Mary (1931)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Clemence Dane (novel)
Herbert Juttke (book)

Release Date:

2 March 1931 (Germany)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

A juror in a murder trial, after voting to convict, has second thoughts and begins to investigate on his own before the execution. German version of "Murder." |

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Murder Trial | Blackmail | Prison | Hanging

Cast

Alfred Abel	...	Sir John Menier
Olga Tschechowa	...	Mary Baring
Paul Graetz	...	Bobby Brown
Lotte Stein	...	Bebe Brown
Ekkehard Arendt	...	Handel Fane
John Mylong	...	John Stuart (as Jack Mylong-Münz)
Louis Ralph	...	Bennet
Hermine Sterler	...	Miß Miller
Fritz Alberti	...	Verteidiger
Else Schünzel
Julius Brandt
Rudolf Meinhard-Jünger		(as Rudolph Meinhardt Junger)
Fritz Grossman
Lucie Euler
Harry Hardt	...	Inspektor

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

Germany | UK

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

British International Pictures (BIP)

Trivia:

One copy of this film is known to survive at the Bundesfilmarchiv in Germany.

Movie Connections:

Alternate language version of Murder! (1930)

To drink or not to drink

The Hitchcock/Truffaut book,which is actually a very long interview ,something like "the Beatles anthology" in pop music ,gives us many interesting informations about "Mary" ,a movie the master liked.Although he told Truffaut he detested the whodunits ,those riddles a la Agatha Christie,"Mary" featured "things we did for the first time":stream of consciousness,play in the play a la "Hamlet" references to transvestism and even hints at (veiled) homosexuality,which was a "crime" in Great Britain as it was in Germany at the time....

That said,the story drags on a bit and the running time could have been boiled down to one hour,which would have enhanced the really good scenes: IT was Herbert Marshall's first talkie and the scene when he's shaving and thinking for a clue renews the way the detective investigates.The unfinished manuscript is also a very good idea.But the bravura passage remains the final circus.One can also note the scene of the verdict we hear from the empty juror's room.

There are elements which would appear later in Hitchcock's work: the theater ("Stage fright",also a whodunit,btw),of course "Psycho" (a man in drag) and "vertigo" (the finale which makes you feel dizzy).

This is another early Hitchcock which is not only for completists.