The university foreign film club was supposed to play Seven Samurai tonight, but they didn't get the copy of the movie down to Salt Lake to have it filtered to a PG rating in time (I know, I know, but at least they are showing foreign films here). Instead, we watched Fritz Lang's 1931 horror/comedy film, M. I was hooked from the opening scene with a group of small children chanting a grisly nursery rhyme (any movie that begins or ends with groups of cute small children doing something horribly creepy is bound to hit my list of favorite all-time movies--why is this?). M was one of the first talkie-movies (and way cooler than the movie-within-the-movie from Singin' in the Rain), and it's German, so we got to hear a lot of danke schoens and unts and achs.
But what really made the movie blog-worthy was Peter Lorre, who played the child abductor and murderer. I had noticed Lorre from watching Casablanca and wondered if he hadn't been the creepy bug-eyed fellow from those old Looney Tunes episodes (and weren't the super old and unethical Looney Tunes the best ones?). Peter Lorre in this film is horrifying--I'm hooked. If anyone is interested in having a Peter Lorre film festival with me, come to Idaho soon. I'll be having it the weekend after I have my Fritz Lang film festival. We can celebrate several nights of film noir....film noir nights.......naughty needed nights of numerous film noir. Peter Lorre, I'll see you in my nightmares. You and your bush baby eyes.
8 comments:
A snippet of our breakfast conversation yesterday:
Z: "I had my students watch a Fritz Lang film for my film noir class."
D: "Oooh, chiaroscuro! Fritz Lang!"
Z: "Uh, that's 'kee-aroscuro,' not 'chee-aroscuro. And it's 'Lang,' not 'Long.'
Me: "Yeah, it's Italian: [large hand gesture] "Chee-arrrro-scurrrrrro! What do Italians eat for breakfast, anyway?"
Hahahaaaa.....they eat sausage. I bet. Italian sausage.
[How does one get to teach film noir? Someday I will teach a class where we get to watch movies. And it will be called BM 101: An Introduction to Bill Murray.]
Bowel Movements 101. Indeed. BMD. Bowel Manoeuvres in the Dark. BMI. Bowl Movement Index.
now, away from the scatology...
Did you know Grizz is a Fritz Lang fanatic? So much that family home evenings (the maybe 3 times a year we had them) often consisted of either watching 'M,' or 'Metropolis'. Or watching Chaplin. Or going bowling...but that is beside the point--I can understand your enthusiasm, all thanks to the Grizz.
Hahahaha, enough already!
I always did admire your dad, Joe. Well, if I ever rub elbows with him at some faculty whathaveyou, maybe Lang can be our icebreaker. They're playing Dr. Mabuse in the fall, I hear that one is a kicker.
Remember when they played underwater Buster Keaton at the Snow?
How would you like to own "M" for free? Remember a while back on my blog I mentioned a site called archive.org? Well, they happen to have "M" available for a free download---Yes, FREE. Just think you could watch this movie on your mac, or macpod, or whatever to your hearts content. You could have even embedded it into the blog post (gasp).
It's ok, if you didn't find it the first time, but for those of us who can't join you for the film noir film festival why not link to a bunch of them here? There's 39 films off of that link.
This is why I love the interent. You've spawned new interest for me to go exploring old movies. Remember when I was talking about online archives? Well, it's fun to have an excuse to go exploring. Soon I'll get to see if "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" was really worth the download.
Ah, but if you're looking for the classic that started this all click here and enjoy watching "M" all over again.
Thanks for giving me an excuse to explore! Oh, and if you really want a cool gizmo to watch these on try the "Macbook Wheel." ;-)
Golly, that sounded just like spam, but I know it isn't. Bizarre.
Spam? Spam? You consider my uninsightful links spam?
Well, I guess it kinda is. But thanks for leaving it up anyway.
Enjoy your Noir!
Did you get your MacBook wheel yet?
Peter Lorre is in one of my favorites: Arsenic and Old Lace, which definitely meets BYU-I standards.
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