043 - M, 1931, Germany. Dir. Fritz Lang.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

043 - M, 1931, Germany. Dir. Fritz Lang.

Allow me to introduce you to the actor László Löwenstein.

László Löwenstein dedicated his life to the theatre.  To the art of acting.

Have you heard of him?

You have seen him.  You have heard his voice.  And now you will hear his whistle.

He was born in Austria-Hungary, in what is now Slovakia.

He gave up all he had to devote himself to his craft.

He worked on the stage in Vienna.  He trained under Richard Teschner.  The master of puppet masters.

He worked on the stage in Zurich.

He moved to Germany.  He worked on the stage in Berlin.

He placed himself under the rigors of Bertolt Brecht.  He starred in Brecht's play Man Equals Man.

He moved into film.  He made about a dozen movies in Germany.  He starred in this movie, M (1931).  He became an international star.

He fled Germany to escape Hitler.

He moved to England and starred in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller, the first version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934).

He called himself Peter Lorre.

Peter Lorre had a glorious career as a star in Germany and America in the 1930s.  Then he moved into unforgettable supporting roles in Hollywood in the 1940s.  He continued to work in the 1950s and 1960s.

He played Raskolnivkov in Josef von Sternberg's Crime and Punishment (1935), The General in Hitchcock's Secret Agent (1936), eight films as Mr. Moto., and The Stranger in the first-ever now-official film noir, Stranger on the Third Floor (1940).

He was a staple in the Warner Bros. stable.  He appeared in nine films with Sydney Greenstreet and five with Humphrey Bogart: The Maltese Falcon (1941), All Through the Night (1942), Casablanca (1942), Passage to Marseille (1944), Beat the Devil (1953).

He supported Cary Grant as Dr. Einstein in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).

He played in adventure epics--20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961),

He played in three adaptations of literary novels each about an agent--W. Somerset Maugham's Secret Agent (1936), H.G. Wells's Invisible Agent (1942), and Graham Greene's Confidential Agent (1942)!

In 1951 he made his own film.  He wrote the novel and the screenplay, directed, and starred in Der Verlorene.

But he never played Igor, the sidekick to Dr. Frankenstein.  People who did play that role imitated his voice.

He had quite a career.

So let us look at this film, which put him on the map.

The film entitled with a single letter.  M.

What does that stand for?

Mörder!

Which does not mean murder.  Mord is murder.  Mörder is murderer.

M is the first sound film by the great silent film director Fritz Lang, who himself would later come to America.  M is a crime drama, a thriller about a killer of children.  It cuts to the heart of universal emotions.

Everyone wants to protect children.  The homeless make this clear.  The gangsters make this clear.  The visitors to the speakeasies make this clear.  The madam owner makes this clear.

They all tell the police to stop looking for the murderer among them, as there is no way they would hurt a child.

The madam demands that they stop the raids and leave them alone.

"You're driving away my clientele, and the guy you're looking for ain't here.  Do you know how mad everyone is about this guy who's causing a raid every night?  Especially the girls.  Sure, they solicit but believe me, everyone is a little mother at heart."

The film begins with a children's game.  Children play games to negotiate the large and dangerous world outside.  They address their fears head on.

In our language we sing these lines in our lullaby: "When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall.  And down will come baby, cradle and all."

Lovely.

We say these words in our game about the plague of the Black Death: "Ashes.  Ashes.  They all fall down."

Comforting.

In M, the children sing these lines: "Just you wait a little while.  The nasty man in black will come with his little chopper.  He will chop you up!  You're out!"

No one can say it quite like the Germans.

Remember growing up with Hansel and Gretel?  It is about a witch who intends to eat children.

If Walt Disney had not changed all the German fairy tales into happy endings, we would remember that they were just as devastating.

What exactly is going on in The Black Forest?  Whatever it is, it sure is Grimm.  (Forgive me.)

Frau Beckmann cannot stand to hear the children saying these words.  She tells them to stop.

They do not stop.

She is like Job.  The thing which she greatly fears will come upon her.  Her little Elsie will not come home.

Meanwhile, back in town--

Elsie Beckmann has a ball.  She bounces it as she walks down the sidewalk.

She comes upon the Wanted Poster.  She stops.  She reads it.  We read it.

A shadow appears.  The shadow of Hans Beckert.  We know.  Elsie does not know.

Beckert buys her a balloon.

The world may be mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful, but the balloonman is not the one whistling.

Beckert is the one whistling.

And upon that whistle the entire tale will turn.

No, the Blind Balloon Man is not whistling.  But the Blind Balloon Man hears Beckert whistling.

And he remembers.

The whistle.  The voice.  And the tune.

Frau Beckmann is looking for her daughter.  She cannot find her.

Remember what we said about Three Colors: Blue (017, January 17).

When a ball rolls out from behind something, it means something.

Elsie Beckmann's ball roll out from behind a bush.

The balloon gets caught in the power wires.  Then it flies away.

We know what has happened to her.

The city goes mad.

Mothers are driven by fear.  Citizens accuse one another.  The gangsters panic.  The politicians panic.  The police get jumpy.  Raids are conducted.  People are arrested for no apparent reason.

The Mörder writes a letter to the police, but they will not publish it.  So he writes a letter to the press, and they publish it.

Then the people organize.

We have a forensics film.  Fingerprints.  Handwriting.  Paper pulp.  Red pencil shavings.  The CSI of 1931.  Forensics have long been an ingredient in our entertainment.  Agatha Christie.  Sherlock Holmes.  Clues.  Logic.  Problem solving.

The police organize the homeless.  They can be the eyes and ears.  They form a network.  He may suspect the police, but he will not suspect them.

The gangsters organize themselves.  They can be the muscle.  They have to defend their honor.  They might rob and burglarize, but they would never kill a child.  They take the law into their own hands.

Everyone is working to crack the case.

But no one knows who the Mörder is.

Until our friend Tiresias solves it.  The Blind Seer.

The Blind Balloon Man hears the whistle.  He remembers that tune from somewhere.  Somewhere.  If only . . .

It dawns on him.  He calls a man over.  He instructs him to follow that tune.

Beckert is walking with a little girl.

The man chases Beckert.  He gets a piece of chalk and draws the letter M on his hand.  He runs into Beckert as if by accident and slaps the letter M upon his back.

Now our man is marked.

The chase is on.

Will they catch him in time?

Who will be the hero?  The police?  The politicians?  The gangsters?  The speakeasies?  The homeless?  Or no one?

And if they catch him, who will try him?  And what will be his defense?

I wonder.

Mmmm. . . .