The movie "M" and its sequel, "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse"

[Wade Hampton]

As I've mentioned here before, my father was an omnivorous moviegoer, enjoying both big screen Westerns and art house foreign films. No, that's true enough but not completely accurate: he was a discerning moviegoer. He read reviews and went to see those films that interested him.

So as a kid, he'd often say to me: "Hop in the car," and we'd drive off to see whatever he was taking us to this time.

Anyway, I caught the bug from him, and have enjoyed watching a wide variety of films my entire life. One of the classics that I saw early on was the movie "M," which made a movie star out of Peter Lorre in the role of a child murderer in Weimar Republic Germany:

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I saw "M" on TV around age twelve, and even though it was chopped up for commercials, it was still fascinating. The premise of the movie is that the police search for this child killer had become so disruptive to the livelihoods of the criminals in Berlin that they decided to track him down and capture him themselves, so they can put him on trial for his life in the basement of an abandoned brewery.

After seeing it as a kid, I saw it again in my twenties, the second time at a revival movie house, and was impressed even more. It was very Hitchcock-like, and it almost certainly had a great impact on Alfred Hitchcock himself. Some of the things that we've come to think of as typical Hitchcock touches were done first by Fritz Lang in "M."

It was a major international hit. It helped create the template for the many suspense thrillers that have followed in its wake.

A couple of weeks ago I came across "M" in a Criterion Collection edition DVD at the Anchorage Public Library, and watched it again for the first time in decades. What's remarkable about it is that it was one of the earliest sound films, and they were still figuring out how to use these new elements of dialogue and sound effects. There are occasional awkward moments when the age of the film become apparent, but it's remarkably engrossing, nonetheless. It's held up really well despite the eighty six years that have elapsed since it was made. Fritz Lang was a great director.

Something that I never knew until I read the booklet that came with the DVD was that "M" was such a huge artistic and financial success that a sequel was made: "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse."

I had been vaguely aware of that movie, but hadn't realized that there was any connection with "M." Frankly, I'd been put off by the stills from the movie that I'd seen:

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I figured it was some sort of German Expressionist "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" kind of crap:

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Which is an interesting film, in its way, but it's not something anywhere near the level of "M." Or, for that matter, "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse."

Peter Lorre isn't in it, but it turns out that "Mabuse" has the same police inspector tracking down the bad guys as in "M" - the actor Otto Wernicke in the role of Inspector Karl Lohmann:

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Herr Kommissar Lohman is kind of like a jolly, blond German Sherlock Holmes with a big Teutonic beer gut. I think Wernicke must have been a popular stage actor of the day, because he's got charisma to burn, and in both films he's allowed to do all sorts of little stage business establishing the character.

The plot centers around a criminal genius madman who uses his skills as a hypnotist to take over the brain of the Herr Professor Doktor who's the head of the insane asylum. Those ghostly apparitions in the stills earlier in this post are from when he took over.

Years later, when Lang remade "Mabuse" as "The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse," he dropped all that supernatural stuff, and told his son that he regretted including it in the first version.

So anyhow, about halfway through the movie, the spectral visitations are dispensed with and the movie turns into an action picture, and a big budget action picture at that. There's a shoot out and a huge fire at in a chemical plant, with multiple firetrucks and dozens of firemen running around trying to put it out. At first when the chemical plant went up in flames I thought they must have set fire to a scale model, but then the firetrucks pulled up and fireman hopped out and was a huge, genuine fire!

What the movie reminded me of at that point, frankly, was "Die Hard 2," where in the sequel the filmmakers have been given more money to spend and use it by blowing up a lot of stuff!

I don't want to suggest that "Mabuse" is as good a film as "M" - it isn't. It's not nearly as psychologically acute or timeless. But it's still a really good movie, and well worth seeing.

Here's the ironic part: "M" came out in 1931 and was a huge hit both in Germany and abroad. But "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse" came out in 1933, after the Nazis had taken power. Joseph Goebbels saw it before it was released, and was NOT amused by the insane rants coming out of the madman's mouth, because they sounded entirely too much like some of the things Hitler would say in his radio speeches.

So Goebbels banned it in Germany. Apparently it played in Budapest, Hungary, and not many other places. Lang saw the writing on the wall, and skedaddled for Hollywood.

Okay, precisely zero acoustic guitar content in this post, but I wanted to get my impressions written down after watching these two films a week apart. It was interesting to me to see where each informed the other, and where they differ.

If you've never seen "M," it's unquestionably the more important film, with a much tighter plot and, as I mentioned, far more plausible set of motivations and chain of events. But "Mabuse" is worth seeing as well, particularly after seeing "M."

Have any of you all seen either film? Just curious.


Wade Hampton Miller

[HHP]

Car chases? Aliens? Scarlet Johansen?

