M (1931)

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Directed by Fritz Lang.

Starring Gustaf Gründgens, Inge Landgut, Ellen Widmann, Peter Lorre, Friedrich Gnass.

Fritz Lang's classic early talkie crime melodrama is set in 1931 Berlin. The police are anxious to capture an elusive child murderer (Peter Lorre), and they begin rounding up every criminal in town. The underworld leaders decide to take the heat off their activities by catching the child killer themselves. Once the killer is fingered, he is marked with the letter "M" chalked on his back. He is tracked down and captured by the combined forces of the Berlin criminal community, who put him on trial for his life in a kangaroo court. The killer pleads for mercy, whining that he can't control his homicidal instincts. The police close in and rescue the killer from the underworld so that he can stand trial again in "respectable" circumstances. Some prints of the film end with a caution to the audience to watch after their children more carefully. Filmed in Germany, M was the film that solidified Fritz Lang's reputation with American audiences, and it also made a star out of Peter Lorre (previously a specialist in comedy roles!). M was remade by Hollywood in 1951, with David Wayne giving a serviceable performance as the killer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Reviews and discussions

Re:Weekly Theme for July 14: Th ...
by leeroy711 in Weekly Theme

loved it.

"[quote user="mercurial"] Aside from some of my favorites that were already mentioned (M, Edward Scissorhands) I have to say one of the best angry mobs is in Xala. A group of disenfranchised disfigured and destitute storm the home of a wealthy politician, strip him down and proceed to take turns spitting their disease ridden mucus all over him. Fun times. [/quote] Allright Xala just made it to my must see list. I have NO idea what the hell it is, but I just keep hearing about it from you spout ppl. " [More]

Re:Weekly Theme for July 14: Th ...
by mercurial in Weekly Theme

liked it.

"Aside from some of my favorites that were already mentioned (M, Edward Scissorhands) I have to say one of the best angry mobs is in Xala. A group of disenfranchised disfigured and destitute storm the home of a wealthy politician, strip him down and proceed to take turns spitting their disease ridden mucus all over him. Fun times. Without straying too far from the topic (the rebellions of films like Battleship Potempkin, Mutiny on the Bounty, Cutthroat Island, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.) some of the mob scenes that stick out in my mind are: Citizen Ruth - Loaded with mobs of crazy anti-abortionists. The Dreamers - At the end of the film when the mob of students storm through the streets. The Night of the Hunter Elvira, Mistress of the Dark - Hilariously bad movie with a great mob of prudish townsfolk. A Nightmare on Elm Street - Brief but essential. Dogville - I know this is bending what exactly constitutes an "angry mob" but the conspiratorial townspeople are just completely fu ... " [More]

Weekly Theme for July 14: The A ...
by leeroy711 in Weekly Theme

loved it.

"I really love this theme. You have all seen these scenes from time to time in various films. Sometimes it's silly and comical such as the angry mob chasing Homer and family in The Simpsons Movie. Other times it is used to argue deeper philisophical positions like in The Ox-Bow Incident. (Henry Fonda and William Wellman got together again to make the similarly themed and much more popular 12 Angry Men) German director, Fritz Lang was familiar with this theme as well. The last 15 minutes or so of his silent film, Metropolis is almost completly an angry mob chase scene. Later, he would make M, (one of my all time favorites) in which the angry mob and their vigilante justice makes up the complete theme of the film. Then there was Fury, his first American film, a clear indictment of lynch mob mentality. So, there you have it. What do you think? What are some of your favorite scenes? What about the political and philisophical positions portrayed by this theme? Have fun. Emery " [More]

Re:Recasting RAIDERS OF THE LOS ...
by mercurial in Filmgaming

liked it.

"Laurence Harvey - Indiana Jones Katherine Hepburn - Marion Ravenwood Basil Rathbone - Dr. Rene Belloq Peter Lorre - Major Arnold Toht Orson Welles - Sallah Buster Keaton - Dr. Marcus Brody Frank Puglia - Satipo Rudolph Valentino - Colonel Dietrich Ernest Borgnine - Major Eaton Circa 1950, this could actually have been made with everyone at an appropriate age to fill their roles except for Rudolph Valentino (The Sheik) who would be spot on as Colonel Dietrich except for the fact that he had already died. Laurence Harvey (The Manchurian Candidate) and Katherine Hepburn (Christopher Strong) would have that undeniably flirtatious tension between them. And what would be more fun than having Peter Lorre's (M) face being melted? Orson Welles (Citizen Kane), Basil Rathbone (The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes) and Buster Keaton (The General) were masters of the craft and could play any role. Frank Puglia (Now, Voyager) would play the bumbling local native perfectly. Lastly, ... " [More]

Re:Foreign Film Name Game
by leeroy711 in Friends of Foreign Flicks

loved it.

