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M (1931 film)

January 07, 2023

M is a 1931 German mystery suspense thriller film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre in his breakthrough role as Hans Beckert, a serial killer of children. An early example of a procedural drama, the film centers on the manhunt for Lorre's character, conducted by both the police and the criminal underworld.[2]

M
Theatrical release poster
Directed byFritz Lang
Written byFritz Lang
Thea von Harbou
Produced bySeymour Nebenzal
StarringPeter Lorre
Otto Wernicke
Gustaf Gründgens
CinematographyFritz Arno Wagner
Edited byPaul Falkenberg
Production
company
Distributed byVereinigte Star-Film GmbH
Release date
  • 11 May 1931 (1931-05-11)
Running time
111 minutes[1]
CountryGermany
LanguageGerman

The film's screenplay was written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou and was the director's first sound film.[3] It features many cinematic innovations, including the use of long, fluid tracking shots, and a musical leitmotif in the form of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" whistled by Lorre's character. Now considered a timeless classic, the film was deemed by Lang to be his magnum opus.[4] It is widely considered one of the greatest films of all time, and an indispensable influence on modern crime and thriller fiction.[5][6][7]

Plot

In Berlin,[8] a group of children are playing an elimination game in the courtyard of an apartment building, using a chant about a murderer of children. A woman sets the table for lunch, waiting for her daughter to come home from school. A wanted poster warns of a serial killer preying on children, as anxious parents wait outside a school.

Little Elsie Beckmann leaves school, bouncing a ball on her way home. She is approached by Hans Beckert,[9] who is whistling "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg. He offers to buy her a balloon from a blind street-vendor and walks and talks with her. Elsie's place at the dinner table remains empty, her ball rolls away across a patch of grass, and her balloon is lost in the telephone lines overhead.[10]

In the wake of Elsie's disappearance, anxiety runs high among the public. Beckert sends an anonymous letter to the newspapers, taking credit for the child murders and promising that he will commit others; the police extract clues from the letter, using the new techniques of fingerprinting and handwriting analysis. Under mounting pressure from the Prussian government, the police work around the clock. Inspector Karl Lohmann, head of the homicide squad, instructs his men to intensify their search and to check the records of recently released psychiatric patients, focusing on any with a history of violence against children. They stage frequent raids to question known criminals, disrupting organized crime so badly that Der Schränker (The Safecracker) summons the crime bosses of Berlin's Ringvereine to a conference. They decide to organize their own manhunt, using beggars to watch the children.[11] Meanwhile, the police search Beckert's rented rooms, find evidence that he wrote the letter there, and lie in wait to arrest him.[12]

Beckert sees a young girl in the reflection of a shop window and begins to follow her, but stops when the girl meets her mother. He encounters another girl and befriends her, but the blind vendor recognizes his whistling. The vendor tells one of his friends, who follows Beckert and sees him inside a shop with the girl. As the two exit onto the street, the man chalks a large "M" (for Mörder, "murderer" in German) on his palm, pretends to trip, and bumps into Beckert, marking the back of his overcoat so that other beggars can easily track him.[12] The girl notices the chalk and offers to clean it for him, but before she finishes, Beckert realizes he is being watched and flees the scene, abandoning the girl.

Attempting to evade the beggars' surveillance, Beckert hides inside a large office building just before the workers leave for the evening. The beggars call Der Schränker, who arrives at the building with a team of other criminals. They capture and torture one of the watchmen for information and, after capturing the other two, search the building and catch Beckert in the attic. When one of the watchmen trips the silent alarm, the criminals narrowly escape with their prisoner before the police arrive. Franz, one of the criminals, is left behind in the confusion and captured by the police. By falsely claiming that one of the watchmen was killed during the break-in, Lohmann tricks Franz into admitting that the gang only broke into the building to find Beckert and revealing where he will be taken.

The criminals drag Beckert to an abandoned distillery to face a kangaroo court. He finds a large, silent crowd awaiting him. Beckert is given a "lawyer", who gamely argues in his defense but fails to win any sympathy from the improvised "jury". Beckert delivers an impassioned monologue, saying that he cannot control his homicidal urges, while the other criminals present break the law by choice, and further questioning why they as criminals believe they have any right to judge him:

What right have you to speak? Criminals! Perhaps you are even proud of yourselves! Proud of being able to crack into safes,[13] or climb into buildings or cheat at cards. All of which, it seems to me, you could just as easily give up, if you had learned something useful, or if you had jobs, or if you were not such lazy pigs. I can not help myself! I have no control over this evil thing that is inside me—the fire, the voices, the torment![14]

Beckert pleads to be handed over to the police, asking: "Who knows what it is like to be me?" His "lawyer" points out that Der Schränker, presiding over the proceedings, is wanted on three counts of manslaughter, and that it is unjust to execute an insane man. Just as the enraged mob is about to kill Beckert, the police arrive to arrest both him and the criminals.

As a panel of judges prepares to deliver a verdict at Beckert's real trial, the mothers of three of his victims weep in the gallery. Elsie's mother says that "No sentence will bring the dead children back" and that "One has to keep closer watch over the children". The screen fades to black as she adds, "All of you".[15]

Cast

  • Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert. M was Lorre's first major starring role, and it boosted his career, even though he was typecast as a villain for years afterward in films such as Mad Love and Crime and Punishment. Before M, Lorre had been mostly a comedic actor. After fleeing from the Nazis, he landed a major role in Alfred Hitchcock's first version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), picking up English along the way.
  • Otto Wernicke as Inspector Karl Lohmann. Wernicke made his breakthrough with M after playing many small roles in silent films for over a decade. After his part in M he was in great demand due to the success of the film, including returning to the role of Karl Lohmann in The Testament of Doctor Mabuse, and he played supporting roles for the rest of his career.[16]
  • Gustaf Gründgens as Der Schränker (The Safecracker). Gründgens received acclaim for his role in the film and established a successful career for himself under Nazi rule, ultimately becoming director of the Staatliches Schauspielhaus (National Dramatic Theatre).[17]

