59. M (1931)

Directed By Fritz Lang

Synopsis

Man is compulsed to kill children. Police mount a a full scale man-hunt, the underground syndicates do the same, seeing that the police are reinforcing their activity in the streets because of the murderer. Man is caught by the underground and taken to a kangaroo court. Man defends himself. The police barges in and takes him to be tried in a real court... sentence is a mystery.

Review

Fritz Lang had a brilliant eye for film; this was seen in Dr. Mabuse and Metropolis previously here, and M is no exception and is probably the best of the three, and quite likely one of the best films reviewed here until today, with only Dreyer's Joan of Arc as a possible competitor.

This film has it all, great acting, great camera and filming techniques, a fascinating plot and message as well as extremely accomplished use of sound. It is quite impossible to find flaws with it... except that people screaming in German grates on my nerves, which isn't the film's fault at all. The camera angles are amazing, as is the editing, from the sly comparison between operating procedures in the police with those of the crime world, to the voice over which starts with a man speaking on the phone to go about showing us the forensics and archival processes in the police, to the depiction of the murders, its great.

Fritz Lang is not the only star of the film, however, all actors are great but Peter Lorre is fantastic as M, the murderer, at the same time unnerving and sympathetic... as much as a child serial-killer can be. And here comes the brilliance of the plot and message, we feel pity for M because he is a compulsive, he hates himself and lives tormented with his actions, he is truly sorry for what he has done, but he can't stop himself, unlike those criminals who judge him in the kangaroo court, who are proud of their safe-breaking skills or murders. Lorre is an assassin, but he is pathetic more than anything. And only a great film and a great character can make you believe that... and root against those who want to execute him immediately. Buy it from Amazon UK or US.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

Peter Lorre's speech.. great stuff:



Wikipedia:

M was the first starring role for Peter Lorre, and it boosted his career, even though he was typecast as a villain for years after.

Lorre's climactic speech was appropriated by Joseph Goebbels for the Nazi propaganda film The Eternal Jew, a Holocaust apologist film that blames Jews for devaluing German culture with degenerate art. Because Lorre was Jewish, the film uses his final speech as "proof" that Jews exemplify innate criminality, and refuse to take responsibility for their wrongdoings.

Although sound had been used in films for several years before M, the film was one of the first to use a leitmotif, associating the "Hall of the Mountain King" with the Lorre character. Late in the film, the mere sound of the song lets the audience know that he must be nearby, offscreen. This association of a musical theme with a particular character or situation, a technique borrowed from opera, is now a film staple.

Although The Maltese Falcon (1941 film) is traditionally credited as the first film noir, the American genre was inspired by earlier European films with dark, stylish cinematography, and in that respect, M anticipated many essential features of the genre.

The movie was remade in Hollywood in 1951 , shifting the action from Berlin to Los Angeles. The remake, directed by Joseph Losey with David Wayne playing Lorre's role, was not well received by critics or audiences.

Today, M consistently ranks among the top 75 of the Internet Movie Database's top 250 films.