"M " [More]

M for Marvelous Peter Lorre
by divinemsjunebug in divinemsjunebug Blog

liked it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"I've always loved Petter Lorre in just about anything, this is definately no exception. I actually think this is one of his best performances, showing he can do high drama as well as some of his comedic roles in other movies. It is about a town that has a serial killer on the lose who kills young children, the police have a crackdown on every aspect of crime and the crime bosses are tired of being constantly harrassed so they decided to find the killer themselves and give him a (actually a pretty fair) trial. This film also shows the mentality of people when something like this happens, almost like the Salem Witch hunts (every man that even stops to talk to a child gets accused and beatten). There were times I almost felt sorry for the killer and how he could not control his tendencies, but I still wanted him to be torn apart and hoped he would not be saved...anyway, it's a great movie and really interesting. " [More]

Re:Top 5 Antagonists
by leeroy711 in Top 5

loved it.

"I'm quoting myself because I disagree with myself, "self, how could you come up with a list of Antagonists and not include the coin flipping Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men? I am very dissapointedin myself. That should probably #2 " [More]

Top 5 Antagonists
by leeroy711 in Top 5

loved it.

"1. Peter Lorre's character - M - Great performance, creepy character, whisteling that tune over and over in my dreams 2. The Lone Biker of the Apocalypse - Raising Arizona - satirical and scary as hell at the same time3. Benoit Benoit Poelvoorde - Man Bites Dog - how could you not love this guy?4. Hannible Lecter - Silence of the Lambs - when he puts that guy's face on as a mask was my favorite scene. 5. Kevin Spacey's character - Seven - very similar to his character in The Usual Suspects but add the psycotic murdering funtime. " [More]

M (Fritz Lang)
by Windbreaker in Windbreaker!

loved it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"Amazing. I've heard so many compliments about this, and now that I've finally seen M, I can pile on! Here's a brain dump...I've seen Peter Lorre, but this is hands down the best performance I've seen of his. Well, aside from those Warner Bros cartoons where he mixed it up in animated form. What a great sicko.The emotional tugging by Fritz Lang was pretty effective. There are a few minutes when you feel for his plight. But not in the sense that you want him off the hook -- just that he would be properly tried, not subject to vigilante violence. Still, it's hard to separate yourself from the mob mentality when you KNOW the guy is guilty. Today's juries so quickly tuck murderers away without the death penalty, and sometimes without lifetime jail sentences. M deserves to die. But not at the hands of a mob. " [More]

Peter The Great
by chesterfilms in chesterfilms Blog

loved it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"I remember watching Peter Lorre films since I was a kid. He is one of my favorite character actors. The part he plays in M, I feel is very complex. A man who is so incredibly evil, and yet we feel sorry for him towards the end. I think for me it is one of those situations where I see a horrible person stripped of everything, and then the humanity sets in. And Peter Lorre plays it so well. The scene that I am referring to is at the end where the police and the town’s criminals both are chasing him through the town. The Criminals catch up with him in a warehouse. It is here where Peter Lorre delivers a heartfelt and emotional monologue about not wanting to do the things he does. It is at this point where I begin to feel for him, even though he has done the most hideous things to the children in this town. It’s almost scary that performance is able to do that to us. " [More]

[More reviews]

Review by All Movie Guide

All Movie Guide

loved it.

One of the most distinguished and technically accomplished early sound films, Fritz Lang's M (1931) revealed the expressive possibilities for combining sound and visuals, in a metaphorically loaded story about pre-Nazi Germany. Working from the true story of the Dusseldorf child murders, Lang matches a mother's anguished calls for her daughter with images of an empty stairwell and a lost balloon rather than show the killing, while the murderer's obsessive whistling becomes the calling card for his threatening presence. Beyond the use of sound, Lang takes a pessimistic view of German society, using editing to equate the police with the criminals, while Fritz Arno Wagner's fluid cinematography creates a gloomy night world of shadows and paranoid entrapment. Lang's documentary-like attention to the details of the search, combined with the absence of non-diegetic music, matches the stylization with an equally creepy element of realism. The killer may be sick, but the society pursuing him isn't that much better. A worldwide success and a star-maker for Peter Lorre, M influenced movies from those of Orson Welles to the American film noir of the 1940s; Lang himself left Nazi Germany for Hollywood in 1933. The 111-minute version features an added courtroom ending. The movie was remade by Joseph Losey in 1951 as an allegory of Cold War-era Communist "witch hunts." ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Tags: Classic , visual-feast , stuck-in-my-head , ingenious , No-Control
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