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by HHP

Car chases? Aliens? Scarlet Johansen?

Actually, there IS a car chase, and a good one by the standards of the day. Just as "M" developed some methodology for suspense thrillers, there's some very early action film scene blueprints in "Mabuse." (Wait until you see how the Good Bad Man and the woman who's redeemed him with her love manage to break out of the room where they've been imprisoned by the evil genius...)

No Scarlett Johansen, though, unfortunately. I think this film might have been a little bit before her time....

Yeah, it's kind of an oddball flick, almost a mishmash of genres in some ways, but worth seeing.


whm

[Rodger]

Cool review Wade! I'm enjoying your movie posts.

Peter Lorre has always been one of my favorite actors. Loved his acting in "The Maltese Falcon" and "Arsenic and Old Lace."

Keep the movies coming!

[fazool]

Ack I made a quick joke, then carefully read the OP and he already made the joke.....soooooo....this is a null post because I beat myself to the punch (line)

[fazool]

That was a great write-up and I am intrigued about seeing "M" now.

It's interesting how some old films are just so darn classic.

I honestly haven't seen Citizen Kane yet but it's on my movie bucket list.

A favorite family film is, of course, It's a Wonderful Life - interesting because it was a flop when released. The local regional connections just enhance our love of the movie.

Arsenic and Old Lace is another huge favorite.

And one that I only saw once but remember being blown away by was Rebecca. A simply magnificent emotional semi-psychological thriller.


Some of those old time movies are just *SO* good.

I'll add "M" to my list to see.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by fazool

That was a great write-up and I am intrigued about seeing "M" now.

It's interesting how some old films are just so darn classic.

I honestly haven't seen Citizen Kane yet but it's on my movie bucket list.

Well, I've seen "Citizen Kane" many times, but it's one of those films that's been praised to the heavens so many times that it might be kind of a letdown when you do finally see it.

A lot of its importance is that Orson Welles invented so much of the cinematic language that's been used ever since. A great deal of the credit for that has to go to Gregg Toland, the brilliant young cinematographer who shot the movie, and Robert Wise, another young man at the time who was the film's editor and later became a director, with movies like "The Sound of Music" to his credit.

So Welles didn't conjure all of that out of his admittedly brilliant brain. "Citizen Kane" was a collaboration, and he was very lucky, astute or both in his choice of collaborators.

As much as I respect "Citizen Kane," it's not my favorite movie with Orson Welles in it. That accolade has to go to "The Third Man," which stars Welles as the bad guy Harry Lime but which was directed by the British director Carol Reed.

Orson Welles in "The Third Man"

Because "The Third Man" also has striking cinematography and jarring, diagonally framed shots, many film buffs make the incorrect assumption that Welles actually directed it, or at least hoorahed Reed into directing it the way Welles wanted it.

But "The Third Man" was just one of Welles's "just show up and get paid" gigs as an actor (which, if you grew up in the 50's and 60's, you'd see a lot of in movies of the day, particularly costume drama period pieces.) Welles was delighted with what Reed did with "The Third Man," but anyone who thinks Welles must have been an overbearing influence on how it was shot and edited hasn't seen Reed's previous film "Odd Man Out," which stars James Mason as a fugitive IRA gunman being chased through Belfast by the authorities.

James Mason in "Odd Man Out"

"Odd Man Out" isn't as good or as focused as "The Third Man," but it's still an excellent film, well worth watching. (It gets a little odd and pointedly surreal in the last third of the film, though it recovers by the end. I think the source material was a play, and they kept some elements of the play in the script that perhaps should have been tossed.) More importantly for the purpose of comparison, "Odd Man Out" also has the same visual style and striking compositions as the more famous Orson Welles fleeing through the sewers of Vienna movie...

Harry Lime scampering through the sewers

And Welles had nothing to do with "Odd Man Out."

Anyway, like I say, enjoy "Citizen Kane" for what it is. but don't go into it expecting the greatest film of all time, which is sometimes how it's been hyped. It's an important film, no question about it, but "The Third Man" is a lot more fun to watch.


Wade Hampton Miller

[CoolerKing]

Very interesting thanks for sharing!

[TBman]

Interesting. I'm going to look into these. Scarlett not being in either though is a bummer.....

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by TBman

Interesting. I'm going to look into these. Scarlett not being in either though is a bummer.....

Scarlett Johansen in a skin-tight body suit like the one she wore in "Ghost In The Shell" might have distracted SOME viewers from Peter Lorre's performance in "M."

I'm just guessing, mind you, but it's an educated guess....


whm

[TBman]

Originally Posted by HHP

Car chases? Aliens? Scarlet Johansen?

Don't forget big things getting blown up. 4 point check list of what makes a good movie, lol