The films of Fritz Lang take place in an impressively well-organized universe: every detail, no matter how small, seems to reflect a master plan. Lang, of course, directed some of the most paranoid of great movies, such as Spies (1928) and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), which imagine vast criminal conspiracies behind seemingly chaotic events. He was also especially adept at tragedy: in films like You Only Live Once (1937), Scarlet Street (1945), and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956), the heroes seem inalienably tied to their bad ends, as if their lives were controlled by cruel gods.
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It’s also one of the most experimental movies made in Hollywood in the 1930s. An unlikely combination of crime film, romance, and musical theater, You and Me displays the overt influence of Bertolt Brecht, whose renowned plays brought together radically different elements. (In fact, Lang later said he considered the playwright “responsible” for the film.) Brecht didn’t work on You and Me—he wouldn’t emigrate from Germany until 1939—but Lang hired his frequent collaborator Kurt Weill to write the film’s music in hopes of capturing the spirit of their groundbreaking Threepenny Opera. Lang also broke up the story with rhetorical passages that deliberately distance the viewer from the plot—a strategy that Brecht famously innovated.
Joe has become good friends with another employee, Helen (Sylvia Sidney), and soon after the movie starts they realize they’ve fallen in love. They rush into marriage and try to start a normal life together; but while Joe is open about his criminal past, Helen’s too ashamed to admit she’s an ex-con herself. Worse yet, she’s still on parole and isn’t allowed to marry. Helen’s efforts to hide her past from Joe and her marriage from her parole officer lead to some very funny complications, such as a scene in which Helen tries to keep the two men from seeing each other when they happen to be in her apartment at the same time.
Directed by Fritz Lang
