When the Nazis came to power, the propaganda minister Josef Goebbels (according to Lang) offered Fritz Lang charge of the German film industry. Although Lang had just made a film that many read as anti-Nazi (The Testament of Dr. Mabuse) that Goebbels banned, Hitler and Goebbels had been entranced by the great silent epic Die Nibelüng (especially its first part, "Siegfried").

Lang fled to Paris, where he directed one film before moving on to Hollywood. "Liliom" then is the way station between the German films such as "M" and "Metropolis" and the American classics beginning with Fury and < href="/content_165575495300 and continuing with noir classics such as The Big Heat and "Woman in the Window").

Based on a Hungarian play by Ferenc Molnár that had already been filmed twice (a silent version in Hungary, directed by Michael Curtiz, who would make a name for himself later in Hollywood, and a 1930 American talking picture starring Charles Farrell) and would be turned into the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Carousel," "Liliom" is a mix of the underclass naturalism of "M" and "You Only Live Once" with the fantasy vision most prominent in "Metropolis," although extraterrestrial rather than futuristic.

The title character, played exuberantly by Charles Boyer (back from his first Hollywood role as Jean Harlow's chauffeu/lover in < href="/content_165487414916) runs a carnival carousel. He is very successful at luring in and charming female customers, quick with jokes and songs. How far his services to Mme. Muskat (Florelle), the carnival owner go is unclear. She is possessive but also clearly understands that his flirtatiousness is good for business.

Mme. Muskat snaps at a pair of off-duty maids whom she calls putains (prostitutes). Liliom sets up a rendez-vous with one of them even after learning they have no money, and rather brutally dismisses one when they both show up. The one who stays with him despite being warned by a police patrol is Julie (Madeleine Ozeray). From having seen "Carousel" when my age was in single digits, I somehow remembered Shirley Jones bursting into "If I Loved You" at this juncture, and, sure enough, Julie says that.

Soon, she is supporting him. He has no particular skills and even less inclination to labor. On top of his dissoluteness, he is very nasty to Julie and on occasion beats her. Although Boyer's Liliom has precious little of the charm of the debonair Boyer of post-1935 films, she is devoted to him.

Whereas Fury takes a clear stand against lynching and Hangman Also Die against Nazi occupation, there is no critique of wife-beating in "Liliom"—even when heavenly judges appear. Julie says at one point, that she didn't feel the blows. She does not get off on being beaten, but is so happy for any contact with Liliom that she accepts it. I see her seeming welcoming of abuse as battered-woman syndrome rather than as masochism, but 1930s audiences apparently saw Love. (Call me "p.c." but no one will call "Liliom" that!) Julie refuses a match with a good provider who treats her well, preferring the passionate wastrel. (Where have I seen that before, or is it since?)

After Julie tells Liliom that she is pregnant, he is persuaded to waylay a payroll and ends up stabbing himself instead of the courier. I know that this is a lot of plot revelation, but the last and most interesting third of the movie shows a posthumous Liliom explaining himself in heaven, still flirting with the female help, and returning to earth for a day to see his daughter after 16 years burning in purgatory.

The 1934 French special effects are primitive, but there
are some dazzling shots of the carousel. The pair of very dour heavenly police who escort Liliom to the provisional judgment that recapitulates a visit to the terrestrial police state are a high point. The celestial music for this scene by Franz Waxman turned out to be his ticket to Hollywood, too (initially, for James Whale's "Bride of Frankenstein," followed by many others, including eleven nominated for Oscars, two wins).

Watch for the knife-sharpener, played by Antonin Artaud—not quite as striking as he was in "The Passion of Joan of Arc," but in a role that turns out to be more important than it first appears to be. The striking cinematography was the work of Rudolph Maté, who had lensed "Vampyr" and "The Passion of Joan of Arc" for Dreyer and would shoot "The Lady from Shanghai" for Orson Welles, and Ms. Hayworth also as "Gilda" and the "Cover Girl" and films by Ernst Lubitsch, Alfred Hitchcock, and William Wyler).

The Kino DVD print is not perfect, with some wavering shades in the heaven section, and the DVD has no extras other than a listing of Lang's films.

For links to my other reviews of Lang movies see
http://www.epinions.com/content_165604462212


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age