M is a 1951 American thriller film noir directed by Joseph Losey, an English-language remake of Fritz Lang's 1931 German film about a child murderer. The film stars David Wayne, Howard da Silva, Luther Adler and Martin Gabel in the leading roles. This version shifts the location of action from Berlin to Los Angeles. The film was produced independently, and released by Columbia Pictures in March 1951. Both versions of M were produced by Seymour Nebenzal, whose son, Harold, was associate producer of the 1951 version.

Much as the original film was widely interpreted as an allegory for Nazism, Losey's interpretation was influenced by his experiences in the Red Scare and the Hollywood blacklist. Several of the cast and crew would be targeted by the blacklist, and Losey himself would move to Europe soon after the film's release when he was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Plot

Martin W. Harrow is a compulsive child-murderer, and the public demands of the mayor and police that he be caught. The police start a crackdown on criminal operations, dive bars and hangouts in the city, hoping that the murderer will turn up in one of the many raids. This pressure is preventing the city's crime syndicate from doing business, and its boss, Marshall, organizes his forces to find and stop the murderer so that the police will stop the crackdown and Marshall can go back to business as usual. Meanwhile, Police Detective Carney has a psychiatrist examining patients who have been released from mental hospitals as possible suspects.

At the same time that the police focus on Harrow, finding incriminating evidence—the shoes of the dead children—in his apartment, the criminals track him down with his intended next victim. They capture him, and place him on trial by his "peers" in the Los Angeles criminal underworld. Harrow makes an impassioned plea for his life, explaining that he is unable to stop himself from committing his unspeakable crimes. Just as he is about to be killed by the crowd, the police arrive to take him away, but not before Marshall has shot and killed his alcoholic lawyer, Dan Langley.

Cast

Cast notes:

  • M marked the screen debut of Martin Gabel, an original member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre troupe.
  • Much like Joseph Losey, several of the cast suffered career setbacks from the Hollywood blacklist. M was Howard Da Silva's last film appearance until 1962's David and Lisa.

Producer Seymour Nebenzel's Nero Films produced the original 1931 version of M directed by Fritz Lang, and Nebenzal retained the rights when he fled Nazi Germany and began to make films in Hollywood, primarily "B" pictures for major studios and low-budget independents. Nebenzal decided in 1950 to remake M, reset to Los Angeles—perhaps inspired by the anti-Communist mass hysteria then predominant in the country—and approached Lang about directing it, but Lang was appalled and outraged by the idea of anyone remaking a film he considered to be his masterpiece. Nebenzal then approached another expatriate German film director, Douglas Sirk, who also turned him down. Joseph Losey, however, took on the job, despite his being under suspicion of being a Communist by the FBI and the House Un-American Activities Committee. Losey registered discontent with Columbia Pictures’ financing of the film and the limitations placed on altering the structure of the Lang original. Denying that the film was merely a “remake,” Losey “regretted that he wasn't able to make more extensive changes to the original.”

Losey's casting included actors who were also under suspicion. Losey would later leave the U.S. and settle in the UK to make films there, notably his collaborations with writer Harold Pinter: The Servant (1963), Accident (1967) and The Go-Between (1971).

Robert Aldrich was Losey's assistant director.

Film historian Foster Hirsch points to stylistic and thematic parallels between the two versions, but cautions that Losey may suffer from comparisons. Lang demonstrated “unsurpassed” cinematic control over his resources: “his M is the work of a film master.” Losey's remake was crafted when he was developing his talents, lacking the “experience and artistic freedom to compete with Lang.” Studio constraints limited Losey to making stylistic facsimile of the earlier film, and, “wasn't permitted a truly original handling of the material.” Nonetheless, similarities emerge:

Losey diverges sharply from Lang's M in his conception of the pedophilic murderer. Peter Lorre's diminutive “M” in the original is furtive, socially isolated and distinctly repellent. Losey's sociopath, played by David Wayne, is by all appearances a well-adjusted Midwesterner. As such, he makes a favorable first impression on the local community. Wayne's confession and plea for psychiatric treatment suggests the possibility of redemption and pity from the community. Senses of Cinema’s Dan Callahan reports that “Wayne ... delivers this complex speech superbly (Losey reports that when he finished the cast and crew burst into applause.)”

Lorre's “ecstatic” interpretation is reminiscent of characters from Greek mythology or Christian scripture, invoking “Orestes Pursued by the Furies, or Satan expelled from heaven and suffering the torments of hell.”

Reception

When the film was released, an anonymous reviewer at Variety wrote: "David Wayne, as the killer of small children, is effective and convincing. Luther Adler, as a drunken lawyer member of a gangster mob, turns in an outstanding performance, as do Martin Gabel, the gang-leader, and Howard da Silva and Steve Brodie as police officials ... Joseph Losey's direction has captured the gruesome theme skilfully." Wayne in particular received good reviews.

Censorship

M was boycotted in some cities because of director Losey's political views.

See also

  • List of American films of 1951

Footnotes

Sources

  • Callahan, Dan. 2003. Losey, Joseph. Senses of Cinema, March 2003. Great Directors Issue 25.https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/losey/#:~:text=The%20dominant%20themes%20of%20Losey's,love%20story%20in%20his%20films. Accessed 12 October 2024.
  • Hirsch, Foster. 1980. Joseph Losey. Twayne Publishers, Boston, Massachusetts.
  • Palmer, James and Riley, Michael. 1993. The Films of Joseph Losey. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.
  • Thomson, David. 2002. The New Biographical Dictionary of Film. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.