The dark comedy The Man in Search of his Murderer was a flop upon its original release but today it looks ahead of its time. Considering the artists behind the film, that's not so surprising: it's the third feature from director Robert Siodmak, who became one of the great film noir filmmakers in the U.S. a decade later with such films as The Killers, and is scripted by future Oscar-winning writer and director Billy Wilder (Sunset Blvd,, The Apartment) and American horror movie legend Curt Siodmak (The Wolf Man, I Walked With a Zombie).
The film opens on our hapless hero Hans Herfort (Heinz Rühmann) interrupted by a burglar as he tries to kill himself. Unable to commit suicide, he offers the job to the burglar, who makes it official with a contract and negotiates a 12-hour deadline, during which time Hans falls in love and changes his mind.
Meanwhile, as the thief is plagued by a mix of mishaps and moral misgivings, he sells the contract to the company's top man: Jim, the man with the scar. It's a familiar situation played out with a mix of satire, slapstick, and absurdist turns, with a jailbreak and a musical number tossed in. And while chaos reigns, the actors continue to play it straight, never tipping into broad comedy, which makes the absurdity all the more effective. Not every joke lands and sometimes the film seems to be trying too hard, but it's fun and unique, a black comedy long before it became a genre.
Composer Friedrich Holländer has a bit role in the movie as the leader of the nightclub band who kicks off the film's musical number and young musical director Franz Wachsmann went on to score over a hundred films and TV shows and win two Academy Awards under the name Franz Waxman.
The film was originally released at 97 minutes but was edited down to just under an hour when it failed to connect with audiences. The short version, which was retitled Jim, the Man with the Scar, is all that survives and it is funny and fast-paced, an energetic comedy that spoofs crime dramas and murder mysteries and plays with expressionist style with gallows humor and a sense of whimsy. The surviving film was restored by the F.W. Murnau Foundation in 2013. The Kino Classics release, mastered from the Murnau restoration, marks the film's home video debut in the U.S. Film historian Josh Nelson provides a well-researched and informative commentary track. Recommended.