★ 7 / 10
It could be anyone's child, anyone's, no one
John Chard
It could be anyone's child, anyone's, no one is safe. M is directed by Joseph Losey and written by Norman Reilly Raine and Leo Katcher. It stars David Wayne…
It could be anyone's child, anyone's, no one is safe.
M is directed by Joseph Losey and written by Norman Reilly Raine and Leo Katcher. It stars David Wayne, Howard Da Silva, Martin Gabel, Luther Adler, Steve Brodie and Raymond Burr. Music is by Michel Michelet and cinematography by Ernest Laszlo.
Fritz Lang's original film from 1931 is a seriously classy classic, no doubt about it and although making a remake seems to many like birthing the devil's spawn, the 1951 version exists. How great to find that it's a very fine offering, one that was made at the right time (the film noir zeitgeist) and puts its own slant into the mix.
Story here has been relocated to Los Angeles, where there's a child murderer on the loose and not only are the cops under pressure to capture the fiend, but also the criminal underworld since there's too much heat being brought into the vicinity of their operations. Narrative is structured in three ways, the operations of the police investigation, the criminal mobsters forming their own plan of seek and eradicate, and of course we follow the despicable actions of the killer, Martin W. Harrow (Wayne).
Following closely from the original's template, Losey instils key haunting images and the killer's traits, whilst giving them their own identity within the grimy downtown L.A. locales. That we are in Bunker Hill and taking in such landmarks like the Angels Flight railway and the Bradbury Building, makes for some superb period flavours. Couple these with Laszlo's spell bindingly noir compliant cinematography, and Losey has got atmosphere to burn.
Cast are giving good turns, with many noir favourites doing their thing, best of all, mind, is Wayne as the tormented kiddie killer. Getting more screen time than Peter Lorre does in the original, Wayne gives us a different interpretation that works for a high end portrayal of a man at the mercy of his desperate urges. None more so at pic's denoument, where he is cast to the floor and proceeds to outpour his very being. Wayne would never be this good again.
It's not close to being as good as Lang's original, and the thread of the crime underworld worrying about their image is just daft. It's also safe to say that there's no deepness on show, there's some reasoning for why Harrow is as sick as he is - and a little snippet of vigilante paranoia, but this does fail to expand upon some serious themes. That said though, this is certainly a worthy entry in the file that contains remakes that hold their own. 7/10
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★ 7 / 10
Stranger danger!
AlsExGal
This is a 1951 remake starring David Wayne as the child killer that was so brilliantly portrayed by Peter Lorre in the original 1931 film. The remake is well…
This is a 1951 remake starring David Wayne as the child killer that was so brilliantly portrayed by Peter Lorre in the original 1931 film.
The remake is well made, but mostly because of Wayne's basically non-verbal performance and the fact that producer Seymour Nebenzal was only allowed to make it if it almost exactly mirrored the original. That was due to Production Code concern that the movie not include child molestation as part of the plot. In fact, before he hired director Joseph Losey, he asked fellow German ex-pat Douglas Sirk to direct, but Sirk turned the project down because he wanted to do a rewrite. (Losey also wanted to rewrite it, but for the same reasons, couldn't.)
You see the same camera work, the child is approached by a man at a candy machine, but he is only seen in the mirror and from the legs down (very menacing); the killer buys balloons for the girls he kills to pacify them and the balloon is seen floating above the power lines once the child has been killed; a child's ball that she was bouncing a moment before her death comes rolling into the frame and we know, again, a child has been killed.
The kangaroo court held by the mobsters is almost identical to the original as is the search for the killer in a giant commercial building. The motives are the same; the mob wants to get the child killer because he offends even their criminal senses and because they want good publicity from the police, press and public.
There is one very American element to the remake, however, and that's the use of psychotherapy/psychology that was sweeping the nation around this time (and which continues today). Wayne gives a speech explaining his domineering mother's hatred toward the "evil of men, just men" and his need to be punished not only for his deeds but because he is, simply that, a man.
I thought I would hate this remake but I didn't. Although not as startling and striking as the original, there is still a place for this remake I think in the catalog of American cinema. There are very good character actors as well, including Raymond Burr as a gravel-voiced mob enforcer, Howard Da Silva as a chain-smoking homicide detective, Martin Gabel as the crime boss trying to get all the mileage he can out of catching the killer and Luther Adler as an alcoholic criminal attorney who puts up a defense for Wayne and maybe himself simultaneously.
There is also the cinematography of '50s Los Angeles by Ernest Laszlo that serves as another character in the film--it appears to have been filmed on location and it is eye-opening to see this portrait of the City of Angels. Not looking very angelic.
I would have to say I liked this "M" but it is not as good as the original; maybe it isn't trying to be. Like their German roots, the film and the filmmakers seem to be searching for something uniquely American.
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Existen 3 version es por mí conocidas, 1)la original, 2) la presente versión y 3) la version Argentina que realmente tiene una actuación sorprendente y un final alternativo.