$32.86
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Friday, May 10. Order within 14 hrs 59 mins
In Stock
$$32.86 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$32.86
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

M (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Peter Lorre (Actor), Otto Wernicke (Actor), Fritz Lang (Director, Writer) Rated:
NR
Format: Blu-ray
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,336 ratings
IMDb8.3/10.0
Amazon's Choice highlights highly rated, well-priced products available to ship immediately.
Amazon's Choice
$32.86 with 18 percent savings
List Price: $39.95

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime
FREE Returns
Additional Blu-ray options Edition Discs
Price
New from Used from
Blu-ray
March 21, 2010
The Criterion Collection
1
$32.86
$32.86 $23.47
Blu-ray
November 14, 2011 		—
3
$22.26
$18.27 $21.11
Blu-ray —
1
—
$36.92 $22.98
Watch Instantly with Rent Buy
M (English Subtitled) $3.59 $14.99
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$32.86","priceAmount":32.86,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"32","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"86","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"M3YW6ViXPtPWuCUIMsWQio%2FsG0CJ%2Bq%2FMLx%2BSUUjEdNyYvMWAK1L3XAGlsbDRfw9xlXyaO4k5mrt5SPjzwnV7impG0ivEQZbEq%2BzpKdt0p8FIUFTBSkVjyB1wz%2BroqeH09FkMaMjIEKw%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Genre Mystery & Suspense
Format Blu-ray, Black & White, Subtitled, Subtitled
Contributor Ellen Widmann, Peter Lorre, Thea von Harbou, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke, Fritz Lang, Gustaf Gründgens, Theodor Loos See more
Language English
Runtime 1 hour and 50 minutes
Available at a lower price from other sellers that may not offer free Prime shipping.
Hard Rock apparel
Outerwear, tees, and accessories. Discover the rock shop.

Frequently bought together

M (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
$32.86
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
The Seventh Seal (The Criterion Collection) [4K UHD]
$25.60
Usually ships within 2 to 4 weeks
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Diabolique (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
$21.96
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Product Description

Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke. Directed by Fritz Lang. Lorre made his powerful screen debut as a child murderer hunted by the authorities and the underworld. This digitally remastered version features a restored soundtrack and additional footage including the often-missing final scene! In German with English subtitles. 1931/ Black & White /111 min/NR/full screen. A simple, haunting musical phrase whistled off screen tells US that a young girl will be killed. "Who is the Murderer?" pleads a nearby placard as serial killer Hans Beckert, played by Peter Lorre (CASABLANCA, THE MALTESE FALCON), closes in on little Elsie Beckmann. In his harrowing masterwork M, Fritz Lang (METROPOLIS, THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE) merges trenchant social commentary with chilling suspense, creating a panorama of private madness and public hysteria that to this day remains the blueprint for the psychological thriller. Directed by Fritz Lang. Starring Peter Lorre, Ellen Widman, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke and Theodor Loos.

Product details

  • Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
  • MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
  • Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 0.01 ounces
  • Item model number ‏ : ‎ 7262033
  • Director ‏ : ‎ Fritz Lang
  • Media Format ‏ : ‎ Blu-ray, Black & White, Subtitled, Subtitled
  • Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 50 minutes
  • Release date ‏ : ‎ March 21, 2010
  • Actors ‏ : ‎ Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Gustaf Gründgens, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut
  • Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English
  • Studio ‏ : ‎ Criterion Collection
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00393SFU2
  • Writers ‏ : ‎ Thea von Harbou, Fritz Lang
  • Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,336 ratings

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
1,336 global ratings
One of the very best B&W movies.
5 Stars
One of the very best B&W movies.
I have seen still images from this movie but never watched it. The cinematography is a great study of shadows, texture and light that every black and white photographer should make note of. There are several long scenes where the camera doesn't cut while traveling from outside to inside through a window. The window set splits and moves out of the way for the camera.
Hide
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

