649 Ministry of Fear

[Matt]

Ministry of Fear



Suffused with dread and paranoia, this Fritz Lang adaptation of a novel by Graham Greene is a plunge into the eerie shadows of a world turned upside down by war. En route to London after being released from a mental institution, Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) stops at a seemingly innocent village fair, after which he finds himself caught in the web of a sinister underworld with possible Nazi connections. Lang was among the most illustrious of the European émigré filmmakers working in Hollywood during World War II, and Ministry of Fear is one of his finest American productions, an unpredictable thriller with style to spare.

• New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• New interview with Fritz Lang scholar Joe McElhaney
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Glenn Kenny

[Drucker]

Looks like this is going to be at the lower price point. I'd rather that than un-interesting extras, and it'll make this one easier to grab.

[matrixschmatrix]

Neat to have at least some kind of an extra on a low price point release, but I'd rather pay the extra $5-10 and get a commentary or something. Shame Kalat retired, he would have been perfect.

[domino harvey]

This is minor Lang, but for a title they've had forever, it's weird to see so little attention paid

[TMDaines]

They have dozens, if not hundreds, of titles forever and end up doing very little with them. I just wish we saw more of them.

[donniedarko]

I don't know, I think it's good that Criterion releases films with these prices here and there, of course supplements are great, and truly what makes a Criterion a Criterion, but its more about the film IMO. They might be storing some supplements for some more Lang films, anyways I'm probably gonna get my hands on this one by the time it comes out

[FerdinandGriffon]

Love this film. One of Lang's wittiest and strangest films, and Ray Milland couldn't be better.

[Fred Holywell]

If you'd like to check this title out before buying (and have a DVR), Turner Classic Movies is running it early Monday morning, December 31, at 4am ET.

[manicsounds]

Blu-ray.com review

DVDBeaver comparison

[warren oates]

I was pretty underwhelmed by this one. Minor Lang is an understatement. There are a few interesting directorial flourishes, but the script and presumably the novel seem so derivative, like second-rate Hitchcock from the same era, but without the sense of urgency from any of the characters or the director's investment in stringing us along from place to place. Lang's direction is very cool and workmanlike. Some of the best bits in it feel like he wishes he were making another of his movies, like the seance scene (one of his Mabuse films) or the suitcase bomb (the more consequential explosion in The Big Heat). Small moments with a few of the less important actors are the only images that stick with me -- a pretend blind man weirdly crumbling his cake, the ominous back of the policeman rocking his chair and whittling like the killer he isn't. I'd rather have watched M, Scarlet Street, The Big Heat or Human Desire again. This is from Universal's Paramount holdings, but otherwise it's really the sort of thing a company like Olive or Twilight Time should spend its resources on instead.

[Matt]

...presumably the novel seem so derivative, like second-rate Hitchcock from the same era...

Please don't judge the novel based on the movie. Apart from the skeleton of the plot, they are quite different. Although Greene considered it one of his "entertainments," it's both a ripping yarn and a serious exploration of guilt and responsibility.

(I find that many of Greene's "entertainments" hold up now as serious novels and many of his more intentionally serious novels are dated, a little too self-serious, and too concerned with making moral statements.)

[warren oates]

Well, I haven't read the novel. Though I have read and enjoyed other Greene "entertainments" in the past. But from the film alone it's hard to see how the source material is aspiring to be anything other than a knockoff of something like The 39 Steps. In the lone special feature, Lang scholar Joe McElhaney makes a point of singling out an altered detail that Greene was apparently unhappy with. In the book, the bomb explosion gives the protagonist amnesia -- already a genre cliche at that point in history -- and puts him in an asylum. I can't see how the script's cutting of the amnesia idea and the re-purposing of the asylum stay for the hero's backstory is any worse. In fact, it strikes me as a little bit better.

[bottled spider]

Greene's Ministry of Fear is a great work of poetry.

The film has its own kind of poetry, in places: after a shot is fired through a door from inside a dark room, a pin of light shines through the bullet hole; flashes of gunfire from a dark stairwell; the opening scene where the protagonist is awaiting the appointed hour of his release from hospital.

