[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to five minute film finder, brought to you by Pioneer Library system.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Welcome to another episode of five minute film finder with the Pioneer library system. I am your host today, traveling host, visiting host, Kendall Watson.
Joining me today is, if you'll introduce yourself.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm Samuel, also a fellow librarian at Pioneer.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Yeah. And film nerd, I would say, too. We were just discussing that right before we started.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I kind of came through it accidentally maybe, maybe, but. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's fun to find like minded folks who are in talking movies, and.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: It sounds like you, you had some at home as well. You said your brother, even your brother watch movies and talk movies. So you.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: Brother in law.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: Yeah, brother in law. Okay. Gotcha. Very cool. So you're already kind of. You're bringing this from home and this kind of. I love it. Okay, so, well, just to remind you guys joining with us today that this point of this show is we actually find two movies based off of the streaming services available through our library, either canopy or hoopla. In this case, both of our titles come from one of each today. And we have five minutes to tell you about this movie, sell you on it, let you know our thoughts are, and then make some general recommendations at the end before we get cut off by a fantastic Wilhelm screen that never just seems to get old. We love it very dearly and. All right, so let's see. What would you say, what would you say is like kind of a good, like, one word theme for our episode today between our two movies before we kind of, like, reveal them and talk about them, would you say, like, dark.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: Streets and shadows and dark, shadowy child endangerment?
So maybe like a trigger warning there.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: Yeah, that's actually. I'm glad you brought that up. While the movies that we watch, neither of them depict anything that's too terrible, a lot of them, my movie by itself is almost 100 years old. You would be, you try really hard to see something really, truly terrible in about a hundred year old movie. So your movie, I think, is a little darker on some terms. But, you know, that being said, it is a little bit of a warning. We wanted to give up ahead that these films are both kind of darker at times.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. For sure. For sure.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: All right, well, I say we go ahead and get into it. If. We'll go ahead and start our five minute timer. We're gonna go chronological today. And if you'll begin, we're gonna start with my film 1931 film out of Germany, directed and written by Fritz Lang, called M the letter M. M as in Matthew. Because I've realized, speaking over the phone for years, that you can say m and n and they all sound the same. The movie M, written and directed by Fritz Lang, if you're familiar with that name, or if you're familiar with film at all, it was the writer and director of Metropolis back in 1927, just about four years prior to this. Metropolis is another film that is still referenced to this day by Fritz Lang. So two films under the belt of this gentleman really stand the test of time. What's interesting I wanted to point out, before we hop into the synopsis, is it also written by Thea von Harbo?
Just doing a little bit of research. It was Lang's wife at the time, but whenever they. Fritz Lang was actually warned about Nazi Germany, because Fritz Lang did not mention was born in Vienna, lived in Germany. Fritz Lang was actually kind of warned to flee Germany because of the Nazis taking over. And Thea von Harbo stayed behind and actually went into, like, propaganda and kind of went the darker route. So, interesting kind of a little, you know, history, a film staying between the two of them in their own little way, but written between these two at the time when they were written, this was 1931. This was pre Nazi Germany. So this is actually Weimar Germany. We were just discussing that as well, which I admittedly did not know a lot of until I was in college. I don't know if you are familiar with Weimar Germany very much.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: I've listened to an audiobook.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: Oh.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: That I checked out through Hoopla.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: Oh, there you go. Nice. Nice placement. What was the name of it, by the way?
[00:03:56] Speaker A: I think it was just titled Weimar Germany.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Weimar Germany.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: It's Princeton University Press. They do a lot of audiobooks, so.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: Oh, cool.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: You can find a lot of their titles on Hoopla.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Gotcha. So this was the period of Germany right before Nazi Germany, which is important because this plays into the film. I'll go ahead and talk about the synopsis and then talk about how it plays into that. The film stars Peter Lorre, who really is the most notable star of this. There are some other german actors at the time, but no one as big. But the synopsis is when the police in a german city are unable to catch a child murderer, other criminals join the manhunt, which is kinda, kind of a little vague in my terms, but I always. When Tracy was on with me back a couple episodes ago, we joke about how IMDb's synopsis are terrible. They're the most, you know, vague doesn't tell you about anything. But Peter Lorre, again, the actor that you would know him for, most famous from, let's see, the maltese falcon. I believe he was also in Casablanca, but he was the star here. He plays the titular m character, the title murderer, the child murderer.