Deejay
5.0 out of 5 stars M was Hitchcock before Hitchcock
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2024
Verified Purchase
Fritz Lang's 1931 masterpiece "M" is one of cinema's first great films of pure suspense, although it is a very disturbing masterpiece. This film established Peter Lorre as a major star and his on-screen persona of the eerie, psychopathic characters that he often played. As this was Lorre's first starring role, at first he considered it his best performance. Later in his career he came to dislike the film because so many people associated the sinister character with Lorre himself. Lang used a number of innovations in "M", notably a musical theme associated with the character of the child molester/murder Hans Beckert. Whenever Beckert was on the prowl for another innocent victim, he would whistle Edvard Grieg's "In The Hall of the Mountain King." That musical refrain was indelibly etched into the viewer's mind as a spine chilling precursor to yet another heinous crime. The actual murder is not seen, but left to the audience's imagination, which is often more gruesome than anything a filmmaker can photograph.
Lorre's performance was also a masterpiece, especially in the look on his moon-like face when he was cornered at last. It was not even the look of a human, but rather that of a trapped animal. Then when the vigilantes put him on "trial" in a kangaroo court that trapped look came out so strongly that the viewer might experience some small sympathy for the character, despite the despicable murders he had committed.
The BluRay edition of M features the original sub-titled German language sound track, but can be switched to the English language version at the viewer's choice. Alfred Hitchcock already had a number of films under his belt when "M" was released, but the viewer can easily see the influence that "M" had on Hitchcock as he later became the "Master of Suspense." If you've never seen "M", take the time to see this very excellent film; when it's over you will not be disappointed, though you may be unsettled.
Helpful
 Report
cookieman108
5.0 out of 5 stars "I can't help what I do! I can't help it, I can't..."
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2005
Verified Purchase
So how is it that one who enjoys movies, good and bad, as much as I do, has never seen Fritz Lang's M (1931) until last night? I've certainly heard about it, I've seen clips from it, I've read John J. Muth's beautifully rendered four issue comic/graphic novel adaptation of it, heck, I even bought the film at the end of last year, and it's been sitting on my `to be watched' shelf ever since...perhaps there was a sense of intimidation on my part, or fear...fear that I may not have liked the film that many acknowledge as a classic work of cinema, and one of the best examples of early German expressionist films (it's also one of the first, big German talkie films), from which so many others have since drawn upon for inspiration. After finally buckling down and watching it last night, I have to say, I really didn't know what I was missing, especially given how much I enjoy the noir films released by Hollywood in its heyday. Co-written and directed by Fritz Lang (Metropolis, The Blue Gardenia), the film stars Peter Lorre (The Man Who Knew Too Much, Mad Love), whom I first became familiar with, unknowingly, when I was a child, watching the Warner Brothers cartoons, shown on Saturday morning. It wasn't until later when I actually saw Lorre in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) that I made the connection and realized his distinctive manner and appearance (bedroom voice, bug eyes, and moon face) was the one characterized within the various cartoons.

As the story begins, the city streets are buzzing with news of a child murderer on the loose, one whose just recently claimed yet another victim. We learn there have been eight murders so far, in as many months. The general public is visibly distressed, especially with the authorities and their inability to catch the killer who leaves very little behind in terms of useful clues. Soon people begin pointing fingers at each other, making accusations based on paranoid reactions...if you're seen on the street even near a child you're the killer...if you're seen being arrested by the police for something completely unrelated, you're the killer, and so on...the police may have very little to go on, but that doesn't mean they're not working the case. On the contrary, they're working themselves to exhaustion, following up anything and everything in hopes it will pan out into a viable lead...the problem is, besides the fact that they are being inundated with dead end leads, is that there's no seeming connection between the killer and his randomly chosen victims. The authorities have even begun scouring the criminal districts, in hopes of turning up something, which, of course, upsets the criminals as there's a heightened sense of awareness permeating the city and interfering with their trade. In an interesting juxtaposition, we see two groups meeting separately, yet at the same time, one being the authorities, the other being a criminal syndicate of sorts, both striving for the same outcome, but for relatively different reasons. The authorities want this murdering psychopath off the streets for obvious reasons, while the criminal element wants to catch him because not only is the intensive manhunt interfering with their business, but also because there reputations are suffering given the public's inclination to not distinguish one criminal from another. Based on the respective outcomes of the meetings, the authorities broaden their search to include the recently released individuals who were wards of the state, deemed `harmless' to society, while the criminals employ a very different, unique, and ultimately effective strategy. Eventually both methods pay off and the killer is identified (by the most unlikely source), and the real manhunt begins...who will find him first, the police, or the `organization'?

