Inquest

Based on a 1927 play co-written by the famous Weimar criminal defense attorney Max Alsberg, this early work of Siodmak’s (his third feature) anticipates the tonality of his later work as well as the aesthetic and thematic concerns that would come to define film noir as a genre. A prostitute is murdered at a boarding house in Berlin, and the judge overseeing the ensuing investigation naturally suspects her boyfriend—but little does he know that this case in fact resides a bit too close to home…. A proto-thriller par excellence, Inquest is a fascinating preview of things to come in Siodmak’s oeuvre. Courtesy of Murnau Stiftung.