M and Metropolis

I've been on an old movie kick lately. No full blown reviews here, just a couple of comments.

Everybody's seen at least some of the images from Metropolis, if not the movie itself, without even necessarily knowing where the images came from, and that tells you something about the movie right there. When some of the images are so striking that people are still looking at them roughly ninety years later, you know they carry power, for one reason or another.

The acting is what you expect for the time period, for the most part. As a story, I don't fully understand some of the actions the characters take, and I'm sure that at least part of the reason for that is that those actions aren't intended to make sense as things real human beings would do, but were intended as metaphors. That's fine; it's still a fun movie to watch, and well worth a rental. The themes hold up, even if it's not entirely clear to me what Fritz Lang is trying to say with it. It's a classic for a reason. I'd give it a seven out of ten, and it's far more interesting than most of the movies being made today.

I rented "M" out of curiosity. I'd read that Peter Lorre puts in an outstanding performance as a pedophile, and thought that that, along with the challenging subject material (especially given when it was made!), would at least be worth a look. I have to admit I was expecting something more along the order of a character study, based on what I'd read, but I was completely wrong on that count. Most of the movie involves the police trying to track down the pedophile, and ultimately the local criminals start tracking him down as well because the police being so active is bad for their business. Peter Lorre's most effective moments are during the trial scene toward the end, in which he pleads that he can't be held responsible for his actions. He's a sort of predecessor to Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of Norman Bates in Psycho, in that you know he's a bad guy, but you feel genuinely bad for him. The movie is ultimately about mob justice, which was also a significant element in Metropolis, so obviously this was something heavily on Fritz Lang's mind. There's nothing here to squick anyone bothered by the subject matter, as you pretty much get Peter Lorre chatting up little girls, then leading them away while a balloon symbolically floats away (or something similar).

There are also some well done scenes showing Peter Lorre's character being chased through a warehouse by a mob of criminals once he's been identified. Good stuff.

I couldn't really recommend "M", unless you particularly want to see Peter Lorre in one of his better performances or you're a student of the movies of the period, but it wasn't bad. Five out of ten.