M
With David Wayne, Howard da Silva, Martin Gabel.
US, 1951, 35mm, black & white, 88 min.
Print source: British Film Institute
As the Hollywood blacklist swung into high gear, Losey found an ideal vehicle for his increasing alienation from the studio system in this striking and much admired reinterpretation of Fritz Lang's classic tale of a tortured child killer and the malignant society that is unable to help him. Losey assembled many of his stellar cast from the New York theater, including Howard da Silva, Norman Lloyd and the talented David Wayne, who adds a new level of perversity and poignant loneliness to his portrayal of M's hunted psychopath. A key American film of the early 1950s, Losey's M offers a dark cautionary tale for the television age that sees the corrupt intertwining of politics and media fanning the flames of mass hysteria.
PRECEDED BY
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A Gun in His Hand
Directed by Joseph Losey.
With Tom Trout, Richard Gaines, Anthony Caruso.
US, 1945, 35mm, black & white, 19 min.
Print source: Academy Film Archive
The protagonist of this morality tale cum crime drama is a crooked cop who uses his insider knowledge to lead a gang of thieves. His criminal enterprise is complicated when a fellow police officer is gunned down during a heist. Part of the studio's Crime Doesn't Pay series, this crisply directed short dates from Losey's brief stint at MGM (where he directed Elizabeth Taylor's screen test for National Velvet).
