MINISTRY OF FEAR

–Los alemanes son una maravilla, no dejan nada incompleto –comentó Johns–. Eso lo hicieron en su país. Ficharon a todos los supuestos dirigentes, a personajes sociales, a diplomáticos, políticos, líderes obreros, sacerdotes... y luego presentaron el ultimátum. Todo perdonado y olvidado, o el Juicio Público. No me sorprendería que hubieran hecho lo mismo aquí. Formaron, ¿sabe usted?, una especie de Ministerio del Miedo... con los más hábiles subsecretarios. No solamente dominan a ciertas personas. Crean una atmósfera general en la cual cada uno tiene la impresión de no poder confiar en alma viviente.

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(Graham Greene, El Ministerio Del Miedo)

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"Although I don't know Graham Greene personally, he is one of my favorite writers, and I wanted very much to make a film from his 'entertainment' novel, Ministry Of Fear. Accordingly, I instructed to my agent to try to buy it for me, but he declared it was impossible because Paramount, who were also interested in the book, were outbidding us. Then I went to New York, and one day I reveived a cable from my agent containing an offer to make Ministry Of Fear for Paramount. I jumped at it, but made a great mistake by not specifying in my contract that i wanted to be able to work on the script; I took it for granted, after all the years I'd been accustomed to working on scripts, that my agent would have seen to it that the contract contained some such clause.

When I came back here, I found someone in charge of the film who'd never made a picture before and who'd been a trombone player on a band or something. On top of all, I was handed a script which had practically none of the quality of the Graham Greene book.

When I

wanted to have changes made in it, the writer resented it deeply. Then, when I wanted to step out of the project, my agent told me I was contractually obliged to complete it. So I finished the picture the best of my ability.

While I don't care Ministry Of Fear as a whole, there are still some things in it that I like it: the seance, for instance, in which Hillary Brooke was very good, and the performances of Marjorie Reynolds and Dan Duryea. He was excellent, I thought, in the scissor-stabbing scene, which was my own invention and not in the book. I like, too, the performance of the English actor, Percy Waram as the police inspector."

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(FRITZ LANG)

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