M (film)

• Release Date: 1931
• Director(s): Fritz Lang
• Writer(s): Fritz Lang ; Thea Von Harbou
• Principal Actors and Roles: Peter Lorre (Hans Beckert); Rudolf Blumner (Beckert's Defender); Friedrich Gnass (Schränker); Inge Landgut (Elsie Beckmann); Otto Wernicke (Inspector Karl Lohmann)

M is a classic 1931 German-language film widely admired for its suspenseful storytelling, scathing social commentary, and the director’s innovative and highly influential use of sound, which was in its infancy at the time the film was made. It is also a prototypical example of two different kinds of film narrative, the serial killer genre, and the police procedural.

Plot

Hans Beckert is a seemingly normal man living in Berlin. However, he is secretly in the grip of his obsessions that cause him to kidnap and murder children. He has killed eight children over the course of a year, creating widespread panic throughout the city.

Beckert kills a little girl named Elsie Beckmann, then sends a letter to the police, thereby inadvertently providing them with clues. Inspector Karl Lohmann leads the police. Because of the public outcry, they are under intense pressure to catch the murderer. They stage a series of raids in order to question known criminals, thus disrupting business in Berlin’s extensive and thriving criminal underworld.

Der Schranker, or "the Safecracker," leads the members of the underworld. Resenting the interruption of their business, they decide to capture Beckert themselves. Ironically, they prove more adept at tracking him down and catching him than the police.

Their strategy is to use beggars to guard children throughout the city. Beckert has a fondness for whistling In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg, and when Beckert targets a potential victim a blind beggar identifies him as the murderer based on his rendition of the song. The blind beggar informs a second beggar of his discovery. The second beggar and several other beggars follow Beckert. A young man they encounter cleverly marks Beckert with an "M," without his knowledge. The young man writes the letter on his hand with a piece of chalk, then pretends to stumble into the child murderer, leaving the letter imprinted on the back of his coat.

At first, Beckert is unaware that he has been branded in this way, but eventually he notices the letter and realizes that he is being followed. He attempts to hide in an office building but is discovered by two of the criminals who are searching for him.

The Safecracker and his fellow criminals subject Beckert to a mock trial. Beckert is allowed to speak in his own defense and he describes his inner torment, how he is gripped by forces that he cannot control. At the same time, he says he experiences remorse for his crimes after he commits them, betraying an awareness of the horror of them.

A lawyer appointed to defend him argues that the Safecracker is wanted by the police for three murders and unlike Beckert he has the ability to control what he does. His argument has no effect on the audience of criminals who have gathered to witness the trial. They are about to murder Beckert when the police arrive. The police arrest Beckert and the members of the underworld.

At his actual trial the five judges who are present prepare to pass judgment on him. Elsie’s mother comments that whatever sentence he receives will not repair the damage that he has caused. Speaking forcefully as a grieving parent, she adds that all parents need to monitor their children more carefully to prevent future tragedies from occurring.

Significance

M is ranked thirty-third on Empire magazine’s list of the 100 greatest films of all time. Lang wrote the screenplay with his wife Thea von Harbou. They took the unusual step of making Beckert the protagonist, although, as the film critic Roger Ebert points out in his excellent analysis of the film, the amount of time Beckert spends on screen is actually limited. Instead, most of the film is devoted to the parallel searches for him conducted by the police and the underworld. Capturing the special quality of the film, Ebert writes, "Apart from a few perfunctory shots of everyday bourgeoisie life . . . the entire movie consists of men seen in shadows, in smoke-filled dens, in disgusting dives, in conspiratorial conferences. And the faces of these men are cruel caricatures: Fleshy, twisted, beetle-browed, dark-jowled, out of proportion." Tellingly, Ebert also writes, "What I sense is that Lang hated the people around him, hated Nazism, and hated Germany for permitting it." Ebert concludes the essay by marveling that the Nazis failed to ban the film, although their decision not to do so is logical given that the film makes its indictment of Nazism implicitly rather than explicitly, a reflection of Lang’s genius.

Beckert’s actual crimes are all the more horrifying in that Lang never presents them directly to the viewer. Instead, they are indicated through haunting imagery: a child’s empty plate at a dinner table, a balloon that Beckert bought for her tangled in telephone wires.

Lang uses sound in a similar way. Before making M he had a successful career as a silent film director; his classic film Metropolis (1927), a depiction of a futuristic oligarchical society, is considered one of the most important silent films ever made. M was his first film that he made using sound and he uses it very creatively. The most obvious example is how Beckert is identified by his whistling and Lang uses the device to imply his presence even when he is off-screen. Lang also uses the absence of sound effectively, as Ebert notes, when the camera pans across the faces of the hardened men at Beckert’s sham trial. Clearly, these men regard themselves as being superior to Beckert when, as Ebert states, it is the entire society that is "diseased."

While Lang’s film is often remembered for his innovative use of sound, the narrative method that he employs has been similarly influential. Inspired by an actual criminal case history, the film is a seminal example of the serial killer genre. It also is an early example of the police procedural, although Lang draws many implicit comparisons between the workings of the police and those of the criminal underworld.

After directing M, Lang went on to a long and successful career in Hollywood. He directed such classic films as The Woman in the Window (1945) and The Big Heat (1953). Both are examples of film noir, a term that French critics coined for the dark Hollywood films of the 1940s and 1950s. Lang’s work provides an important bridge between German Expressionism, an artistic movement that began before World War I and continued into the 1920s, and the later Hollywood genre. Peter Lorre also went on to a successful career in Hollywood, appearing in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1943) among many other films.

With its universal themes of evil and collective responsibility, M remains as powerful today as it was when it was first released. The DVD version of the film released by Criterion contains a fully restored print, an ideal way for fans as well as new viewers to experience this timeless cinematic masterpiece.

Bibliography

Ebert, Roger. "M Movie Review & Film Summary (1931)." RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital, 3 August 1997. Web. 31 Aug. 2015. <http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-m-1931>.

Garnham, Nicholas. M: A Film by Fritz Lang. New York: Simon, 1968. Print.

Jensen, Paul M. The Cinema of Fritz Lang. New York: Barnes, 1969. Print.

Kaufmann, Stanley. "The Truth Twister." New YorkTimes. New York Times, 20 July 1997. Web. 31 Aug. 2015. <https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/07/20/reviews/970720.20kaufmat.html>.

McGilligan, Patrick. Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast. New York: St. Martin’s, 2013. Print.

Muth, Jon J. M. New York: Abrams, 2008. Print.

Turan, Kenneth. "Critic’s Choice: ‘M’ Stands for Masterpiece." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 9 April 2013. Web. 31 Aug. 2015. <http://articles.latimes.com/2013/apr/09/entertainment/la-et-mn-m-review20130405>.