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M

Fritz Lang created one of the greatest movies in cinema history with his first sound film. After years of making spectacular silent films such as Dr. Mabuse and Metropolis, Lang mentioned he was ready to make something smaller and more personal. He talked about how he loved Metropolis when he began making it and hated it when it was done. He was ready to make a movie that was about individuals and dealt with personal problems. With M, he not only succeeded on that level but made a movie that would go on to be one of the most important films of all time.

The film tells the story of a child murderer. Peter Lorre plays the character of Hans Beckert, a man who killed at least three children and has a small German town in a frenzy. Beckert is partially based on the true story of Peter Kürten, known as The Vampire of Düsseldorf, who murdered nine people in 1929 before being arrested and executed. Beckert is shown early in only shadows as he stalks and hunts the small children that he would kill and later in various mirrors and window images. Lang uses a lot of these techniques in his film that would soon become film noir staples years before that genre would even exist.

The casting of Lorre was an unusual move with his cherubic face and paranoid, twitchy persona. He seemed to be the last person you would expect capable of the violence he would commit. That is the type of man Lang wanted from the beginning and Lorre would play the role to perfection, at times giving an almost silent film feel to his performance as his eyes seemed to bug out of his head on occasions while his body would movie with an almost Chaplin-esque quality. To add to the uncertainty of his appearance as a cold blooded murderer, none of the violence would be shown onscreen either. When you see Lorre with the children, he is buying balloons or candy for them and always walks hand-in-hand with them, more like a kind uncle than a ruthless murderer. Without seeing the murders, the audience is forced to imagine what must have happened in the background. That makes the story more disturbing than any graphically shown violence ever would.

While Lang used the Film Noir techniques that would become popular in the future, he also incorporated many of the German Expressionistic techniques he had perfected in his previous films. The angles and shapes of items in the scenes, mixed with the shadows and smoke, created an offsetting world that never really felt right. When Beckert is hiding in the office building, he is trapped in a small storage room. Boxes line the sides and angles of buildings pass by the window behind him. Lights shine through the cages and shadows fall in various angles making the scenes a dynamic expression of fear and confusion. The lighting and camera work are masterful throughout.

The plot can be seen as an allegory for capital punishment, but the ideals it approaches are not given a simple answer. When Beckert is captured by the criminal underworld and held in a kangaroo court by his peers, he argues that he deserves true civil justice. He argues that he cannot help who he is and that he is better than the criminal underworld that stands before him because they can quit anytime they choose, but what he does he cannot help. He is basically begging for sympathy and asking for help with his problem. While the criminals want him dead, he preaches for a fair trial. The movie ends with him getting that fair trial, but we never hear the verdict.

The reason is that Fritz Lang is not concerned with what they do with Beckert. He was not telling a story to preach right or wrong in the justice system. As I mentioned in the first part of the review, he wanted to make a more personal film, a film with a small yet important meaning. When the film was originally released, they removed the last scene, where the three mothers were sitting together and one of them said killing Beckert would not bring their children back. The last line in the movie was the reason Lang wanted to make the movie to begin with. In this restoration, the line was returned and Lang’s original vision was completed. The mother stated simply, “We have to watch our children much better.”

M is not concerned with the argument of mental health or the criminal system or the judicial system. It is a story about right and wrong. It is a lesson in protecting our children from danger and what can happen if we do not do so. Using the story of criminals and police and kangaroo courts, Lang simply wants us to look at ourselves and understand that none of that matters because once our children are taken from us there is nothing left we can do.

This would be one of the last films Lang would make in Germany. Two years later, after completing Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse, he was offered to be head of the German Film Studio UFA during the rise of the Nazi party. Lang would flee the country that night and not return. He would join MGM and make such films as Fury and The Big Heat, perfecting the style of Noir he practiced in M. Using dramatic lighting techniques, a psychologically expressive approach to mise-en-scène and a storyline of intrigue and moral ambiguity, M was the perfect stepping stone for Expressionism’s eventual transformation into Film Noir. The film remains a great classic example of film technique and the story remains increasingly relevant today. It is, without argument, one of the most important movies in the history of cinema.