Destiny (film)

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Destiny
DVD cover
Directed by	Fritz Lang
Produced by	Erich Pommer
Written by	Thea von Harbou Fritz Lang
Starring	Lil Dagover Walter Janssen Bernhard Goetzke Rudolf Klein-Rogge Hans Sternberg Erich Pabst
Cinematography	Bruno Mondi Erich Nitzschmann Herrmann Saalfrank Bruno Timm Fritz Arno Wagner
Distributed by	Decla-Bioscop
Release date(s)	October 6, 1921
Running time	105 minutes (7569 feet)
Country	Germany
Language	Silent film German intertitles
Preceded by	Four Around a Woman
Followed by	Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler
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Destiny, or in original German, Der müde Tod is a 1921 silent film directed in Germany by Fritz Lang. The German language title literally means Weary Death (in the sense of personified Death); the film was originally released in the United States as Behind the Wall and in the United Kingdom as Destiny, the title under which it has been reissued on DVD . The film, rich in special effects, is structured as a frame tale with three stories within the story.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In the expressionistic frame story, in which human lives are each represented by a candle, Death grants a woman three chances to save her lover, if love can triumph over death. The three stories within the story each occur in a setting that is nominally historic, but really in the realm of fantasy: an adventure tale with a Persian setting out of the Arabian Nights, a Renaissance Venetian romance, and a largely comic story set in China.

Douglas Fairbanks purchased the American rights, to delay its general American release while he copied the effects of the Persian segment for his 1924 The Thief of Baghdad. [1]