Le vampire noir

I saw a stunning movie last night. El Vampiro Negro, an Argintinian film whose title translates as The Black Vampire, is a remake of Fritz Lang's legendary M, starring Peter Lorre as a child killer. But this is no shot-for-shot remake. The acting is astonishing on all fronts, and the plot is tight and fraught with dread. And the look! Although the movie was released in 1953 (and almost never seen in the U.S.A.), a bit past the classic noir era, there's a distinct look of those gritty dramas afoot.

Teodoro Ulber (Nathan Pinzon), known as The Professor, is on trial for murder as the movie begins. After his attorney asks for confinement to a mental institution and the prosecution asks for the death penalty, a flashback reveals how Ulber made it to this point. Outside a dance hall, a short, portly figure drags the body of a little girl from a worn sack and throws it down a sewage shaft. The next day, a homeless man, deep within the sewer tunnels of the city, comes across the body. He alerts the police, who (of course) toss him in jail as a possible suspect, and the manhunt is on.

But Ulber's actions didn't go unseen. Through window in the basement of the dance hall, a young performer named Amalia (Olga Zubarry) spies the wretched little man. But she keeps quiet, at the behest of the club's unscrupulous owner. The owner fears he'd come under too-close scrutiny, and Amalia fears that she'll receive unwanted publicity – for, although she's a dancer of ill repute (!), she does have a sweet young daughter whom she's been able to send to a private school, at her own great sacrifice.

What's more, one of Amalia's coworkers, Cora (Nelly Panizza) is actually acquaintances with Ulber, who awkwardly pitches woo at Cora. Without realizing that Ulber is indeed the Black Vampire, Cora and Amalia aid in his escape from the police (led by prosecutor Bernar, played by Roberto Escalada), which only opens up the possibility of more children being murdered.

This is by no means a gory film. In fact, there's almost no blood at all (and none anywhere near a child). But the harsh camera of Anibal Gonzalez Paz tells a story all on its own: the desperate vulnerability of Ulber, the jaded countenance of Bernar, the shadowy streets and tunnels and back alleys of the city. Gonzalez Paz artfully direct the viewer's attention not to what is present but to what may be coming just around the bend.

The movie premiered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in October 1953 but didn't make it over to the States until January 2014. 61 years! 61 years before this masterful work by Roman Vinoly Barreto could be seen (with subtitles) over here, and more's the pity. El Vampiro Negro is a tremendous accomplishment that's not to be missed.

Huge thanks to the Film Noir Foundation and to the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland for making this screening possible!

Pleased to join my six IMDB colleagues below in praise of this very fine Argentinian remake of "M"...with a generous portion of "Third Man" and a dash of "Freaks" thrown in for good measure in that darkly magnificent, climactic scene. Is it better than Lang's original, as Eddie Muller intimated in his intro? Not sure, since it has been many a moonlit and moonless night since I have seen the German masterpiece and I would hesitate to place anyone above Peter Lorre in the tortured, oleaginous category (though Nathan Pinzon comes awfully close). But I will opine that the loss of this film's director, Ramon Vinoly Barretto, in his mid fifties was, in my opinion, quite tragic. Give it an A minus.

A remake- though not exact - of 'M' has a Peter Lorre-like actor as a pedophile murderer (none of that on-screen fortunately). The cinematography is good - especially the ending scenes in the sewers, 'borrowed' from the Third Man.

A madman is loose in Buenos Aries, kidnapping and murdering young children and in general baffling the police. There is a sub-plot, the prosecutor has an unhealthy interest in the only witness to a childs abduction.

All this may have been cutting edge in the Argentine post-Peron era, but unlike the first few reviewers I see nothing remarkable here. The acting is less than average Hollywood of the same time, the story was told better before and after this. And you have to suffer through sub-titles also😁

Setting aside the inevitable comparisons to Fritz Lang's classic M from 1931, this is an excellent noir, full of dark shadows, a creepy serial killer preying on children, and plenty of atmosphere. Nathán Pinzón, even looking a bit like Peter Lorre, is fantastic in his own right. It had me from the start in that seedy cabaret, with the montage of closeups and the sultry performance from Olga Zubarry. When she glimpses a man tossing the body of a child in the sewer through a window later, she screams, and one of the women upstairs on the dance floor says to her partner "I like it rough too, but I don't scream."

The film lost a little momentum during the police investigation which follows, though there is tension during a couple of other murders along the way (mercifully, nothing shown). The prosecutor investigating the crimes seems so upright, saying procedures must be followed and caring for his paralyzed wife - but we eventually see this unravel, as he first gets on his high horse and chastises the cabaret performer for working where she does, and then out of sexual frustration tries to force himself on her. It was a fine moment when she rebuffed him, and justified the inclusion of the wife subplot which otherwise seemed a little weak.

Along the way there is action down in the dank sewers, a shoot out in the cabaret, and carnival rides, all suitably dramatic. The whistling of Edvard Grieg's The Hall of the Mountain King by the killer added an eerie touch. Made just a couple of years before the coup that would oust Juan Perón and put Argentina under a military dictatorship for several years, the ending seems to reflect an unambiguous desire to be "tough on crime," despite the desperate speech at the end ("I don't want to but I can't help myself!"), which was cathartic. It's a film that was well done, and still has power.

A 1953 Argentinian remake of Fritz Lang's M from director Roman Vinoly Barreto. Following the plotine of the original very closely w/some subtle changes, making the child murderer a English language tutor, who is glimpsed by a nightclub entertainer from her dressing room window after we learn later a murder was committed there. A prosecutor & the police are desperate to catch him going through extreme lengths (catching any & all possible suspects & giving them the third degree) but as the criminals fear their own well being & the populace itself (particularly the homeless) are onto to the Black Vampire, he takes the entertainer's daughter hostage in a desperate bid to survive w/the final reel of him being chased, caught & brought to trial. As worthy as the original & even the 1951 American remake, this south of the border version was done w/such style & taste, you would think this film could be made in different countries & languages w/similar results.