von Harbou claimed that she had never been a supporter of Hitler's, which Lang vehemently denied. Von Harbou remained in Germany and wrote the screenplays for around 35 more movies. In 1954, one of her first movies from 1921, "Der mude Tod", was shown in Berlin and Von Harbou was at the premiere as the guest of honor, and she fell, passing away a few hours later at the age of 65. Oddly, in 1959, five years after her death, Lang directed "Journey to the Lost City", which was based on one of her novels! While her politics were awful, Thea von Harbou was perhaps the greatest screenwriter the cinema has ever known, and I highly recommend her films!