And this movie is really about a bunch of criminals that kind of come together to stop a child criminal murder. Would you say that's kind of a good reduction point of that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it really is. It really is on point. It's that the. What, the crime has risen in this city so much that they have to employ other means of stopping this child murderer. So all these criminals essentially amounts to this grand. I don't want to run out of time, but this grand Kangaroo court scene at the very end. But there are some fantastic motifs that occur in this movie. Hall of the Mountain King. The murderer whistles, and that's how they identify them.
This movie, for being, again, almost 100 years old in 1931, is just pretty ahead of its time. It used motifs. A big part of it was doing the research and the crime investigation, which hadn't been done at the time in film before that. Again, it was very, very forward thinking for it. You'd said you'd seen this before. What were your kind of general reactions to it? You'd first seen it.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: Oh, alarm. Yeah, I mean, it's an alarming film because one, like, the nature of, like, the crime is just, you know, horrifying, but, yeah, but also, even. Even, like, you know, the kangaroo court like that, that scene is unnerving because there's a way in which the mob take it seems like they lose a sense of their own humanity in the midst of that. And, yeah, it's a very alarming. And when, you know, and considering when the film was made, sure it makes.
[00:06:35] Speaker B: It's a very intense watch. You're right. And kind of quickly going back to it with Weimar history in Germany, it was very, very common politically at the time to talk about the morality of doing capital punishment. And so that was one of the big influences behind writing this movie was what would it look like to stop crime, truly? You know, would it take criminals rising up and, you know, essentially ending one of their own? And even on that scale, what is worse? You know, there's a scene where he talks about your murderers, your thieves, your robbers. How am I any worse now? I would say killing children is much worse, but it brings up some good points. I am almost out of time, so I just wanted to bring up a couple of points. This movie, again, it's called M 1931 is referenced ever all over the place. Now in crime.
I'm out of time. Sorry. I was trying to stumble over my words and get it out, but I was just going to say criminal investigation, any kind of true crime. This is just so stylish of a movie, too. It's beautifully shot.
I would just say it's from what we've talked about, you have enough information, go seek it out. It's on canopy. I wholly suggest you watch it if you're a film fan. All right, well, we're gonna take a quick break. We're gonna come back with Samuel's pick of the week and then after that, we'll look ahead to next.
And welcome back to five minute film finder. Just as a reminder, my pick of the week, we are doing older films, older kind of detective crime films. My film of the week was Fritz Lang's m. And now I'm going to throw in my co host Samuel this week and you're going to tell us about your pick and start us off with the five minutes. Whenever you're ready.
[00:08:22] Speaker A: Okay? Yes. So I chose the knight of the Hunter, I believe, 1952, directed by Charles Lawton, who actually famous actor. And this was the only. I think this is the only film he directed.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: I think you're right. Yeah. The only film.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Because it was so poorly received that he kind of shook his confidence and he just, you know, oh, it's awful. So just for Charles, you know, watch this movie.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. I mean, that's incredible, though, to see how it's. And I don't mean to butt in, but to say how it's. I mean, this is a film that you watch in film school. I mean, this is a film that people talk about as, like, a classic film. And just to be like, oh, you know, my one and done. And I didn't get it. You know, I didn't hit the mark, but go on.
[00:09:05] Speaker A: No, no, it's all good. And I think what's. What's so nice about pairing this with m is the, you know, as I was saying before we started recording, you know, m, you kind of expect a dark movie to come out of maybe the moment of crisis that is Weimar Germany. You don't necessarily expect a dark movie like the night of the Hunter from 1950s America, but with that, let's kind of, like, dive into the plot a bit. I'll just try and do a little quick plot synopsis. Basically, a guy robs a bank and he's in a cell with serial killer played by Robert Mitchum. Who. Great, great performance.
