Barnes & Noble

A seminal serial-killer classic with the most horrific subject imaginable -- the murder of children -- M was the first sound film made by German director Fritz Lang, who soon thereafter began a successful career in Hollywood. It also turned out to be the first true masterpiece of the sound era. M's grim story centers on the search for a compulsive child killer (Peter Lorre), pursued not only by the police, but by Berlin's underworld as well. The killer's obsessive whistling of a haunting theme by Edvard Grieg is a famous touch, made all the more frightening by the fact that the film has no other music, save for that same theme, in full orchestration, used over the opening and closing titles. The lack of musical score also accentuates M's semi-documentary feel, as it lays out in clinical detail the state-of-the-art police procedures of the period, while eschewing any scenes of the murders themselves. Dark and visually striking, M ultimately raises some questions about justice and sanity that are still debated today. Gregory Baird

All Movie Guide

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

Product Details

• UPC: 037429197820
• Source: CRITERION
• Presentation: B&W
• Sound: Dolby Digital Mono
• Language: Deutsche
• Subtitles: English
• Time: 1:50:00
• Sales Rank: 4,973

Features:

DVD MENU