Production

Lang placed an advert in a newspaper in 1930 stating that his next film would be Mörder unter uns (Murderer Among Us) and that it was about a child murderer. He immediately began receiving threatening letters in the mail and was also denied a studio space to shoot the film at the Staaken Studios. When Lang confronted the head of Staaken Studio to find out why he was being denied access, the studio head informed Lang that he was a member of the Nazi party and that the party suspected that the film was meant to depict the Nazis.[19] This assumption was based entirely on the film's original title and the Nazi party relented when told the plot.[20]

M was eventually shot in six weeks at a Staaken Zeppelinhalle studio, just outside Berlin. Lang made the film for Nero-Film, rather than with UFA or his own production company. It was produced by Nero studio head Seymour Nebenzal who later produced Lang's The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. Other titles were given to the film before "M" was chosen; Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (A City Searches for a Murderer) and Dein Mörder sieht Dich an (Your Murderer Looks at You).[21] While researching for the film, Lang spent eight days inside a mental institution in Germany and met several child murderers, including Peter Kürten. He used several real criminals as extras in the film and eventually 25 cast members were arrested during the film's shooting.[22] Peter Lorre was cast in the lead role of Hans Beckert, acting for the film during the day and appearing on stage in Valentine Katayev's Squaring the Circle at night.[23]

Lang did not show any acts of violence or deaths of children on screen and later said that by only suggesting violence, he forced "each individual member of the audience to create the gruesome details of the murder according to their personal imagination".[24]

 
Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert, gazing into a shop window. Fritz Lang uses glass and reflections throughout the film for expressive purposes.

M has been said, by various critics and reviewers,[25] to be based on serial killer Peter Kürten—the "Vampire of Düsseldorf"—whose crimes took place in the 1920s.[26] Lang denied that he drew from this case, in an interview in 1963 with film historian Gero Gandert; "At the time I decided to use the subject matter of M, there were many serial killers terrorizing Germany—Haarmann, Grossmann, Kürten, Denke, [...]".[27][28] Inspector Karl Lohmann is based on then famous Ernst Gennat, director of the Berlin criminal police.[29]

Lang's picture of the Berlin underworld in the film was inspired by the real Ringvereine, which played a role in the German underworld analogous to the Mafia in the Italian underworld.[30] The film's portrayal of the Ringvereine as organized like companies with a board of directors that were dominated by a charismatic master criminal was based on reality.[30] Likewise, the practice of the Ringvereine shown in the film of providing financial support for the families of imprisoned members was also based on reality.[30] The break-in of an office building depicted in the film was inspired by the real life 1929 break-in of the Disconto Bank in Berlin by the Saas brothers gang, though unlike in the film the objective was larceny, not to capture a serial killer.[30] The Ringvereine, which were officially wrestling associations that existed for the physical betterment of German men, always sought to promote a very 'respectable', almost middle-class image of themselves.[31] Like the Mafia, the Ringvereine paradoxically portrayed themselves as the guardians of society's values, who upheld a certain social order. The image the Ringvereine sought to project was as "professionals" whose crimes did not harm ordinary people.[32] Though the Ringvereine were known to be gangsters, their hierarchal structure and strict discipline led to a certain popular admiration for them as a force for social order unlike the psychopathic serial killers who murdered random strangers for reasons that often seemed unfathomable, sparking widespread fear and dread.[32] In an article originally published in Die Filmwoche, Lang wrote that the crime scene in Germany was "such compelling cinematic material that I lived in constant fear that someone else would exploit this idea before me".[33]

The Weimar era was marked by intense debates about the morality and efficiency of capital punishment with the left arguing that the death penalty was barbaric while the right argued that the death penalty was needed to maintain law and order.[32] Adding to the debate was the popular interest in the new science of psychiatry with many psychiatrists arguing that crime was caused by damaged minds and emotions, which could be cured.[32] In the background was a popular obsessive fear of crime and social breakdown, which was fed by sensationalist newspaper coverage of crime, which certainly gave the impression that crime was out of control in Weimar Germany.[32] In addition, for many conservative Germans, the Weimar republic was itself born of crime, namely the November Revolution of 1918 which began with the High Seas Fleet mutiny of October 1918. According to this viewpoint its origins in mutiny and revolution made the Weimar Republic into an illegitimate state that could not maintain social order because the Republic itself was born of disorder.[32] Lang followed these debates closely and incorporated them into several of his Weimar films such as M. The debate at Beckert's "trial" about whether he deserved to be killed or not paralleled the contemporary debates about capital punishment in Germany.[34] The fact that Der Schränker, a career criminal, serves as both the prosecutor and judge at the kangaroo court, egging on the mob of criminals to kill Beckert, seems to suggest that Lang's sympathy was with the abolitionists.[34] The arguments that Der Schränker makes at the kangaroo court, namely that certain people are so evil that they deserved to be killed for the good of society was precisely the same argument made by supporters of the death penalty.

Leitmotif

M was Lang's first sound film and he experimented with the new technology.[35] It has a dense and complex soundtrack, as opposed to the more theatrical "talkies" being released at the time. The soundtrack includes a narrator, sounds occurring off-camera, sounds motivating action and suspenseful moments of silence before sudden noise. Lang was also able to make fewer cuts in the film's editing, since sound effects could now be used to inform the narrative.[36]

The film was one of the first to use a leitmotif, a technique borrowed from opera, associating a tune with Lorre's character, who whistles the tune "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No. 1. Later in the film, the mere sound of the song lets the audience know that he is nearby, off-screen. This association of a musical theme with a particular character or situation is now a film staple.[37] Peter Lorre could not whistle and Lang himself is heard in the film.[38]

