March 21st 2013. Pick Of The Day.

Joseph L. Mankiewicz's SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER screens for the second of its three-day run as part of MOMA's Auteurist History of Film series. Suppressed homosexuality, Freudian psycho-analysis, teenage lobotomy, all the goodies you'd expect from a Tennessee Williams' one act are on display in this film, which finds Liz Taylor's traumatized innocent manipulated by a steely Katherine Hepburn desperate to keep a family secret. Lotsa fun, in other words, but as it took my Pick yesterday, and I have no other screenings from which to choose, I'm finally awarding said honor to a film I've been holding off on til I could attend its two-week booking personally. A bold, grim masterpiece of early sound cinema from one of its greatest auteurs, my Pick this chilly March day has lost none of its powers of intrigue, paranoia and suspense. People sometimes wonder who Hitchcock studied. Hitchcock studied Lang.

Friedrich Christian Anton Lang studied engineering and served in WW I before he found a calling first on stage, then in front of the camera, and shortly thereafter behind it, which benefitted all of mankind greatly. He fast proved a mastery of the emerging expressionist film style, successfully utilizing the new techniques in the service of more traditional narratives like few of his contemporaries were able. The new Wiemar era cinema didn't simply manipulate shadow and light, it made the former a character unto itself, and provoked the viewer's interest concerning its contents. Simply put this was Lang's worldview, this darkness that secretly schemed against mankind, and so personal philosophy and developing aesthetic met cute and fell for each other in a type of kismet the film world rarely sees. Among the classics Lang generated in the silent era are gems like SPIDERS, DESTINY, DR. MABUSE THE GAMBLER, and SPIES, as well as two uncharacteristically optimistic sci-fi flicks, the enormously influential METROPOLIS and the not nearly as well known thriller WOMAN ON THE MOON.

Then came sound, and even the most stalwart aficionado of silent film would have to adapt to the new technology. Some struggled, even losing their careers entirely. Some survived and flourished, creating their best known works in this new era. As with all things cinematic Lang proved an instant master of this new advent, manipulating it in ways that became part of the medium's grammar. Indeed, I believe today's Pick features the cinema's first music cue. If I'm wrong correct me, but I can't think of an earlier example. Said music cue is the Hall of the Mountain King theme from PEER GYNT, and is whistled by one Peter Lorre, in the role that catapulted him to stardom, as his character stalks the proceedings onscreen while he remains offscreen. Like Speilberg's shark 44 years later the stalker's theme alerts only ourselves in the audience. His prey are the children of Berlin, who one by one come to a horrible end as his spree terrorizes the town's inhabitants. True to Lang's caustic outlook this serial killer isn't even the ultimate object of the filmmaker's scrutiny and indignation. Only a craftsman of the highest caliber could pull something this bleak off as lurid entertainment, and mah boy Fritz was that if nothing else.

Thus his first "talkie" is also considered by many to be his last masterpiece, and there are factors aplenty cited for that opinion. Foremost is his flight from Nazi Germany after being asked to head up the Third Reich's propaganda unit. He ultimately arrived safely in America, but had to leave behind his wife and closest collaborator, Thea Von Harbou, as she was a proud servant of Chancellor Hitler. Some said the loss of his partner in cinematic crime was one he never recovered from, and it is true he found streaky success during the Hollywood phase of his career, but I'm of the opinion that he had one or two more masterpieces in him in his newfound home. We can have that debate later, but for now let's sing the praises of a film that is just about universally regarded as a prime example of the best the medium had and has to offer. Here's hoping I see ya at tonight's screening.

Fritz Lang's M screens all day today as part of Film Forum's two week run. If you don't catch it today you still have time, but speaking of cinematic crimes it'd be a HUGE one if ya let this booking slip by without viewing this masterwork the way it was meant to be seen.

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