"M"

I'm confused/interested. So, Lorre appeared in a dubbed version very early...
and you have a copy? Ooh la lah, not kidding.

but the spanish version of Dracula was a full re-enactment, via hollywood?

That makes sense re studio capabilities, just trying to be sure I got it right.

That's a kind offer Joe and I appreciate it. I am looking forward to knowing what all of the talking was about in the movie. Some of it I can kind of figure out but this guy the police arrested (he was digging a hole I think to rob a bank maybe) is really upset and the police officer is laughing. Frustrating.

Ooooooooooooh the good part! He's in the basement with all of the thieves and street people!

Um, I'm not sure what happened. It seems the police broke up the "meeting" before they could kill Peter Lorre. They went to court but who were the three women in the mourning clothes? Mothers of the children that Peter killed? What sentence did he get? I can't wait to get ahold of this movie with subtitles!

Before dubbing, Hollywood studios needed some way to exploit foreign markets. Subtitles, however, weren't really an option -- they smacked of silent movie intertitles, and, then as now, there were just a lot of people who didn't want to go to the movies to read. So from 1928 to around 1932, studios would occasionally "double" a movie in English and some other language.

When Universal made Dracula in 1931, for instance, it also made Drácula. Using the same script (translated, of course, into Spanish), the same sets, and the same equipment, the Mexican cast essentially shot at night, after filming on the English-language Dracula was finished. Drácula is available on DVD as part of the Universal Dracula boxed set.

Another way of doing it was to have the actors do multiple takes of the same scenes, one in English and another in a foreign language. Laurel and Hardy shot a number of their earliest sound shorts in English and Spanish versions -- they had to learn their Spanish lines phonetically. Another example of this is Der Blaue Engel/The Blue Angel, which was shot in German and English versions using the same cast. Here's Marlene Dietrich in the English version singing "Falling in Love Again" ("Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuss auf Liebe eingestellt"):



The direction was almost always from the original English to some other language. Der blaue Engel was an exception, only made possible because Paramount had pretty much bought out UFA by that time and was hyping Marlene Dietrich as the next Greta Garbo.

Of course, making two versions of the same movie was rather expensive. By about 1932, dubbing technology was sufficiently advanced that it became the preferred method for adapting movies to foreign markets.

I have seen that movie! Germany always has re-runs of old movies and one day they showed this film. I was a teenager then and still remember how scary and creepy that movie was.

Anyway, I found a video of it that has English subtitles. So you can watch
it online, Arella Mae

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7434905497229204028

Oh you are a doll!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to put it on right now. Not knowing what really happened at the end is driving me nuts!

joefc, thank you, that's really interesting, shot at night? I can picture it.

Did they know the language already or did they just learn the script in the foreign language? I have always wondered about that.

That depended on the actors. Like I said, Laurel & Hardy learned their Spanish lines phonetically -- they couldn't speak the language at all. Here are the boys (along with comedy greats Edgar Kennedy and James Finlayson, both equally ignorant of Spanish) in Ladrones (Thieves), the Spanish language version of Night Owls (1930)



Compare this scene from Night Owls (the equivalent scene in Ladrones starts at 27:13)



I think Emil Jannings knew a little English by the time he made The Blue Angel, but he wasn't very comfortable with it. Marlene Dietrich didn't really speak any English when she made The Blue Angel, but she was, I'm sure, getting intensive lessons at that time because Paramount had plans to ship her off to Hollywood.

That is amazing. How in the world do they know which inflections to use at what time? Peter Lorre in "M" gave a desperate speech trying to defend his actions. If he learned that all phoenetically WOW! Thanx Joe.

Well, let's back up a second. Peter Lorre was a native German speaker, so he didn't learn his lines phonetically. I doubt that anyone in M did. Like I said, Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich probably did in The Blue Angel, but it was unusual for German productions to make an English version of a film. It usually operated in the opposite direction: Hollywood made foreign language versions of their English-language movies.

Oh okay. I misunderstood. I'm not very busy at work this morning so I am watching Calamity Jane's link of M. I must tell you, being able to understand what is going on only fascinates me more. This movie is like one of the first CSIs in the regard it does a bit of profiling, etc.

Okay, I just finished watching all of M. I'm lost! What happened to the killer? No punishment was ever stated. But the women did say "It won't bring our children back" so I guess I should infer from that he got the death penalty? Fascinating movie. Way before it's time. I am going to look up the case it was "supposedly" based on. Thanx for everyone's help!

That's correct. There's no point in following the story once the police get their hands on Peter Lorre. Presumably justice prevails, he's convicted, and everybody gets on with their lives. But, as you point out, it doesn't bring back the children who died at the serial killer's hands, nor does it help us understand his motivations. That is the movie's point.

I am really blown away at the accuracy of describing serial killers. This movie was done before the term serial killer ever existed (as far as I know). I definitely will be watching it again.

Yes, as Joe said, it wasn't necessary to show the actual punishment since it
was implied anyway. For the first half of the movie you didn't even see the face of the murderer and you certainly never saw any murder take place, yet
the suspense was so much more present than in any of today's violent movies where every little bloody scene is shown in slow motion.

I agree. That ball rolling out of the woods and that balloon floating up in the wires sent chills down my spine.

I watched it with my daughter who speaks fluent German, and kept disagreeing with the subtitles. I knew a couple of things she didn't though, from the Bernie Gunther books by Philip Kerr, bull is slang for police, and the Alex is the name of the Police Headquarters in Berlin.

When Shranker (?) held up those photos of the children and Peter Lorre reacted to them...................if it had been any other actor I would think it wasn't a well-acted response. But, for him, it was perfect. It was like he knew he was about to die.

Yeah, we call the police "Bulle" or "Bullen" (plural) just like they say "cop(s)" here in the U.S.

I didn't really read the subtitles as I understand what they're talking about,
but you never get the word for word translation with subtitles anyway, but
I am sure Arella got the gist of it.