50 free Fritz Lang trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Fritz Lang built the first great science-fiction city, invented the rocket-launch countdown, and gave the serial-killer movie its blueprint, all before he fled Nazi Germany. This Fritz Lang trivia quiz spans his whole five-decade career: the Viennese engineering student wounded in the First World War, the Weimar epics written with Thea von Harbou, Peter Lorre whistling Grieg in M, the banned Testament of Dr. Mabuse, and the Hollywood years that produced Fury, Scarlet Street and The Big Heat. Expect the famous stories (the Goebbels meeting, the flooded workers' city, the Buenos Aires print of Metropolis) alongside details only serious film buffs know. Questions range from easy to expert, and every answer is verified and cited to its reference page. If you enjoy this quiz, try our other classic cinema and director quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city was Fritz Lang born in 1890?
Vienna
His father was an architect and construction-company manager; Lang briefly studied civil engineering before switching to art.
Q 02In what year was Lang's futuristic epic Metropolis released?
1927
It went badly over budget, hurting UFA, and is now the first film ever inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World register.
Q 03What nickname did the British Film Institute give Lang?
Master of Darkness
His German films established the psychological conflict, paranoia and moral ambiguity later attributed to film noir.
Q 04Which Lang film pioneered the rocket-launch countdown?
Woman in the Moon
The 1929 film also showed a multi-stage rocket and a launch pad with the rocket rolled upright against a tall building.
Q 05Which eye did Lang lose the sight of during World War I?
Right
Wounded four times fighting in Russia and Romania, he began writing plays and scenarios during his convalescence.
Q 06With what rank was Lang discharged from the Austrian army in 1918?
Lieutenant
He then acted briefly in Viennese theatre before Erich Pommer's Decla Film hired him as a writer in Berlin.
Q 07How did Lang's first wife, Elisabeth Rosenthal, die in 1920?
A gunshot wound in their bathtub
The shot came from Lang's wartime Browning revolver; he and Thea von Harbou said she shot herself and a charge of failing to render aid was dropped.
Q 08Which writer co-wrote every Lang film from 1920 to 1933 and became his second wife?
Thea von Harbou
She stayed in Germany when he left, and later wrote the story he filmed as his 'Indian Epic' in the late 1950s.
Q 09How long did the original two-part Dr. Mabuse the Gambler run?
Over four hours
It was the first of a Mabuse trilogy; Die Nibelungen, two years later, ran five hours.
Q 10Which studio did Lang start work at as a director?
UFA
He alternated art films such as Der Müde Tod with popular thrillers like Die Spinnen, blending Expressionism with entertainment.
Q 11Which was Lang's first sound film?
M
Independent producer Seymour Nebenzahl hired him to make it for Nero-Film in 1931; Lang regarded it as his magnum opus.
Q 12Which actor played the child murderer in M, his first starring role?
Peter Lorre
Lang allegedly threw him down a flight of stairs so he would look properly battered in the final scene.
Q 13Which piece does the killer in M compulsively whistle?
In the Hall of the Mountain King
The Grieg leitmotif was borrowed from opera; Lorre could not whistle, so Lang dubbed it himself.
Q 21How many features did Lang make during his 20-year Hollywood career?
22
He worked at every major studio and occasionally produced independently; he became a US citizen in 1939.
Q 22Which star played a man nearly lynched in Lang's first Hollywood film, Fury (1936)?
Spencer Tracy
Lang was not allowed to depict Black victims of lynching or criticise racism, which had been his original intention.
Q 23How many Hollywood films with explicitly anti-Nazi themes did Lang make?
Four
Man Hunt, Hangmen Also Die!, Ministry of Fear and Cloak and Dagger; he also helped found the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League.
Q 14What does the letter chalked onto the killer's coat in M stand for?
Mörder, meaning murderer
A beggar marks his palm, pretends to trip and bumps into him, leaving the mark on the back of his overcoat.
Q 15How many days did Lang spend inside a mental institution researching M?
Eight
He met several child murderers there, including Peter Kürten, and used real criminals as extras; 25 cast members were arrested during the shoot.
Q 16On which real Berlin police official was M's Inspector Karl Lohmann based?
Ernst Gennat
Otto Wernicke played Lohmann and reprised the role in The Testament of Dr. Mabuse.
Q 17Which Lang film did the Nazi regime ban in March 1933?
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Lang had put Nazi phrases in the villain's mouth; Goebbels said it showed a dedicated group could overthrow any state by violence.
Q 18According to Lang, what did Goebbels offer him at their 1933 meeting?
Head of the UFA studio
Lang claimed he decided to flee to Paris that very day, though his passport shows he travelled in and out of Germany through 1933.
Q 19On what date did Lang leave Berlin for good?
July 31, 1933
That was four months after his Goebbels meeting; he had divorced von Harbou, who stayed behind, earlier that year.
Q 20Lang's only French film, Liliom, was adapted from a play by which writer?
Ferenc Molnár
Charles Boyer starred; the same play was later the basis for the musical Carousel.
Q 24Which pair starred in Lang's noirs The Woman in the Window and Scarlet Street?
Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett
Scarlet Street (1945) is regarded as a central film in the noir canon.
Q 25Which 1953 Lang police drama is known for its brutality?
The Big Heat
It was added to the National Film Registry in 2011.
Q 26Who plays Detective Dave Bannion in The Big Heat?
Glenn Ford
Producer Jerry Wald had originally wanted Paul Muni, George Raft or Edward G. Robinson for the role.
Q 27What does Lee Marvin's gangster throw in Gloria Grahame's face in The Big Heat?
Boiling coffee
Columbia had wanted Marilyn Monroe for the part but balked at the loan fee Fox demanded, so Grahame was cast.
Q 28In which fictional city is The Big Heat set?
Kenport
William P. McGivern's source serial in The Saturday Evening Post had been set in Philadelphia.
Q 29Which producer lured Lang back to West Germany for his 'Indian Epic' in the late 1950s?
Artur Brauner
The two-part film revived a Thea von Harbou story Lang had developed in the 1920s but Joe May had directed.
Q 30What was Lang's final film as director?
The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse
He was approaching blindness during the 1960 production; Brauner made further Mabuse sequels without him.