Release

M premiered in Berlin on 11 May 1931 at the UFA-Palast am Zoo in a version lasting 117 minutes.[23] The original negative is preserved at the Federal Film Archive in a 96-minute version. In 1960, an edited 98-minute version was released. The film was restored in 2000 by the Netherlands Film Museum in collaboration with the Federal Film Archive, the Cinemateque Suisse, Kirsch Media and ZDF/ARTE., with Janus Films releasing the 109-minute version as part of its Criterion Collection using prints from the same period from the Cinemateque Suisse and the Netherlands Film Museum.[39] A complete print of the English version and selected scenes from the French version were included in the 2010 Criterion Collection releases of the film.[40]

The film was later released in the U.S. in April 1933 by Foremco Pictures.[41] After playing in German with English subtitles for two weeks, it was pulled from theaters and replaced by an English-language version. The re-dubbing was directed by Eric Hakim, and Lorre was one of the few cast members to reprise his role in the film.[23] As with many other early talkies from the years 1930–1931, M was partially reshot with actors (including Lorre) performing dialogue in other languages for foreign markets after the German original was completed, apparently without Lang's involvement. An English-language version was filmed and released in 1932 from an edited script with Lorre speaking his own words, his first English part. An edited French version was also released but despite the fact that Lorre spoke French his speaking parts were dubbed.[42] In 2013, a DCP version was released by Kino Lorber and played theatrically in North America[43] in the original aspect ratio of 1.19:1.[44] Critic Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called this the "most-complete-ever version" at 111 minutes.[45] The film was restored by TLEFilms Film Restoration & Preservation Services (Berlin) in association with Archives françaises du film – CNC (Paris) and .[46]

Critical reception

Initial response

A Variety review said that the film was "a little too long. Without spoiling the effect—even bettering it—cutting could be done. There are a few repetitions and a few slow scenes."[23] Graham Greene compared the film to "looking through the eye-piece of a microscope, through which the tangled mind is exposed, laid flat on the slide: love and lust; nobility and perversity, hatred of itself and despair jumping at you from the jelly".[24]

Reassessment

In later years, the film received widespread critical praise and holds an approval rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 61 reviews, with an average rating of 9.20/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "A landmark psychological thriller with arresting images, deep thoughts on modern society, and Peter Lorre in his finest performance."[47]

Marc Savlov of Austin Chronicle awarded the film five out of five stars, calling it, "One of the greatest of all German Expressionistic films". Savlov praised the film's cinematography, use of sound, and Lorre's performance.[48] In 1997, critic Roger Ebert added M to his "Great Movies" list. He proposed Lang's limited use of dialogue was a critical factor in the film's success, in contrast with many early sound films which "felt they had to talk all the time". Ebert also argued the film's characters, nearly all grotesques, embodied Lang's distaste for his adopted homeland: "What I sense is that Lang hated the people around him, hated Nazism, and hated Germany for permitting it."[49]

Legacy

Lang considered M to be his favorite of his own films because of the social criticism in the film. In 1937, he told a reporter that he made the film "to warn mothers about neglecting children".[35] The film has appeared on multiple lists as one of the greatest films ever made. It was voted the best German film of all time with 306 votes in a 1994 poll of 324 film journalists, film critics, filmmakers, and cineastes organized by the Association of German Cinémathèques [de].[50] It's included in Empire Magazine's 100 Best Films of World Cinema in 2010.[51] It is listed in the film reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, which says, "Establishing conventions still being used by serial killer movies, Lang and scenarist Thea von Harbou intercut the pathetic life of the murderer with the frenzy of the police investigation into the outrageous crimes, and pay attention to issues of press coverage of the killings, vigilante action, and the political pressure that comes down from the politicians and hinders as much as encourages the police."[52] In 2018, it was voted the thirteenth greatest foreign-language film of all time in BBC's poll of 209 critics in 43 countries.[53] The film is also referenced in the song "In Germany Before the War" by American songwriter Randy Newman in his 1977 album Little Criminals.[54]

A scene from the movie was used in the 1940 Nazi propaganda movie The Eternal Jew.[55]

Remakes and adaptations

A Hollywood remake of the same name was released in 1951, shifting the action from Berlin to Los Angeles. Nero Films head Seymour Nebenzal and his son Harold produced the film for Columbia Pictures. Lang had once told a reporter "People ask me why I do not remake M in English. I have no reason to do that. I said all I had to say about that subject in the picture. Now I have other things to say."[22] The remake was directed by Joseph Losey and starred David Wayne in Lorre's role. Losey stated that he had seen M in the early 1930s and watched it again shortly before shooting the remake, but that he "never referred to it. I only consciously repeated one shot. There may have been unconscious repetitions in terms of the atmosphere, of certain sequences."[22] Lang later said that when the remake was released, he "had the best reviews of [his] life".[24]

In 2003, M was adapted for radio by Peter Straughan and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 2 February, later re-broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 8 October 2016.[56] Directed by Toby Swift, this drama won the Prix Italia for Adapted Drama in 2004.[57]

Writer Jon J. Muth adapted the screenplay into a four-part comic book series in 1990, which was reissued as a graphic novel in 2008.[58]

In 2019 a six-episode Austrian-German TV series was released.[59]

