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Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Gustaf Gründgens, Friedrich Gnass ... see more see more... , Fritz Odemar , Paul Kemp , Theo Lingen , Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur , Mathias Franz Stein , Otto Wernicke , Theodor Loos , Rudolf Blumner , Georg John , Karl Platen , Gerhard Bienert , Rose Valetti , Hertha von Walther , Heinrich Gotho , Lotte Loebinger , Klaus Pohl , Paul Rehkopf , Hugo Döblin , Ilse Furstenberg , Heinrich Gretler , Leonard Steckel , Otto Waldis , Rolf Wanka , Günther Neumann , Gunther Hadank

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. T... read more read more...he 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, Rovi

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94% liked it

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40 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 45 min.

Directed by: Fritz Lang

Release Date: August 31, 1931

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DVD Release Date: October 20, 1998

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M M M Peter Lorre discovers the mark The child plays A monster Peter Lorre window-shops M M Ominous, no? The murderer finds a victim M Searching for the girl He is captured The police meet
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Flixster Reviews (2,295)

  • paulkoh110
    March 17, 2012
    paulkoh110
    Awesome???? This film is not only impressive for a 30's film but still gripping today. Loved the dark ending and Lorre's acting!
  • DragonEyeMorrison
    December 2, 2011
    DragonEyeMorrison
    It's a movie you will watch mostly for it's historical importance, it's cinematic techniques, and for Lorre's performance. Too many scenes of people smoking and having reunions, not enough interesting characters.
  • FrizzDrop
    October 28, 2011
    FrizzDrop
    One of the front runners for Fritz Lang's best films, and one of the best examples of German expression and the modernist movement, M is a story with a message that is either moralistic of the times or includes fear tactics in modern society. The film was made as Germany's first ... read moresound film, and created the serial killer genre, and police procedure type of situations. It follows the exploits of Berlin before Nazi Germany had truly risen to power. The townspeople in this film become heavily invested in torches and pitchforks trying to find out the identity of a child murderer living among them. (hence the original title Murderers Among Us) They become irrationally hostile towards all people who are suspected in the web of criminal activity that perforates the city. We watch the dynamics between the criminal element and the concerned parents becoming dangerous to each other and those around them. The first hour of the entire film builds this raw tension up to bursting, teasing us with scenes without any diegetic sound whatsoever, reeling us in but with an uncomfortable air, as if music itself was too simplistic for the audience. When we're introduced to Hans Becker as this reviling monster, we've already been led to believe that the villagers and police are the villains, that we almost feel sympathy for him. Whenever they find anyone even resembling his form they become violent and untrustworthy with their resulting actions, which makes any human's fate a very scary question to pose to oneself. He seems absolutely pitiful, and maybe my sympathies would have been extended to the very end of the film, had it not been for the fact that he writes a letter to the police which basically says, "Nana nana boo boo," telling them they will never find him, and that he wants national presence among the people. He creates the unrest willingly, so the fact that many point to this and lump it in with Lang's later work, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, is ludicrous. I can see the connection to the townspeople as the Nazi party, but it doesn't configure with what we know of the dymanic between all involved parties. I do assert that one particular scene looks like they collected items from rounded up criminals, much like when they took Jews' suitcases before boarding trains to concentration camps. The performance by Lorre is bug eyed and irritatingly nervous, which doesn't make sense with the fact that he feels so clinical about his actions in the letter, but in the final scene, it all makes sense. He becomes cornered, and we finally look at the morality of killing because of compulsion. I could see this being used in a case against the death penalty, or to change legislation on the prosecution of criminals in our systems. (Hitler used it to warn of the dangers of pedophilia.) Hinging on shots of staircases,mirrors, shadows, and only including diegetic music but not sound, this film oozes German expression, barely using sound, as if Lang changed his mind over what to use every other week of shooting. It's a remarkable film, overall, sinister and morally reprehensible, it's one of Lang's many masterpieces.
  • fb733768972
    October 8, 2011
    fb733768972
    This brilliantly crafted suspense classic pulls on all of your emotional strings as a child killer is on the loose. Every person in town seems to want a piece of him. As on of the townspeople witnesses his next attempt, he chalks the letter "M" across his left shoulder. Everyone ... read morein town is informed of this and is able to trap him in a bulding where there are no exits. The film is filled with amazing cinematography, and the first ever hollywood film to have sound, definitely shows it's cinematic talent. For it's time, the acting is quite powerful and the resolution is heart-stopping. It ends quite abruptly, letting you believe what you want. This film is one of the best pieces of crime cinema I have ever witnessed on screen. It is riveting, heart-pounding, and jaw-droppingly strong. "M" is a pure masterpiece.
  • FilmFanatik
    September 21, 2011
    FilmFanatik
    Fritz Lang's socially-conscious masterpiece M is an all time classic film that could have come from any time period. Recently restored to its nearly full length, it has now taken on a whole new life in high definition. The story of a sinister underworld combining forces with angr... read morey citizens - all united to catch a child killer on the loose before the police do makes for a very compelling story. It did particularly in an era where the storyline was ripped straight from the local German headlines. It hit home, even if we're asked to sympathize with the killer a bit. Fritz Lang's great silent masterpiece may have been Metropolis or Destiny, but M is his swan song, and a film that any film fan owes it to themself to experience.
  • fb1216165431
    September 10, 2011
    fb1216165431
    Considered as the finest work of Fritz Lang, M delicately profiles a wanted psychopath with stimulating themes and striking complexity that helplessly infects the audience with questions on justice and ethics. Remarkable.
  • harrycaul
    March 17, 2011
    harrycaul
    I may be barking up the wrong tree completely here but, having just watched M again for the first time in ages, I was struck by how the film seems to prefigure the work of Jean-Pierre Melville in certain key respects. Firstly, as played by Otto Wernicke and Gustaf Gründgen... read mores respectively, Fritz Lang presents us with a police inspector and a gangster who are equally charismatic, thereby testing the audience's sympathy, a trick which Melville would make good use of, time and again, in his Nouvelle Vague noirs of the late Fifties and Sixties. But rather than being a straightforward personality contest between the good guys and the bad guys, Lang's far more disturbing moral dilemma invites us to choose between the criminal justice system and mob rule in the question of what should be done with Peter Lorre's pathetic child murderer, who is beyond the pale of the regular criminal fraternity. The director would, of course, return to the subject of mob justice for his first American movie, Fury, in 1936. Lang's fascination with meticulous police procedure in M is also very similar to Melville's in Le Samouraï, and I was yet again reminded of Melville in those scenes where the criminal mob uses the tools and techniques of its trades to close in on the cornered Lorre in a deserted office building, which is essentially a heist scenario with Lorre as the booty.
  • flixsterman
    September 5, 2010
    flixsterman
    As a child of the 60's, I grew up knowing Peter Lorre as a spooky looking character actor with supporting roles in old classics like The Maltese Falcon and Arsenic and Old Lace. Although I enjoyed his performances I never fully appreciated his talent until I saw th... read moreis 1931 Fritz Lang masterpiece. In it, Lorre plays a psychotic child murderer stalking a German city. Lorre's approach to the character is unusual in the sense that he himself is tormented by the unspeakable acts he commits. There is a tangible emanation of right and wrong, of good versus evil, that Lorre projects. I found myself fascinatingly disgusted (or disgustingly fascinated) by my empathy for his character.
  • ajv2688
    September 5, 2010
    ajv2688
    Lorre's most dramatic performance, and one of his best. If you're a fan of his don't miss this movie. It is both very artsy and very exciting.
  • gokhale1
    July 16, 2010
    gokhale1
    Fritz Lang's "M" took me by surprise completely! It is one of those amazing motion pictures which holds the audience in their grasp and never lets go. And when it is finally over, it refuses to exit the mind and forces the viewer to constantly think about what he/she has just see... read moren! I wasn't expecting much, but I was more than satisfied when I was finished with this timeless classic. I have watched countless films, but this is one story that is definitely unique. It is one of those films which will leave the viewer in two minds about who to sympathize with..and puts him/her in (for lack of a better expression) a true moral dilemma! Peter Lorre delivers a bravura performance as a child murderer who is the center of this whole drama involving everyone from the police to the families who lose their children to even the underworld! That is pretty much all that can be said about the plot of this gem which has to be seen to be believed.