[00:09:44] Speaker B: Fantastic.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And so Robert Mitchum's character, the serial killer, learns that this guy has $10,000 stashed away with his family somewhere. And so when he gets out of prison, because he was just in on stealing a cardinal, he tracks down the family, marries the mom, and then sets about really cornering the kids because the kids are the ones who know where the money money is. He corners them, and he tries to get the information out of them, which ends up to him killing the mom and then the kids going on the run. And it culminates when they're taken in by a woman down the river.
And it's kind of great depression era. That's, I think, the vibe. And so she's taking in all these kids that parents can't support them and stuff.
And so the conflict reaches ahead there. So it's on hoopla. It's. I think it's a really fantastic film. I remember when I first watched it, I really liked it. It's dark, for sure. There is that influence of the shadows and angles that you were talking about, like german filmmaking that kind of makes it way into kind of the american cinema here.
But I think, honestly, it's actually the lighter tones of the film that I think, stick with me. I think I'm quite taken with the woman who takes the kids in, and it's not, I think, totally selfless. It's hinted at that she had a strained relationship with her son.
And maybe in some sense, she's trying to fulfill some kind of motherly need or something like that in taking in these kids.
But so much of this film is adults ignoring these children or not taking their complaints about this very bad dude's sinister side. Right? And then also this, you know, very horrible dude who's, you know, trying to extort information out of these children and eventually, you know, starts running them down to try and get the money and I and probably, you know, kill them and stuff. And there's just this woman who is taking in all these children, like, trying to care for them, who listens to them. And some of the ways that she. I mean, you know, you see some of, like, the old fashioned, like, parenting that she, you know, displays.
But there's also this.
She seems to understand the children. There's the older girl who keeps on putting them in danger, the oldest child that she's taken in. And she kind of interprets her missteps, if you will, down to the environment she's grown stuff that I feel like you don't hear about as much until later.
It feels like this very modern take on rearing children is understanding their context, understanding their environment, why they would seek out, like, maybe like, not the best option. Right. There's this, like, depth to her, to her parenting skills, and I'm running out of time. And I really just.
[00:13:02] Speaker B: That's what happens with these movies. They're so complex. But I mean, you're right, though. It's interesting. I wanted to talk about quickly that both of our movies deal with children being in direct threat by adults. And I don't know, I just wanted to really quick and quickly say, like, did you ever think about that when you were watching both your last thoughts on that?
[00:13:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think night of the hunter really, like, throws it in your face and you see the obvious ways that so many adults fail these. These children.
[00:13:29] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: And that's why she stands out so much, because she doesn't.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: Yeah, there's very, I know we're out of time, but there's a very iconic, like, Robert Mitchum. Like, doesn't he have like a very. Just like, it's just a cool outfit kind of.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: He poses as a pastor. Reverend.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: I know, I should.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: I. I know it's kind of a spoiler.
[00:13:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Like the itinerary, the love hate. I didn't even talk about that. And then you get into do the right thing and. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:13:55] Speaker B: It's a, it's a loaded movie.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: Okay, well, that's our picks for this week.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:00] Speaker B: Those five minutes fly by when we're talking about m and night of the hunter. Yeah. Still, I think both yours is on Hoopla. Is that correct?
[00:14:07] Speaker A: Hoopla. Yes.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: Yep. Mine was on canopy. Encourage you both to seek these out again. I mean, you know, the part, the problem with movies is there will always be new ones and always new things to watch and it's harder to see new things, you know, older things that have been out. But these are movies that are truly worth your time and still draw up a good conversation. Obviously, between us, there's parallels even to this day. So we just wanted to say thank you for joining us. And Samuel, thank you for joining me and talking about these movies.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: Yeah, this is great.
[00:14:32] Speaker B: Yeah, we had a lot of fun on five minute film finder. If you enjoy what you hear, make sure to like and subscribe and share. We love to have any comment, any feedback, you can always reach out to
[email protected]. dot. You can send us your requests or thoughts and other than that, we will look forward to next episode and next new hosts. Thank you so much.