See also

References

  1. ^ . British Board of Film Classification. 24 May 1932. Archived from the original on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
  2. ^ Monsters of Weimar pp. 296–98
  3. ^ "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep: A Brief History of Child Murder in Cinema". Bloody Disgusting!. 22 April 2010. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  4. ^ Kauffman, Stanley. "The Mark of M". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  5. ^ "M: In Context". The Cinessential. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  6. ^ . The Dissolve. Archived from the original on 27 January 2021. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  7. ^ "A Peerless Classic". @GI_weltweit. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  8. ^ While the location is never mentioned in the film, the dialect used by the characters is characteristic of Berliners, and a police inspector's map labeled "Berlin" and a policeman's order to take suspects to the "Alex", Berlin's central police headquarters on the Alexanderplatz, make the venue clear.
  9. ^ "Fritz Lang's M: the Blueprint for the Serial Killer Movie". bfi.org.uk.
  10. ^ "Fritz Lang's M: the Blueprint for the Serial Killer Movie". bfi.org.uk. 5 December 2016. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
  11. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (4 September 2014). "M review – Fritz Lang's superb thriller fascinates". The Guardian.
  12. ^ a b Monsters of Weimar p. 297
  13. ^ . classicartfilms.com. Archived from the original on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  14. ^ Monsters of Weimar p. 298
  15. ^ Garnham, Nicholas (1968). M: a film by Fritz Lang. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 15–108. ISBN 978-0900855184.
  16. ^ Staedeli, Thomas. "Otto Wernicke". Cyranos. Retrieved 14 January 2007.
  17. ^ Staedeli, Thomas. "Otto Wernicke". Cyranos. Retrieved 14 January 2007.
  18. ^ Garnham. p. 13.
  19. ^ Jensen, Paul M. The Cinema of Fritz Lang. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. 1969. ISBN 978-0498074158. p. 93
  20. ^ Wakeman, John. World Film Directors, Volume 1. New York: H.W. Wilson Company. 1987. ISBN 0824207572. p. 614.
  21. ^ Jensen. p. 93
  22. ^ a b c Jensen. p. 94.
  23. ^ a b c d Jensen. p. 93.
  24. ^ a b c Wakeman. p. 615.
  25. ^ Ramsland, Katherine. . Crime Library. Archived from the original on 3 November 2006. Retrieved 28 October 2006.
  26. ^ Morris, Gary. "A Textbook Classic Restored to Perfection". Bright Lights. Archived from the original on 2 January 2013. Retrieved 12 January 2007.
  27. ^ "Fritz Lang on M: An Interview", in Fritz Lang: M – Protokoll, Marion von Schröder Verlag, Hamburg 1963, reprinted in the Criterion Collection booklet.
  28. ^ Monsters of Weimar p. 293
  29. ^ Kempe, Frank: “Buddha vom Alexanderplatz“, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 21 August 2014 (in German).
  30. ^ a b c d Lee p.18
  31. ^ Schulte-Bockholt p.23
  32. ^ a b c d e f Kaes, Dimendberg, Jay p.719
  33. ^ Lang, Fritz (25 May 2012). "My Film M: A Factual Report". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  34. ^ a b "The Uncomfortable Justice of Fritz Lang's 'M'". Flipscreen. 18 November 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  35. ^ a b Jensen. p. 95.
  36. ^ Jensen. p. 103.
  37. ^ Costantini, Gustavo. . Filmsound. Archived from the original on 21 April 2006. Retrieved 10 May 2006.
  38. ^ Falkenberg, Paul (2004). . The Criterion Collection. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 8 August 2007.
  39. ^ M, Janus Films, Criterion Collection, closing credits.
  40. ^ Review of 2010 M Blu-ray/DVD release (region 2) 9 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine, DVD Outsider.co.uk. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
  41. ^ "The Daesseldorf Murders". New York Times. 3 April 1933. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  42. ^ "DVD Extra: Peter Lorre's long-lost English-language debut". New York Post. 4 March 2010. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  43. ^ Erik McLanahan (9 April 2013). . Oregon Artswatch. Archived from the original on 21 May 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  44. ^ . The Charles Theater [Baltimore, Maryland]. Archived from the original on 20 May 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  45. ^ Kenneth Turan (9 April 2013). "Critic's Choice: 'M' stands for masterpiece". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  46. ^ . Kino Lorber. Archived from the original on 16 July 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  47. ^ "M (1931)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  48. ^ Savlov, Marc. . Austin Chronicle.cm. Marc Savlov. Archived from the original on 18 October 2019. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  49. ^ Ebert, Roger (3 August 1997). "M movie review (1931)". RogerEbert.com.
  50. ^ (PDF). Journal of Film Preservation (54): 41. April 1997. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 June 2015.
  51. ^ "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema: 33. M". Empire.
  52. ^ Schneider 2015, p. 90.
  53. ^ "The 100 greatest foreign-language films". BBC Culture. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  54. ^ "In Germany Before The War by Randy Newman". Songfacts. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  55. ^ Barnouw, Erik (1993). Documentary: a history of the non-fiction film. Oxford University Press. p. 142. ISBN 978-0195078985. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
  56. ^ "Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou – M". BBC Radio 4 Extra. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  57. ^ (PDF). Wayback Machine. Prix Italia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  58. ^ Fiction Book Review: M: A Graphic Novel by Jon J. Muth, Author, Thea Von Harbou, Screenplay by, Fritz Lang, Adapted by Abrams (189 p). ISBN 978-0810995222.
  59. ^ "M – A City Hunts a Murderer". IMDB.com. Retrieved 25 November 2019.

Cited works and further reading

  • Kaes, Anton; Dimendberg, Edward; Jay, Martin (1994). The Weimar Republic Sourcebook. Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520067752.
  • Lee, Daryl (2014). The Heist Film Stealing with Style. New York: Wallflower. ISBN 9780231169691.
  • Lessing, Theodor (1993) [1925]. Monsters of Weimar: Haarmann, the Story of a Werewolf. London: Nemesis Books. pp. 293–306. ISBN 1897743106.
  • Schulte-Bockholt, Schulte-Bockholt (2006). The Politics of Organized Crime and the Organized Crime of Politics A Study in Criminal Power. Latham: Lexington Books. ISBN 9780739113585.
  • Thomas, Sarah (2012). Peter Lorre, Face Maker: Stardom and Performance Between Hollywood and Europe. United States: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-0857454423.

External links

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to M (1931 film).

