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DVD Tuesday: Peter Lorre as the Father of All Serial Killers
DVD Tuesday: M, Peter Lorre and Fritz Lang: The serial killer thriller is born!
I just received a copy of Jon J Muth's stunning four-part 1990 graphic-novel adaptation of the groundbreaking serial killer film, M, newly reissued by Harry N. Abrams, Inc., and it inspired me to recommend Fritz Lang's 1931 original.
Inspired by the real-life crimes of Peter Kurten, the child-murderer dubbed "monster of Dusseldorf," is a first class thriller driven by the simultaneous pursuit of killer Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) by the police and the Berlin underworld: Normally bitter enemies, they're united in common revulsion for a murderous pedophile. The police have law and up-to-date technology on their side, but the criminals know the darkness.
Lang's brilliant visual touches are haunting: The slashing shadows, the high angle shots that suggest menacing angels hovering over Berlin, children's playthings – a ball, a clown-shaped balloon --set forlornly free as their owners are whisked away, the "M" a blind street vendor chalks onto the coat of the man he recognizes by the whistled snatch of Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt, a tune he heard just before a little girl vanished.
But Peter Lorre's performance as Beckert is the film's dark heart. Pasty, bulging-eyed and pudgy (Hollywood studio executive put him on a crash diet that produced his slim silhouette in The Maltese Falcon), Lorre looks like an oversized baby, and his anguished interior monologues have a child's selfish single-mindedness. It's not his fault, he can't help himself, no-one knows how awful it is to be him – that's a far cry from the elegant intellectual posturings of Anthony Hopkis' Hannibal Lecter and has the awful ring of truth.
The Criterion double-disc special edition of M comes loaded with top-notch extras, but any version is fine – you don't need a word of commentary or a historical featurette to be plunged into Lang and Lorre's world of madness, desperation, horror and despair.
Things to Consider:
What's the difference between empathy and sympathy?
Is it possible to empathize with someone who does hideous things – say, a child murderer?
What do you think of Latin writer Terence's (190-160 B.C.) famous maxim, which addresses this question: "I am human; nothing human is alien to me" (Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto).
Do you agree that M is the template for subsequent films about serial killers? Why or why not?
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
Hear Maitland on the weekly podcast TV Guide Talk.
See Maitland McDonagh and Ken Fox review this week's new flicks on the Movie Talk vodcast.
Previously in DVD Tuesday:
2008:
Touch of Evil
Bonnie and Clyde
Atonement
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
Rififi
Michael Clayton
Network
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T
Shoot 'Em Up
Freeway
A Mighty Wind
2007:
It's a Wonderful Life
Waitress
Laura
Cop
All About Eve
Severance
Sweet Smell of Success
Daughters of Darkness
The Crazies
Blade Runner
Zodiac
Manhunter
A Simple Plan
Taxi Driver
Renaissance
Blowup
Hot Fuzz
300
Ace in the Hole
Eyes Without a Face
Apocalypto
Citizen Kane
La Jetée
Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)
Bob le Flambeur
Near Dark
Perfect Blue
Pan's Labyrinth
Les Girls
The Girl Who Knew Too Much
The Queen
Expresso Bongo
I'm Not Scared
Shocking Grindhouse Double Bill! — Scanners and The Candy Snatchers
Don't Look Now
Re-Animator
Casino Royale
Pi
The Prestige
13 Tzameti
The Departed
Suspiria
Kiss and Make Up
Kiss Me Deadly
The Long Good Friday
What Alice Found
The Devil's Backbone
The Descent
The Devil Wears Prada
Pandora's Box
The Thief and the Cobbler
Nashville
Panic in the Streets/Jack Palance Interview
The Pusher Trilogy
Scarface
Slither
Sunset Blvd.
In Cold Blood
Brick
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Apr 15, 2008 12:19 PM
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Wow! I am so pleased to see M, and in particular, John J. Muth's adaptation getting some attention. I got it back when it was released as four prestige-format comics back in the early 90's. When I saw the collected edition in my local comic shop this past week, I picked it up. Great stuff.
The only thing missing was Muth's CD soundtrack released around the time of the original comic series. It was a lovely atmospheric score, incorporating the Peer Gynt suite. It was perfect for playing in the background as you looked at Muth's amazing artwork.
As for whether one can sympathize with a child murderer, M puts paid to that argument. Peter Lorre's interpretation exudes this sense of desperate need and despair and you can't help but feel for this sad, horrible little man. When he utters the words, "Who knows what it's like to be me?" your heart breaks while the bile rises in the back of your throat.
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Apr 15, 2008 1:42 PM
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I don't think M is much of a template for serial killer films. Its plot is kind of unique. The thing that always struck me about M was not the story of the child murderer, it was watching the underworld, the dregs of society, banding together to find the killer. I can't think of any other serial killer tales that have that same "criminals and cops in a race against time" kind of theme when it comes to serial killer movies. And most serial killer films don't ask you to feel for the killer, although some do.
As for the morality of the tale, well, it's the mother who speaks out against capital punishment and suggests that parents need to keep a sharper eye on their children. Too bad we still have trouble teaching people that particular lesson (only now, instead of getting kidnapped and assaulted, it's the teens in Florida doing it).
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Apr 15, 2008 4:00 PM
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I don't know if I can empathize with such horrible actions. I would like to think that I would always have contempt for them. Not that I would neccessarily have contempt for the person as I think the dictum you cite has validity. Look at Sophie's Choice. During times of stress and due to other failings, we are all capable of horrible things.
I may understand the woman in Texas who drowned her children and the reasons why she did it. But I still condemn what she did and I still consider it a criminal act. I don't think her reasons are any more valid or make for an excuse any more than many other factors affecting other people.
The actions of ordinary people during war are often used as examples of how regular folks can do horrible things when threatened or deluded. But some people resist. Some people who were abused as children grow up to abuse others, But some grow up to protect and become advocates for victims.
I think the other side of the coin is that we are also capable of great sacrifice and honorable, heroic actions too. Look at the people who went down in the plane in Pennsylvania on 9/11. They did something I can only wish I would have the courage to do. And I also think of my father during WWII, volunteering to go to war at the age of 19. I honestly can't say that i would have done the same. I think it was an incredibly brave thing to do.
By the way, I recently saw a great comic performance from Lorre in The Chase with Robert Cummings. Lorre has always been one of my favorite comic actors too.
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Apr 16, 2008 3:41 AM
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I have to agree with achyfakey that the really interesting thing is the fact that this man is tried by a jury of his literal peers. He is sympathetic, but he also deserves what he gets.
Joseph Losey did a remake in the 50s with David Wayne in the role which is somewhat underrated and very interesting in its different way.
I share a birthday with Peter Lorre, so my birthday movie every year is either M or Mad Love. According to several friends of mine this explains a lot.
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Apr 16, 2008 5:43 PM
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It no doubt does, mirakle58... but for anyone who hasn't seen M or the sublimely perverse Mad Love, I recommend doing so ASAP.
I can't tell you how disappointed I was, on my first trip to Paris, that the Grand Guignol Theater had been gone for more than a decade, and I have Mad Love to blame.
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Apr 17, 2008 10:20 PM
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And just by the way, this Mad Love trailer is amazing!
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Apr 17, 2008 10:24 PM
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