    This also happens to be the Lang's first talkie film and is probably one of the greatest films ever made about a pathological serial killer.

    True, due to the era it was released in(1931), it lacks some of the finesse that is used in "creating" a motion picture in today's times. But that hardly mars the overall viewing experience. There are some great movie moments, masterfully shot sequences and nail-biting proceedings in the narrative combined with great display of acting from Peter Lorre, as mentioned earlier, along with some commendable supporting acts from Otto Wernicke as Inspector Lohmann and Gustaf Gründgens as Schränker.

    Go ahead and rent/buy this and treat yourself to a wholly satisfying movie experience! Highly recommended!

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Critic Reviews

Dave Kehr
February 9, 2007
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

The moral issues are complex and deftly handled: Lorre is at once entirely innocent and absolutely evil. Lang's detached, modified expressionist style gives the action a plastic beauty. Full Review

Variety Staff
November 11, 2006
Variety Staff, Variety

An extraordinary, good, impressive and strong talker. Again fine work by Fritz Lang, and his wife and helper, Thea von Harbou. Full Review

Mordaunt Hall
May 20, 2003
Mordaunt Hall, New York Times

[An] important film which rightly deserves its success.

John Hartl
January 1, 2000
John Hartl, Film.com

Lorre's performance as a desperate killer who insists he can't help himself remains his finest hour on film.

Edward Guthmann
January 1, 2000
Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle

It's an impeccable film -- a model of psychological suspense and a stunning display of Lang's power and skill. Full Review

Joe Baltake
January 1, 2000
Joe Baltake, Sacramento Bee

The film grows more unsettling when it becomes apparent that the child killer Beckert is something of a child himself, forcing the audience into something beyond complicity, something dangerously clos... Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum
January 1, 2000
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

This astonishing movie represents an unsurpassed grand synthesis of storytelling. Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

The film doesn't ask for sympathy for the killer Franz Becker, but it asks for understanding: As he says in his own defense, he cannot escape or control the evil compulsions that overtake him. Full Review

Philip Martin
May 21, 2010
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

...a touchstone, one of those classics that infects the popular imagination to the point that it's really not necessary for most people to have actually seen it to recognize its signal moments ... Full Review

Christopher Long
May 1, 2010
Christopher Long, Movie Metropolis

M is responsible for some of the most memorable images and sequences in cinema history Full Review

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