January 07, 2023
1931, film, 1931, german, mystery, suspense, thriller, film, directed, fritz, lang, starring, peter, lorre, breakthrough, role, hans, beckert, serial, killer, children, early, example, procedural, drama, film, centers, manhunt, lorre, character, conducted, bot. M is a 1931 German mystery suspense thriller film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre in his breakthrough role as Hans Beckert a serial killer of children An early example of a procedural drama the film centers on the manhunt for Lorre s character conducted by both the police and the criminal underworld 2 MTheatrical release posterDirected byFritz LangWritten byFritz Lang Thea von HarbouProduced bySeymour NebenzalStarringPeter Lorre Otto Wernicke Gustaf GrundgensCinematographyFritz Arno WagnerEdited byPaul FalkenbergProductioncompanyNero Film A G Distributed byVereinigte Star Film GmbHRelease date11 May 1931 1931 05 11 Running time111 minutes 1 CountryGermanyLanguageGermanThe film s screenplay was written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou and was the director s first sound film 3 It features many cinematic innovations including the use of long fluid tracking shots and a musical leitmotif in the form of In the Hall of the Mountain King whistled by Lorre s character Now considered a timeless classic the film was deemed by Lang to be his magnum opus 4 It is widely considered one of the greatest films of all time and an indispensable influence on modern crime and thriller fiction 5 6 7 Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3 1 Leitmotif 4 Release 5 Critical reception 5 1 Initial response 5 2 Reassessment 6 Legacy 6 1 Remakes and adaptations 7 See also 8 References 9 Cited works and further reading 10 External linksPlot EditIn Berlin 8 a group of children are playing an elimination game in the courtyard of an apartment building using a chant about a murderer of children A woman sets the table for lunch waiting for her daughter to come home from school A wanted poster warns of a serial killer preying on children as anxious parents wait outside a school Little Elsie Beckmann leaves school bouncing a ball on her way home She is approached by Hans Beckert 9 who is whistling In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg He offers to buy her a balloon from a blind street vendor and walks and talks with her Elsie s place at the dinner table remains empty her ball rolls away across a patch of grass and her balloon is lost in the telephone lines overhead 10 In the wake of Elsie s disappearance anxiety runs high among the public Beckert sends an anonymous letter to the newspapers taking credit for the child murders and promising that he will commit others the police extract clues from the letter using the new techniques of fingerprinting and handwriting analysis Under mounting pressure from the Prussian government the police work around the clock Inspector Karl Lohmann head of the homicide squad instructs his men to intensify their search and to check the records of recently released psychiatric patients focusing on any with a history of violence against children They stage frequent raids to question known criminals disrupting organized crime so badly that Der Schranker The Safecracker summons the crime bosses of Berlin s Ringvereine to a conference They decide to organize their own manhunt using beggars to watch the children 11 Meanwhile the police search Beckert s rented rooms find evidence that he wrote the letter there and lie in wait to arrest him 12 Beckert sees a young girl in the reflection of a shop window and begins to follow her but stops when the girl meets her mother He encounters another girl and befriends her but the blind vendor recognizes his whistling The vendor tells one of his friends who follows Beckert and sees him inside a shop with the girl As the two exit onto the street the man chalks a large M for Morder murderer in German on his palm pretends to trip and bumps into Beckert marking the back of his overcoat so that other beggars can easily track him 12 The girl notices the chalk and offers to clean it for him but before she finishes Beckert realizes he is being watched and flees the scene abandoning the girl Attempting to evade the beggars surveillance Beckert hides inside a large office building just before the workers leave for the evening The beggars call Der Schranker who arrives at the building with a team of other criminals They capture and torture one of the watchmen for information and after capturing the other two search the building and catch Beckert in the attic When one of the watchmen trips the silent alarm the criminals narrowly escape with their prisoner before the police arrive Franz one of the criminals is left behind in the confusion and captured by the police By falsely claiming that one of the watchmen was killed during the break in Lohmann tricks Franz into admitting that the gang only broke into the building to find Beckert and revealing where he will be taken The criminals drag Beckert to an abandoned distillery to face a kangaroo court He finds a large silent crowd awaiting him Beckert is given a lawyer who gamely argues in his defense but fails to win any sympathy from the improvised jury Beckert delivers an impassioned monologue saying that he cannot control his homicidal urges while the other criminals present break the law by choice and further questioning why they as criminals believe they have any right to judge him What right have you to speak Criminals Perhaps you are even proud of yourselves Proud of being able to crack into safes 13 or climb into buildings or cheat at cards All of which it seems to me you could just as easily give up if you had learned something useful or if you had jobs or if you were not such lazy pigs I can not help myself I have no control over this evil thing that is inside me the fire the voices the torment 14 Beckert pleads to be handed over to the police asking Who knows what it is like to be me His lawyer points out that Der Schranker presiding over the proceedings is wanted on three counts of manslaughter and that it is unjust to execute an insane man Just as the enraged mob is about to kill Beckert the police arrive to arrest both him and the criminals As a panel of judges prepares to deliver a verdict at Beckert s real trial the mothers of three of his victims weep in the gallery Elsie s mother says that No sentence will bring the dead children back and that One has to keep closer watch over the children The screen fades to black as she adds All of you 15 Cast EditPeter Lorre as Hans Beckert M was Lorre s first major starring role and it boosted his career even though he was typecast as a villain for years afterward in films such as Mad Love and Crime and Punishment Before M Lorre had been mostly a comedic actor After fleeing from the Nazis he landed a major role in Alfred Hitchcock s first version of The Man Who Knew Too Much 1934 picking up English along