In perhaps his most intriguing and streamlined film, dedicated to the subject of criminal masterminds and their underground workings, Fritz Lang's SPIES follows the machinations of the wheelchair-bound master criminal, the great Haghi, as he dictates criminal orders from his headquarters deep in the belly of the city. When Haghi sends forth female agent Sonja to seduce and trick secret agent 236, Tremaine, the two unexpectedly fall in love. Haghi did not suspect that these rival agents would go astray, and he is enraged that they are endangering his plot to take over the world.

Many of the standard conventions of spy thrillers find their genesis in SPIES, including femme fatales, the crippled arch criminal and a last minute countdown to destruction. As Haghi's minions square off against the police and the secret service, attempting to steal a secret treaty, Lang mixes a pulp detective sensibility with the visual tricks, painterly aesthetics and narrative ingenuity of German Expressionism, creating a visually stunning and fast paced portrait of a master criminal and the seedy underworld of Germany between the wars.