But I was underwhelmed by the film too -- a bit toothless & Hollywoodized. Saw it on VHS, which can't have done it any favours.

[Brian C]

Well, I haven't read the novel. Though I have read and enjoyed other Greene "entertainments" in the past. But from the film alone it's hard to see how the source material is aspiring to be anything other than a knockoff of something like The 39 Steps.

Seriously? You were just told they were "quite different". Maybe Matt's right and maybe he's wrong, I haven't read Greene's book either, but it's clearly immensely facile to try to make a judgment "from the film alone".

[ezmbmh]

Haven’t seen the film yet but I agree the book is certainly worth reading. While I agree with Matt that Greene may have undervalued what he called his “entertainments” (though not about the “serious” novels—anther discussion) this book manages claustrophobia and a dizzying feel of things spiraling out of control wonderfully. Which is one of the reasons I’m looking forward to the Lang version.

Interesting about the explosion/amnesia issue. In the book they serve as giving the main character the sense of dislocation, loss, he needs to work through to find himself, analogous to the whiskey priests and lapsed Catholics in other Greenes. Curious to see what Lang made or changed about what seems a necessary ingredient of the character.

[Matt]

I can understand why Lang (and/or his screenwriter) got rid of the amnesia plot device: in the book, it serves more to get the character out from under the massive weight of his guilt for a while than it serves anything in the spy plot. It's actually a tragedy when his memory begins to return. If you're just adapting the book as a spy thriller, it's unnecessary. But the result is a poor man's Hitchcock plot.

[ShellOilJunior]

I'll have to read Ministry of Fear. I have a book with a collection of Greene's entertainments. I suspect it may not be up to the level of something like The Heart of the Matter but an enjoyable read nonetheless.

[reneerose]

I can understand why Lang (and/or his screenwriter) got rid of the amnesia plot device: in the book, it serves more to get the character out from under the massive weight of his guilt for a while than it serves anything in the spy plot. It's actually a tragedy when his memory begins to return. If you're just adapting the book as a spy thriller, it's unnecessary. But the result is a poor man's Hitchcock plot.

I have to read the book. I've just seen the DVD and the feature by the Lang historian mentions that Seton Miller extricated the amnesia happening to Neale after the suitcase bomb. I wish it had been left in, it would have been a much more suspenseful and angst-ridden thriller that way. Wonder how it would have been had Lang and Greene had full input and control over the screenplay development. Have not read the book, plan to now. Wish Milland had acted in more of Hitchcock's earlier films, he seems to fit that so well judging by his performance from Ministry of Fear.

[movielocke]

Blind bought this as well. It's a solid film that is somewhat uneven in managing the tension. There are great scenes throughout--in particular the minor characters (the first fortune teller, the seance characters, the blind man, the tailor with the scissors and the best of them the menacing officer) make the movie, often improving their scenes tremendously. But the main character is just so lifeless and dull, and his investigations have no sense of urgency nor danger to them. The plot grinds to a screeching halt late in the film so that they can take five-ten minutes of screen time to search the bomb site, and this is probably the film's weakest moment because it doesn't add much value to the psychological tension or ticking bomb plot tension. And it also feels like the assumed guilt of the protagonist is never really exploited. He says he's a nice guy who didn't do anything and he is treated as such with almost no questions asked, it stretches the suspension of belief to the breaking point. I think that's the problem, it's solid throughout, but it never seems to reach the potential the plot is so often hinting at and suggesting.

[dreamdead]

Blind-bought this one (along with The Uninvited during the Barnes and Noble half-off sale) due to the stellar cover. Ultimately, though, this film feels rather average even if it's eminently watchable. Others above have already noted how this film circumnavigates any real culpability of Milland drugging his sick wife--since she ingests the drugs without him there--but what's so interesting (even if unbelievable) is how readily the other characters accept this version of the events.

It's telling as a worldview that others essentially shrug at this display of ending a love's life, and awkward in that the script doesn't play up the villain's acknowledgement of how he too is willing to risk his family's lives for his wellbeing.

The Criterion extras didn't do that much to make this stand out, even if the Glenn Kenny essay poses the idea that it's lack of anti-Nazism makes it more trenchant at exposing the mundane nature of evil.