the way Otto Wernicke as Inspector Karl Lohmann Wernicke made his breakthrough with M after playing many small roles in silent films for over a decade After his part in M he was in great demand due to the success of the film including returning to the role of Karl Lohmann in The Testament of Doctor Mabuse and he played supporting roles for the rest of his career 16 Gustaf Grundgens as Der Schranker The Safecracker Grundgens received acclaim for his role in the film and established a successful career for himself under Nazi rule ultimately becoming director of the Staatliches Schauspielhaus National Dramatic Theatre 17 Ellen Widmann as Mother Beckmann Inge Landgut as Elsie Beckmann Theodor Loos as Inspector Groeber Friedrich Gnass as Franz the burglar Fritz Odemar as Falschspieler Cheater Paul Kemp as Taschendieb pickpocket with seven watches Theo Lingen as Bauernfanger con man Rudolf Blumner as Beckert s defender Georg John as blind balloon seller Franz Stein as minister Ernst Stahl Nachbaur as police chief Gerhard Bienert as criminal secretary Karl Platen as Damowitz a night watchman Rosa Valetti as innkeeper Hertha von Walther as prostitute Hanna Maron uncredited as girl in circle at the beginning Heinrich Gotho as passer by who tells a kid the time Klaus Pohl as witness one eyed man uncredited 18 Production EditLang placed an advert in a newspaper in 1930 stating that his next film would be Morder unter uns Murderer Among Us and that it was about a child murderer He immediately began receiving threatening letters in the mail and was also denied a studio space to shoot the film at the Staaken Studios When Lang confronted the head of Staaken Studio to find out why he was being denied access the studio head informed Lang that he was a member of the Nazi party and that the party suspected that the film was meant to depict the Nazis 19 This assumption was based entirely on the film s original title and the Nazi party relented when told the plot 20 M was eventually shot in six weeks at a Staaken Zeppelinhalle studio just outside Berlin Lang made the film for Nero Film rather than with UFA or his own production company It was produced by Nero studio head Seymour Nebenzal who later produced Lang s The Testament of Dr Mabuse Other titles were given to the film before M was chosen Eine Stadt sucht einen Morder A City Searches for a Murderer and Dein Morder sieht Dich an Your Murderer Looks at You 21 While researching for the film Lang spent eight days inside a mental institution in Germany and met several child murderers including Peter Kurten He used several real criminals as extras in the film and eventually 25 cast members were arrested during the film s shooting 22 Peter Lorre was cast in the lead role of Hans Beckert acting for the film during the day and appearing on stage in Valentine Katayev s Squaring the Circle at night 23 Lang did not show any acts of violence or deaths of children on screen and later said that by only suggesting violence he forced each individual member of the audience to create the gruesome details of the murder according to their personal imagination 24 Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert gazing into a shop window Fritz Lang uses glass and reflections throughout the film for expressive purposes M has been said by various critics and reviewers 25 to be based on serial killer Peter Kurten the Vampire of Dusseldorf whose crimes took place in the 1920s 26 Lang denied that he drew from this case in an interview in 1963 with film historian Gero Gandert At the time I decided to use the subject matter of M there were many serial killers terrorizing Germany Haarmann Grossmann Kurten Denke 27 28 Inspector Karl Lohmann is based on then famous Ernst Gennat director of the Berlin criminal police 29 Lang s picture of the Berlin underworld in the film was inspired by the real Ringvereine which played a role in the German underworld analogous to the Mafia in the Italian underworld 30 The film s portrayal of the Ringvereine as organized like companies with a board of directors that were dominated by a charismatic master criminal was based on reality 30 Likewise the practice of the Ringvereine shown in the film of providing financial support for the families of imprisoned members was also based on reality 30 The break in of an office building depicted in the film was inspired by the real life 1929 break in of the Disconto Bank in Berlin by the Saas brothers gang though unlike in the film the objective was larceny not to capture a serial killer 30 The Ringvereine which were officially wrestling associations that existed for the physical betterment of German men always sought to promote a very respectable almost middle class image of themselves 31 Like the Mafia the Ringvereine paradoxically portrayed themselves as the guardians of society s values who upheld a certain social order The image the Ringvereine sought to project was as professionals whose crimes did not harm ordinary people 32 Though the Ringvereine were known to be gangsters their hierarchal structure and strict discipline led to a certain popular admiration for them as a force for social order unlike the psychopathic serial killers who murdered random strangers for reasons that often seemed unfathomable sparking widespread fear and dread 32 In an article originally published in Die Filmwoche Lang wrote that the crime scene in Germany was such compelling cinematic material that I lived in constant fear that someone else would exploit this idea before me 33 The Weimar era was marked by intense debates about the morality and efficiency of capital punishment with the left arguing that the death penalty was barbaric while the right argued that the death penalty was needed to maintain law and order 32 Adding to the debate was the popular interest in the new science of psychiatry with many psychiatrists arguing that crime was caused by damaged minds and emotions which could be cured 32 In the background was a popular obsessive fear of crime and social breakdown which was fed by sensationalist newspaper coverage of crime which certainly gave the impression that crime was out of control in Weimar Germany 32 In addition for many conservative Germans the Weimar republic was itself born of crime namely the November Revolution of 1918 which began with the High Seas Fleet mutiny of October 1918 According to this viewpoint its origins in mutiny and revolution made the Weimar Republic into an illegitimate state that could not maintain social order because the Republic itself was born of disorder 32 Lang followed these debates closely and incorporated them into several of his Weimar films such as M The debate at Beckert s trial about whether he deserved to be killed or not paralleled the contemporary debates about capital punishment in Germany 34 The fact that Der Schranker a career criminal serves as both the prosecutor and judge at the kangaroo court egging on the mob of criminals to kill