Dark Shadows in Berlin

 This is my entry in the "non-English" Language Blogathon hosted by Thoughts All Sorts

One of the classics of pre-war, pre-Hitler German cinema, according to historical references the movie almost didn't get made.  When Fritz Lang, the director, announced his plans to film a movie called Mörder unter uns, the head of his studio, Staaken, denied him the space to use to film it.  Still prior to Hitler's rise to power, but the Nazi party had its adherents even then, one of whom was the studio head.  He and the Nazi Party both suspected it was going to be a veiled condemnation of the Nazis, and as such Lang was denied the use of the studio.  Only after Lang assured them that it was not going to a political movie was he allowed to film it at Staaken.

Lang's first film to incorporate sound, also almost didn't get made as is because Lang had a reluctance to film the movie with sound.  But certain parts of it prove that once he got into the use of sound, he had an ability to use it to maximum effect.

M (1931):

The movie opens with a scene of children playing and chanting a rather dark rhyme about some secretive shadowy stalker.  One of the mothers listening tells the children to stop chanting that dark rhyme but kids being kids they start it back up anyway.  The woman in question is waiting for her daughter to return home from school.  There have been several incidents of children disappearing and she is concerned, but not too worried.  At least until lunch time has come and gone and no daughter shows.

This is because, by now, her daughter has become another victim to this scourge of the city.  Although no one knows he is anything other than just an average citizen, Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) roams the streets following little children.  He spies his prey and poses as a friendly stranger, buying balloons and candy for his victim, later killing them. 

He has sent letters to the police and newspaper, taunting them, something like Jack the Ripper, and the police, under intense pressure from the public, increase their focus on finding this scoundrel.  They put pressure on the criminal world, and disrupt regular criminal activities in ther zeal to discover the identity of the murderer.

As a result, the criminal world puts their own network to work in trying to find out who he is.  They use beggars and street people to keep a watch out for suspicious activity.  One of the street people, a blind man who sells ballonns, remembers a man who whistled Edvard Grieg's "In the hall of the Mountain King".  (And after watching this movie you may become a little apprehensive every time you hear the tune outside of the movie).

Eventually the criminals are the ones who capture Beckert and bring him to an abandoned warehouse where he is forced to stand trial before what is essentially the entire criminal contingent of the  city.  Talk about a jury of your own peers!  Beckert has the benefit of a man who is supposed to be his defense attorney.  During the trial he breaks down with an impassioned plea, stating basically that he is compelled by his own mind to do these terrible things (basically trying  to use an insanity defense), but the jury is unrelenting, and pronounces him guilty, giving him a death sentence.

Then his defense attorney takes over, berating the criminal society and telling them they have no right to declare judgement on the man.  What happens next is very interesting. 

The movie was Lorre's first starring role, but the after effect was he was typecast as a criminal and undesirable in many of his subsequent roles.  But it did show his incredible acting ability.

Well folks, time to go home. Drive safely. 

Quiggy

A Different Kind of War

This is my second entry in the Time Travel Blogathon hosted by Wide Screen World and Silver Screenings.

Take Japanese karate  chop-socky star Sonny Chiba  (next to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, probably the most famous of the Asian action movie stars of his day), give him a role as a army officer leading a group of soldiers through a war games trial, Use some hocus pocus of some sort to transport them through time to feudal era Japan, and have him and his cadre of soldiers join a group of samurai warriors from said era in a battle for supremacy, and you have the makings of one of the more bizarre entries in the science-fiction field to ever come to the theater.

Sonny Chiba had been a karate film star for several years by the time this film was made.  He got his start on Japanese TV, but made himself an international star in The Street Fighter, a Japanese karate movie along the same lines as much of Hong Kong's international output of the era.  Over the past 60 years he has had a prolific career, both in the martial arts movies that brought him to prominence here in America as well as some pretty good action and period dramas.  (He was featured in both Quentin Tarantino films Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2, and was a costar in the The Fast And The Furious series entry titled Tokyo Drift.

G. I. Samurai aka: Time Slip (1979):

On maneuvers, a Japanese army group suddenly finds itself in unfamiliar territory.  It's the same landscape, but there are missing things, such as a power plant that was in the distance.  Confusion as to what has happened to them ensues.  (Note:  the time travel sequence is some of the cheapest special effects you will ever see.  Apparently the movie was over budget by the time they filmed this sequence and they just had to use whatever was still lying around to get it on film.  This is the only real quibble I have with the movie.  I felt kind of cheated that it wasn't better filmed.)


The group is led by Lt. Yoshiaki Iba (Sonny Chiba), who looks a lot like a Japanese version of DC comics WWII hero Sgt. Rock.

It turns out that the soldiers have ended up 400 years in the past during what is referred to by the men as "The Warring States Period" of Japanese history.  The men are met by a cadre of samurai soldiers led by Nagao Kagetora (Isao Natsuyagi).  Kagetora immediately claims Iba as a comrade in arms and his oft repeated phrase is "you are from my tribe!"

(I'll interject something here.  I do not know if this movie is available with dubbing in English.  My copy is in the original Japanese with subtitles.  Much as I dislike trying to keep up with subtitles, I must point out that if there is a dubbed version, no one could possibly essay the enthusiastic performance done by Natsuyagi as Kagetora.)

