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Director: Fritz Lang (Metropolis, You Only Live Once, Human Desire)
Cast: Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Theodor Loos, Gustaf Grundgens
Germany, 1931

Seen: July 30, 2006 via Rogers Direct

Reason to see: Its on my List of 101 Films I Can't Believe I Haven't Seen. Note to self: if I write another list like this at that time put the reason to see as my mind is starting to blank on this. I believe I picked it as it was on imdb's top 250 films.

I've put off doing this review for over three weeks now, and the reason is this.... I really think this film had some kind of bigger picture social/political reference and I have no idea what it is. Not a clue. I think it my be the oldest film on my 101 films to see list and I actually really like watching films that are this old. You know it must had been really hard to get the lighting and angles, or maybe it wasn't - maybe it all just worked out. But I always think about the logistics of the filmmaking when I see something of this vintage. All in all I found it compelling but really wanted to understand what was really going on. Don't get me wrong it wasn't confusing - there is a plot, its a....drama? Crime drama maybe, and it makes sense but I kept feeling like I was missing something.

So there it is, straight from you to me... I just... didn't get it. I did like it, just didn't get it.

Shannon's Overall View:
I found it very interesting
I would mostly likely watch it one more time to see if I could understand more of it
I'd recommend it to film buffs, especially anyone who likes dramatic use of black & white as well as people intersted in films from that period

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© Shannon Ridler, 2006