Beckert seems to suggest that Lang s sympathy was with the abolitionists 34 The arguments that Der Schranker makes at the kangaroo court namely that certain people are so evil that they deserved to be killed for the good of society was precisely the same argument made by supporters of the death penalty Leitmotif Edit M was Lang s first sound film and he experimented with the new technology 35 It has a dense and complex soundtrack as opposed to the more theatrical talkies being released at the time The soundtrack includes a narrator sounds occurring off camera sounds motivating action and suspenseful moments of silence before sudden noise Lang was also able to make fewer cuts in the film s editing since sound effects could now be used to inform the narrative 36 The film was one of the first to use a leitmotif a technique borrowed from opera associating a tune with Lorre s character who whistles the tune In the Hall of the Mountain King from Edvard Grieg s Peer Gynt Suite No 1 Later in the film the mere sound of the song lets the audience know that he is nearby off screen This association of a musical theme with a particular character or situation is now a film staple 37 Peter Lorre could not whistle and Lang himself is heard in the film 38 Release EditM premiered in Berlin on 11 May 1931 at the UFA Palast am Zoo in a version lasting 117 minutes 23 The original negative is preserved at the Federal Film Archive in a 96 minute version In 1960 an edited 98 minute version was released The film was restored in 2000 by the Netherlands Film Museum in collaboration with the Federal Film Archive the Cinemateque Suisse Kirsch Media and ZDF ARTE with Janus Films releasing the 109 minute version as part of its Criterion Collection using prints from the same period from the Cinemateque Suisse and the Netherlands Film Museum 39 A complete print of the English version and selected scenes from the French version were included in the 2010 Criterion Collection releases of the film 40 The film was later released in the U S in April 1933 by Foremco Pictures 41 After playing in German with English subtitles for two weeks it was pulled from theaters and replaced by an English language version The re dubbing was directed by Eric Hakim and Lorre was one of the few cast members to reprise his role in the film 23 As with many other early talkies from the years 1930 1931 M was partially reshot with actors including Lorre performing dialogue in other languages for foreign markets after the German original was completed apparently without Lang s involvement An English language version was filmed and released in 1932 from an edited script with Lorre speaking his own words his first English part An edited French version was also released but despite the fact that Lorre spoke French his speaking parts were dubbed 42 In 2013 a DCP version was released by Kino Lorber and played theatrically in North America 43 in the original aspect ratio of 1 19 1 44 Critic Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called this the most complete ever version at 111 minutes 45 The film was restored by TLEFilms Film Restoration amp Preservation Services Berlin in association with Archives francaises du film CNC Paris and PostFactory GmbH Berlin 46 Critical reception EditInitial response Edit A Variety review said that the film was a little too long Without spoiling the effect even bettering it cutting could be done There are a few repetitions and a few slow scenes 23 Graham Greene compared the film to looking through the eye piece of a microscope through which the tangled mind is exposed laid flat on the slide love and lust nobility and perversity hatred of itself and despair jumping at you from the jelly 24 Reassessment Edit In later years the film received widespread critical praise and holds an approval rating of 100 on Rotten Tomatoes based on 61 reviews with an average rating of 9 20 10 The site s critics consensus reads A landmark psychological thriller with arresting images deep thoughts on modern society and Peter Lorre in his finest performance 47 Marc Savlov of Austin Chronicle awarded the film five out of five stars calling it One of the greatest of all German Expressionistic films Savlov praised the film s cinematography use of sound and Lorre s performance 48 In 1997 critic Roger Ebert added M to his Great Movies list He proposed Lang s limited use of dialogue was a critical factor in the film s success in contrast with many early sound films which felt they had to talk all the time Ebert also argued the film s characters nearly all grotesques embodied Lang s distaste for his adopted homeland What I sense is that Lang hated the people around him hated Nazism and hated Germany for permitting it 49 Legacy EditLang considered M to be his favorite of his own films because of the social criticism in the film In 1937 he told a reporter that he made the film to warn mothers about neglecting children 35 The film has appeared on multiple lists as one of the greatest films ever made It was voted the best German film of all time with 306 votes in a 1994 poll of 324 film journalists film critics filmmakers and cineastes organized by the Association of German Cinematheques de 50 It s included in Empire Magazine s 100 Best Films of World Cinema in 2010 51 It is listed in the film reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die which says Establishing conventions still being used by serial killer movies Lang and scenarist Thea von Harbou intercut the pathetic life of the murderer with the frenzy of the police investigation into the outrageous crimes and pay attention to issues of press coverage of the killings vigilante action and the political pressure that comes down from the politicians and hinders as much as encourages the police 52 In 2018 it was voted the thirteenth greatest foreign language film of all time in BBC s poll of 209 critics in 43 countries 53 The film is also referenced in the song In Germany Before the War by American songwriter Randy Newman in his 1977 album Little Criminals 54 A scene from the movie was used in the 1940 Nazi propaganda movie The Eternal Jew 55 Remakes and adaptations Edit A Hollywood remake of the same name was released in 1951 shifting the action from Berlin to Los Angeles Nero Films head Seymour Nebenzal and his son Harold produced the film for Columbia Pictures Lang had once told a reporter People ask me why I do not remake M in English I have no reason to do that I said all I had to say about that subject in the picture Now I have other things to say 22 The remake was directed by Joseph Losey and starred David Wayne in Lorre s role Losey stated that he had seen M in the early 1930s and watched it again shortly before shooting the remake but that he never referred to it I only consciously repeated one shot There may have been unconscious repetitions in terms of the atmosphere of certain sequences 22 Lang later said that when the remake was released he had the best