The samurai warriors leave, but a different group of warriors, led by an attack of ninja archers who pop up from beneath the water attack the group.  Eventually the modern-day soldiers are able to defend against the attack, but a couple of soldiers are lost.

There is dissent among the soldiers.  Some try  to desert.  Some insist that whatever they do might change history.  Some are desperate to try to return to their own time.  (Not knowing exactly how they got there in the first place would seem to put a damper on that.)

Eventually, some soldiers are removed from the equation by Iba himself, exercising a sort of impromptu court-martial in the field.  By midways through the movie the initial 21 modern day soldiers has been reduced to a cadre of 11.  (One actually survives his desertion by deciding to join a family whose father and husband has been killed and becoming a surrogate father and husband for the family.)

Iba joins forces with Kagetora to defeat Lord Shingen, the local ruler.  You would think even with just one tank, one helicopter and a halftrack vehicle and a bunch of machine guns, that the modern day contingent would have a field day against medieval forces wouldn't you?  Not entirely.  There are about a thousand or so samurai warriors and they all have the bravery of unlimited potential.  In the process just about every modern day vehicle is taken out of the equation.  And of course there are a limited number of rounds for the machine guns and the like.

The finale is worth the wait.

Unless you are a devotee of Japanese cinema it is highly unlikely you will recognize most of the actors aside from Chiba (if you even recognize him), but I did notice a couple of familiar faces.  I admit wholeheartedly that I had to make use of the internet to spur my memory, but the guy who plays Katsuyori is Hiroyuki Sanada.  The movies I have seen him in include Rush Hour 3, 47 Ronin, and The Wolverine.  He was also in a low budget sci-fi movie I saw years ago called Message from Space. (He's the young kid who manages to board the helicopter and take out it's crew).  (Note:  He was also in The Last Sumarai, but since that is a Tom Cruise film, I have never watched it.)

Seek this one out if you like a good action movie, and if you like time travel stories this one is sure to be an interesting endeavor.

Time to go home now, folks.  Drive home safely.

Quiggy

Love is For the Birds

This is my entry in the France on Film Blogathon sponsored by Serendipitous Anachronisms

The French film is one that gets ignored quite often by the general American public, partly due to the average American not being well versed in French.  Of course, you could watch them dubbed, but one thing about watching it dubbed, you miss out on the actual actors and actresses voices.  In the case of La Cage aux Folles, nothing is more important than that one thing.  Believe me.  I tried to watch it dubbed, and while it was easier to follow than reading subtitles, if you watch it dubbed you only get the facial expressions, you don't get the nuances of the actors.

La Cage aux Folles (1978)

La Cage aux Folles was originally a play by Jean Poiret.   Michel Serrault, who originated the role of Albin on stage at Theatre de Palais Royal, returned to portray him in the film.  The movie was a cooperation effort between France and Italy, thus the original character of Georges in the play is renamed Renato Baldi and played by Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi.

If you come to this movie expecting to see something similar to Mike Nichol's remake, The Birdcage, you may be disappointed.  True, it is basically the same plot, but whereas The Birdcage was flashier and with not a few over-the-top performances, La Cage aux Folles is more subdued.  Still, Serrault's portrayal of Albin will garner more than a few laughs.

The story begins with the revue at a nightclub called, fittingly, La Cage aux Folles.  The master of ceremonies is in a dither because "Zaza" (Albin's stage name) has not come down from the dressing room.  Renato and Albin's doctor go to check on him.  Albin is frustrated because he feels unwanted and unloved.

Renato treats Albin with paternal patience, but Albin is convinced Renato is seeing someone else.  While Albin is on stage, Renato does see someone else, but it is his son.  Renato had a one night affair with a fellow actress 20 years earlier, even though Renato was gay even then,  which produced a son,   Laurent (Remi Laurent)  is straight and has met the girl of his dreams, Andrea (Luisa Maneri).















 

Andrea is the daughter of an ultraconservative government representative, Simon Charrier, and his wife, Louise (Michel Galabru, Carmen Scarpitta).  Off screen,  Simon's boss, the leader of a moral order conservative group, dies of a heart attack in the arms of an underage black prostitute.  This causes no end of problems with Simon and the press, so he decides to take the family to meet Laurent's "parents".  (He has been told by Andrea that Renato is a diplomat, and has conveniently failed to mention that he is gay and has a gay partner.)

Laurent tries to convince his father to send Albin away for a couple of days and tries to enlist his biological mother to come so they can pose as his parents.  Albin becomes emotionally distraught at the thought, since he is already feeling unwanted.  So Renato tries to transform him from a mincing, effeminate man to a macho man so he could stay as Laurent's uncle, still having Laurent's real mom pose with Renato as a valid married couple. The transformation doesn't go well, but unbeknownst to anyone, Albin has dressed up in women's clothes and poses as Laurent's mother.

The last part of this movie is among the most hilarious scenes ever.   Serrault is fantastic as a man posing as a woman.  And Galabru's reactions as he realizes what is going on are memorable.  

 The movie got an Oscar nod for best director (Edouard Molinaro) as well as Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Costume Design, but failed to win any.  The movie spawned two sequels, both of which had Michel Serrault and Ugo Tognazzi reprising their roles.

Until next time, drive safely.

Quiggy