Mary (1931)

Mary is a German-British crime film first released in 1931, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  The film is based on a novel by Clemence Dane and stars Alfred Abel, Olga Tschechowa, Paul Graetz, Lotte Stein and Ekkehard Arendt.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


Mary Baring, a member of a provincial theatre company, is arrested and tried for the murder of a fellow actress.   The jury finds her guilty and she is sentenced to death.  One of the jurymen, the celebrated actor-manager Sir John Menier, has second thoughts after the trial.  Convinced of Mary’s innocence, he begins his own investigation to unmask the real killer...

Mary is the German language version of Alfred Hitchcock’s popular 1930 thriller whodunit Murder, based on the play and novel Enter Sir John by Clemence Dane.  Hitchcock directed the two films back-to-back, employing the same sets and technical personnel but with a different cast of actors.   Although it is shorter by around thirty minutes, Mary is virtually identical to the English version in terms of plot and composition of shots.  The most significant difference is that it lacks much of the humour of Murder and is a darker, more restrained, and consequently less interesting film.  There is one significant plot difference, which is the explanation for why Mary wouldn’t testify against Fane.  In the English version of the film, the character is of mixed race (something that would have made him a social pariah at the time), whereas in the German version he is simply an escaped convict.  In the original novel, Fane’s secret is that he is homosexual, which is something that Hitchcock hints at in both versions of the film.

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