reviews of his life 24 In 2003 M was adapted for radio by Peter Straughan and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 2 February later re broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 8 October 2016 56 Directed by Toby Swift this drama won the Prix Italia for Adapted Drama in 2004 57 Writer Jon J Muth adapted the screenplay into a four part comic book series in 1990 which was reissued as a graphic novel in 2008 58 In 2019 a six episode Austrian German TV series was released 59 See also EditTrial movies List of films featuring surveillance List of films with a 100 rating on Rotten Tomatoes a film review aggregator website List of films considered the bestReferences Edit M A British Board of Film Classification 24 May 1932 Archived from the original on 29 May 2014 Retrieved 30 July 2013 Monsters of Weimar pp 296 98 Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep A Brief History of Child Murder in Cinema Bloody Disgusting 22 April 2010 Retrieved 19 April 2016 Kauffman Stanley The Mark of M The Criterion Collection Retrieved 27 April 2012 M In Context The Cinessential Retrieved 28 September 2020 The long shadow of M The Dissolve Archived from the original on 27 January 2021 Retrieved 28 September 2020 A Peerless Classic GI weltweit Retrieved 28 September 2020 While the location is never mentioned in the film the dialect used by the characters is characteristic of Berliners and a police inspector s map labeled Berlin and a policeman s order to take suspects to the Alex Berlin s central police headquarters on the Alexanderplatz make the venue clear Fritz Lang s M the Blueprint for the Serial Killer Movie bfi org uk Fritz Lang s M the Blueprint for the Serial Killer Movie bfi org uk 5 December 2016 Retrieved 16 May 2017 Bradshaw Peter 4 September 2014 M review Fritz Lang s superb thriller fascinates The Guardian a b Monsters of Weimar p 297 M 1931 classicartfilms com Archived from the original on 12 March 2017 Retrieved 10 March 2017 Monsters of Weimar p 298 Garnham Nicholas 1968 M a film by Fritz Lang New York Simon and Schuster pp 15 108 ISBN 978 0900855184 Staedeli Thomas Otto Wernicke Cyranos Retrieved 14 January 2007 Staedeli Thomas Otto Wernicke Cyranos Retrieved 14 January 2007 Garnham p 13 Jensen Paul M The Cinema of Fritz Lang New York A S Barnes amp Co 1969 ISBN 978 0498074158 p 93 Wakeman John World Film Directors Volume 1 New York H W Wilson Company 1987 ISBN 0824207572 p 614 Jensen p 93 a b c Jensen p 94 a b c d Jensen p 93 a b c Wakeman p 615 Ramsland Katherine Court TV Crime Library Serial Killers Movies Crime Library Archived from the original on 3 November 2006 Retrieved 28 October 2006 Morris Gary A Textbook Classic Restored to Perfection Bright Lights Archived from the original on 2 January 2013 Retrieved 12 January 2007 Fritz Lang on M An Interview in Fritz Lang M Protokoll Marion von Schroder Verlag Hamburg 1963 reprinted in the Criterion Collection booklet Monsters of Weimar p 293 Kempe Frank Buddha vom Alexanderplatz Deutschlandfunk Kultur 21 August 2014 in German a b c d Lee p 18 Schulte Bockholt p 23 a b c d e f Kaes Dimendberg Jay p 719 Lang Fritz 25 May 2012 My Film M A Factual Report The Criterion Collection Retrieved 11 May 2021 a b The Uncomfortable Justice of Fritz Lang s M Flipscreen 18 November 2020 Retrieved 2 November 2021 a b Jensen p 95 Jensen p 103 Costantini Gustavo Leitmotif revisited Filmsound Archived from the original on 21 April 2006 Retrieved 10 May 2006 Falkenberg Paul 2004 Classroom Tapes M The Criterion Collection Archived from the original on 29 September 2007 Retrieved 8 August 2007 M Janus Films Criterion Collection closing credits Review of 2010 M Blu ray DVD release region 2 Archived 9 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine DVD Outsider co uk Retrieved 24 April 2010 The Daesseldorf Murders New York Times 3 April 1933 Retrieved 28 September 2017 DVD Extra Peter Lorre s long lost English language debut New York Post 4 March 2010 Retrieved 28 September 2017 Erik McLanahan 9 April 2013 Fritz Lang s M is a great entertainment but it s also a genre mashup Oregon Artswatch Archived from the original on 21 May 2014 Retrieved 20 May 2014 M Thursday 9PM The Charles Theater Baltimore Maryland Archived from the original on 20 May 2014 Retrieved 20 May 2014 Kenneth Turan 9 April 2013 Critic s Choice M stands for masterpiece Los Angeles Times Retrieved 20 May 2014 M Kino Lorber Archived from the original on 16 July 2014 Retrieved 20 May 2014 M 1931 Rotten Tomatoes Fandango Media Retrieved 22 August 2019 Savlov Marc M Austin Chronicle 12 08 97 Austin Chronicle cm Marc Savlov Archived from the original on 18 October 2019 Retrieved 9 September 2019 Ebert Roger 3 August 1997 M movie review 1931 RogerEbert com The 100 Most Important German Films PDF Journal of Film Preservation 54 41 April 1997 Archived from the original PDF on 5 June 2015 The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema 33 M Empire Schneider 2015 p 90 sfn error no target CITEREFSchneider2015 help The 100 greatest foreign language films BBC Culture Retrieved 17 December 2020 In Germany Before The War by Randy Newman Songfacts Retrieved 22 June 2021 Barnouw Erik 1993 Documentary a history of the non fiction film Oxford University Press p 142 ISBN 978 0195078985 Retrieved 15 November 2011 Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou M BBC Radio 4 Extra Retrieved 21 October 2016 Prix Italia Past Editions Winners 1949 2009 PDF Wayback Machine Prix Italia Archived from the original PDF on 3 March 2016 Retrieved 15 January 2020 Fiction Book Review M A Graphic Novel by Jon J Muth Author Thea Von Harbou Screenplay by Fritz Lang Adapted by Abrams 189 p ISBN 978 0810995222 M A City Hunts a Murderer IMDB com Retrieved 25 November 2019 Cited works and further reading EditKaes Anton Dimendberg Edward Jay Martin 1994 The Weimar Republic Sourcebook Los Angeles University of California Press ISBN 9780520067752 Lee Daryl 2014 The Heist Film Stealing with Style New York Wallflower ISBN 9780231169691 Lessing Theodor 1993 1925 Monsters of Weimar Haarmann the Story of a Werewolf London Nemesis Books pp 293 306 ISBN 1897743106 Schulte Bockholt Schulte Bockholt 2006 The Politics of Organized Crime and the Organized Crime of Politics A Study in Criminal Power Latham Lexington Books ISBN 9780739113585 Thomas Sarah 2012 Peter Lorre Face Maker Stardom and Performance Between Hollywood and Europe United States Berghahn Books ISBN 978 0857454423 External links Edit Wikiquote has quotations related to M 1931 film M at IMDb M at AllMovie M at the TCM Movie Database The Restoration of M 2003 from TLEFilms com The Mark of M an essay by Stanley Kauffmann at the Criterion Collection M Photographs and literature M and the making of Peter Lorre Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title M 1931 film amp oldid 1126652827, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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