Mary

For all practical purposes, a remake, in German, of "Murder!" It is stark and frantic, but the plot is the same. The editing is flawed and so things do not move fluidly. Also, the actors seem more stiff and less interesting. It's as if Hitchcock felt he could give the German people a gift, but move on quickly. I agree that the tension is much less. The final scene is one of the most dramatic of any the master produced, but here it doesn't have quite the same impact. See it only if you wish to have a full view of early Hitchcock films. That was my motivation.

This perfunctory German version of MURDER, filmed at the same time on the same sets but with a mostly different cast, is 28 minutes shorter than the English version! It leaves out all of the touches that make the English version enjoyable, and also leaves out some of the clues that lead to the murderer. Some of the things left out are: the jury member who hasn't a clue; the jury foreman having difficulty getting the ballots in the right piles; the jury filing out from the jury room into the court and Sir John waiting before getting up and joining them; the servant bringing the radio into the bathroom, and the colloquy with the servant at that point; the interior monologue is much shorter; dialogue in the scene immediately after is shorter (also, the bathroom and subsequent scene are sequenced wrong so that it seems he's shaving again after he finished); the landlady isn't present when the couple get the call from Sir John, and so the byplay about them owing the rent is not there; their frantic dressing and spiffing up for the Sir John visit; the shot of the stage manager's feet in a super-soft carpet, showing what it feels like to him; the scene where they look at the parlor with landlady is much shorter (and comes after scene where they look at her bedroom); tricking the landlady by using a high-pitched voice; Hitchcock's appearance in the street; tipping the theatre manager after they inspect the theatre; the scene with all the kids is much shorter, with the cat under the covers eliminated (same kids, though); the kids don't sit on the trunk, so the dialogue about the policeman's uniform in the trunk must not be there; the striking overhead shot of Mary in her cell, and the shadow of the noose; Sir John's scene with Mary is shorter, colder, and they don't talk about the theatre at the end; the scene of Sir John and the stage manager in the circus audience, where they talk about trapping the murderer with a Hamlet-like play is much shorter; when the murderer hangs himself, there's a somewhat more dramatic sound editing, perhaps to cover up the fact that he doesn't make a very good noose; the murderer carried out on a stretcher; the sequence of Sir John and Mary in the train is shorter; and the shot of the characters on stage at the end. Some of the jokes are still there but presented in so rudimentary a fashion that one would hardly notice. For example, when Sir John notices that his guest is using a small spoon for the soup, he does the same, and when he puts his martini olive on the tray, the guests don't know what to do with theirs; both these incidents still occur but with no reactions from the actors to point up the gags. Abel looks a lot like Marshall, which is very disconcerting because that British upper-class attitude that informs every aspect of the English version is completely lacking. The stage manager is an expressionless nonentity in this version. It's a second-hand, second-rate copy all through. One can hardly believe Hitchcock himself directed this totally lacking, colorless run-through of his delightful MURDER. You may never get a chance to see this one, which may frustrate Hitchcock completists, but, really, there's absolutely no reason to see it, even if you only understand German! See MURDER a second time instead.

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.

It is late night when the dwellers of a street hear a scream in the apartment of the actress Mary Baring (Olga Tschechowa). A police officer arrives, and the neighbors see Mary dazed and confused, with blood on her clothes and on a poker, and the body of her colleague Ellen Moore on the floor. An empty bottle of brandy is on the table and Mary is in shock with no recollection of what happened. The drunken Mr. Moore says that Mary and Ellen were rivals in the theater and the police take Mary to the precinct. There is a trial, and the jurors believe Mary is guilty, but the famous actor Sir John Menier (Alfred Abel) believes she is not guilty. However, he is not able to change the position of the other jurors and is forced to change his vote to guilty. Mary is sentenced to the gallows, but Sir John decides to conduct his own investigation to prove that Mary is innocent.

"Mary" (1931) is a German spoken remake of "Murder!" (1930) that was shot simultaneously on the same sets of "Murder!" by Alfred Hitchcock with a German-speaking cast. The plot is interesting, about a murder and the woman accused and considered guilty by the jurors. There is one moment, when Sir John Menier exposes his opinion, that seems to be the inspiration to "12 Angry Men" (1957) when only one juror disagrees from the others. The real killer is a weird guy, wearing a dress to perform at the circus. After watching "Mary", I have finally finished to see or see again all the Alfred Hitchcock features and written a review in IMDb for each one. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Mary"

This is the only time in Alfred Hitchcock's career that he remade one of his own films in another language; just like in "Murder" (1930), there is one piece of brilliant filmmaking (the entire jury sequence), but the rest of the film is dull, primitive and plodding - strictly for Hitchcock completists. Mary (Olga Tschechowa) is very beautiful. ** out of 4.