Two questions about Lang's "M" (1931)
Mon, 18 Jan 1999 00:32:35 EST
Greetings. Concerning Lang's "M" (1931),
(1) I have recently read that "M" was the first film to use voice-over
narration, a narrator. Does this gibe with others' (your) info?
(2) In the longer, digitized video version of "M," in the "trial" scene at
film's end, several references are made to "Paragraph 51" --- one infers this
may be a German statute of the time permitting perpetual psychiatric
hospitalization rather than execution for murder, but I'd like to know a
little more clearly what is "Paragraph 51"?
Many thanks for any help,
Bet MacArthur MSW Cambridge MA (617) 499 9490
----
Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the
University of Alabama.