Mastodawn

David Annandale Nov 18, 2022

Joseph Losey’s 1951 remake of M isn’t a bad film. In fact, it’s pretty good. Given how closely it follow its model, it could hardly turn out otherwise. It is, though, somewhat redundant. In the first two pairs of screenshots here, the first of each pair is from 1931, the second from 1951. I could multiply the examples, but the carbon-copying is pretty striking in these images from the opening scene.
#horror #filmnoir

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David Annandale Nov 18, 2022

At least Losey’s film doesn’t feel quite as pointless as Gus Van Sant’s 1998 remake of PSYCHO (which was really just a colourized version of the original, with bonus subliminal cow shots). It makes great use of its setting during the manhunt in the office building, with some very striking shots, and really comes into its own there.

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David Annandale

It tries to strike out on its own in the trial scene too, but there rather fumbles the ball, suddenly trying to make an important character out of the murderer’s “attorney” to indifferent effect.

David Wayne as the killer is certainly full of twitches and shrieks, but he just isn’t Peter Lorre, in much the same way that the tune he plays on his tin flute has none of the creepy recognizability of Lorre’s whistled “Hall of the Mountain King.”