M (No, Not The Original)

M (1951)

Runtime: 88 minutes

Directed by: Joseph Losey

Starring: David Wayne, Howard Da Silva, Martin Gabel, Luther Adler, Steve Brodie

From: Columbia

Sorry for being late; I was wrapped up in a few things, including that insane World Series game. Now, here's a film undeservedly obscure. I explain why below: 

This may be an assumption but I will presume that even here or other movie sites, there are plenty of people who did not know there was an American film noir remake of Fritz Lang's seminal classic. I have known of it for awhile now but I don't want it to sound like a humblebrag. The film is not easy to track down (at least, it's not on the streaming sites) so when TCM played it late last night, there was no question how I was going to spend my Saturday night.

The plot: it's what you'd expect if you seen the original. There is a child killer (although it doesn't take as long to see his face), you see the anguish of the parents who had it happen to them, innocents are falsely accused by an agitated public, the police raid the joints owned by “the criminal underworld”, so that crime element wishes to find the killer themselves so their businesses remain profitable, the blind man with the balloons, “street people” are hired to look for him-this time it's blue-collar people and teenagers and not such derelicts as the homeless-and I dare not reveal more. There are differences, and I'll leave it at that.

What helped me think of this movie as very good was not only how the general plot was copied and the transplanting of the setting to sunny Los Angeles does work and the Communism scare of the time was an underlying theme (some people in the cast were victims of the Hollywood blacklisting movement)... it is the cast and crew and high-level filmmaking skill which helped make this worth watching, a remake I wish was easier for people to see aside from rare screenings by TCM. The setting of The City of Angels worked as various landmarks were used, including the Bradbury Building; that's been in plenty of media but the appropriate thing to mention in late October of 2017 is that is where much of the final act of Blade Runner takes place, as it's J.F. Sebastian's home.

It has a quality cast, some of them noir veterans: Raymond Burr, Howard Da Silva, Martin Gabel, Luther Adler, Steve Brodie, Norman Lloyd and Jim Backus. But it is David Wayne who plays the titular M. The character is different from the original film's Hans Beckert, so Wayne's performance is not a copy of what Peter Lorre did. He wasn't legendary like Lorre's star-making performance but that doesn't mean it was not dynamic nor memorable. He delivers a scintillating monologue in the final minutes and thankfully that can be found on YouTube.

This is about 20 minutes shorter than the original so there are some minor plot points and scenes that were omitted. Even with that noted, I say this is a worthy remake and something I wish was easier for people to see (at least the DVD can be purchased for cheap from Amazon) as it not only is a quality noir but a film which isn't a pal imitation of a film all movie fans should see.