melvin: Beyond a reasonable doubt is his most schematic film. It's all about am it's, it's so schematic, you you cind of, know, it doesn't really come. As a film, the acting is pretty wooden. I think the film is pretty wooden because it's all just a ruse. A writer sets out to prove an innocent man can be found guilty and executed by framing himself for a murder that he didn't commit. But then he makes a little error at the end that can o, you kno momentu momento type error. There's little slip of the tongue, which then proves he was guilty after all. And you can feelthe
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Austrian-born film director Fritz Lang (1890-1976), who was one of the most celebrated film-makers of the 20th century. He worked first in Weimar Germany, creating a range of films including the startling and subversive Mabuse the Gambler and the iconic but ruinously expensive Metropolis before arguably his masterpiece, M, with both the police and the underworld hunting for a child killer in Berlin, his first film with sound. The rise of the Nazis prompted Lang's move to Hollywood where he developed some of his Weimar themes in memorable and disturbing films such as Fury and The Big Heat.
With
Stella Bruzzi
Professor of Film and Dean of Arts and Humanities at University College London
Joe McElhaney
Professor of Film Studies at Hunter College, City University of New York
And
Iris Luppa
Senior Lecturer in Film Studies in the Division of Film and Media at London South Bank University
Producer: Simon Tillotson