Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

productions and which emphasise the power and the significance of the hand in these
films. Figure 68 shows examples from The Spiders (1919), the first part of the film
released in 1919, which depicts John Terry (Rudolph Lettinger) grabbing hold of the
antihero’s hand (almost like a fusion of the two hands), revealing the missing finger, and
thus identifying him; the second is taken from the film Metropolis in which a single hand
or a group of hands create a dominant symbol representing personal and mutual struggle;
and the third, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) shows the hands that are holding a shiny
cigarette lighter which, like a piece of art that is signed, will eventually unravel the story’s
mystery.
Figure 68. The Spiders Metropolis Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
The other set of images (fig. 69) below are scenes taken from the film M. If in
Lang’s films the main characters are often artists (Cross as a frustrated weekend artist, for
example), they are also habitually (and frequently simultaneously) hunters or stalkers, as is
the case with the letter “M” written in chalk on the palm of the hand of one of the men
assaulting Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre). The second inset shows a huge enlargement of
Figure 69. M
Beckert’s thumbprint as one of the scientists analyses Beckert’s personality. This is one of
the most distinctive images from Lang, as is the last inset in which we see Beckert looking
at his reflection in a mirror, making faces, using his fingers to mould his face into a
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