Back in the thirties, things were a little different in the world of cinema. Fritz Lang was busy making ‘M’ and he wanted it to be as authentic as possible.
The movie told the story of a child-killer who is cleverly hunted down and Peter Lorre was the film’s unlikable star. After the killer is finally caught by a bunch of criminals, they decide to give him a good beating. Lang was known for being difficult to work with and at this point he was just not happy. The make-up artists could not give him the degree of realism he required, so he pushed Peter Lorre down a flight of stairs.
Of course, if this happened in the film world of today then law suits would be flying around within hours. But German expressionist cinema was all about creating art; and in art anything goes. Fritz Lang allegedly upset a lot of his actors, but this one of his nastiest outbursts.
The thing is that it all worked out very well. ‘M’ was (and still is) hailed as a classic and it jump-started Peter Lorre’s career. If he ever did harbour a grudge against Lang then it was never documented. Perhaps he thought the assault had actually been justified; ‘no pain, no gain’ and all that…
‘M’ is a remarkable piece of cinema and it tackles some very uncomfortable social issues. So many questions are raised in the movie; what we should do with child-killers, if the death penalty is a correct punishment, if the killer himself is a victim. The whole film tackles this horrible topic with a great maturity that was years ahead of its time. And when this was coupled with the artistry and sheer genius of Fritz Lang it resulted in huge success.
‘Talkies’ were only just beginning in cinema and this was Lang’s first work with sound. But even then his mastery kicked in; rather than being daunted by the prospect of an extra dimension to work with, he used it thoroughly to his advantage. The best example of this is the way the killer repeatedly whistles, ‘In the hall of the Mountain King’ from Peer Gynt. This adds some dramatic and disturbing aural imagery to the amazingly powerful visuals.
So, as you are probably aware when I am not actively writing, I am fixing up my house and on that note, I have just gotten hold of the nicest new set of shutters! They were quite a lot of money but totally worth it.