I have to say, this is probably the best film I've seen in an awhile. The one aspect that really stood out was the exquisite beauty within the cinematography, the usage of shadows along with an incredibly wide array of shots used to tell the story and develop tension throughout. Normally when someone uses that many different kinds of shots, it tends to draw unwanted attention, but here they seemed to have been chosen and ordered in such as ways as to feel seamless, hardly ever disrupting the flow. There was one shot, in particular, that comes to mind and it's when Lorre, who plays the killer, is being chased by emissaries of the underworld, through darkened streets. There's a high angled long shot, featuring an expansive view of a wide street, and we can see Lorre's character down below looking like a cornered animal, his escape routes cut off as various individuals appear, blocking off the exits. There are also many scenes featuring dialog being spoken by a character not on the screen, describing to another in detail what we're seeing as an example on the screen. One example of this was after the police raids on the criminal districts, we hear voice of one of the authorities speaking to another about the raids, while seeing a slow pan across a long table featuring all the contraband confiscated, including guns, knifes, brass knuckles, burglary tools, stolen booty, etc. Lorre's performance was amazing, even more so considering he wasn't even really featured in the first half of the film. The scenes were he's leading a potential victim around, buying candy and such, were particularly creepy, whistling that tune, but his real talent comes through near the end, as he tries to explain his despicable actions to an audience bent on seeing him destroyed. Despite the ugly nature of the character, Lorre almost makes you feel sympathetic towards his monstrous character...almost. One element that surprised me was the very subtle comedic touches included in the film dealing with such serious material. An example of this can be seen during the meeting of the criminals to discuss the effect the investigation of the killer is having on their business ventures. One individual asks another for the time, to which the one calls and asks the operator, and then proceeds to remove watch after watch from his garments to set the time...obviously he's a pickpocket by trade, and there was something comical about him taking out all these stolen watches to set the time. I've read that, with regards to some elements of the film, Lang intended to surreptitiously comment on his distaste for the prevalent Fascist regime within Germany at the time, and I can see collaborative material within the film to justify such a claim, specifically in terms of the public's reactions (accusations, finger pointing, apathy), and the authorities general sense of contempt for those it is trying to protect...whether this is true or not, I do not know, as I'm not one of historical knowledge, especially of a political sense...regardless, this is an excellent film, with a definite contemporary relevancy even after nearly 70 some odd years, and worth watching, if, for nothing else, to gain an appreciation for its influence on films that followed.

The film on this Criterion Collection DVD release runs 110 minutes, and looks beautiful in its original aspect ratio of 1.19:1. The picture is very clear and clean, as is the Dolby Digital monaural audio. This release also features a `new and improved' English subtitle translation. This is a two disc set, the first featuring a new, restored in high definition digital print, along with an audio commentary by German film scholars Anton Kaes and Eric Rentschler. The second disc contains a conversation with Fritz Lang (50 minutes), a short film titled "M le Maudet", by Claude Chabrol, classroom tapes of M editor Paul Falkenberg discussing the film and its history, an interview with Harold Nebenzal, son of the producer, a physical history of M, and a still gallery with behind the scenes photos and production sketches. Also included is a 32-page booklet with essays, interviews, and a script for a missing scene.

Cookieman108

By the way, as far as the meaning of the one letter title, it's pretty simple, one that's made perfectly clear within the film, so there's no sense in my spoiling it here...
18 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
Fernando Zamora
4.0 out of 5 stars Chilling masterpiece for film aficionados
Reviewed in Mexico on April 3, 2024
Verified Purchase
"M" (1931) is a chilling masterpiece that delves into the psyche of a child murderer, offering a haunting portrayal of society's descent into chaos and vigilantism. Fritz Lang's direction and Peter Lorre's performance are mesmerizing, making it a timeless classic that continues to captivate audiences with its suspense and social commentary. The Criterion Collection release preserves this cinematic gem with pristine quality and insightful extras, making it a must-have for film aficionados.
Report
mario porcaro
5.0 out of 5 stars Capolavoro
Reviewed in Italy on April 2, 2021
Verified Purchase
Gran film, da avere assolutamente per gli appassionati....
Report
Jeffrey Heness
5.0 out of 5 stars Good Quality
Reviewed in Australia on August 21, 2018
Verified Purchase
Arrived in good time and good quality.
One person found this helpful
 Report
SinSeudónimo
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutamente insuperable.
Reviewed in Spain on April 14, 2015
Verified Purchase
Naturalmente si a alguien le interesa 'y conoce' este tipo de cine hasta el extremo de estar pensando en comprar este BR+DVD, entiendo que sabe perfectamente de qué se trata y lo que se va a encontrar; Por ello, no tengo ni la más mínima intención de referirme a ningún aspecto acerca de esta obra maestra del cine alemán de entreguerras y de Fritz Lang, en particular. Sí lo haré, en cambio, a propósito de esta edición especial 80 aniversario. Y diré que es, sencillamente, una verdadera obra de arte. Creo que no tengo otro DVD o BR, de ningún tipo, más bonito, mejor editado, más completo, más logrado, más inspirado y más lujoso. Es una preciosidad irresistible para cualquier coleccionista/fetichista de este tipo de cosas (libros, discos, películas); un auténtico objeto de deseo. Es una edición digna de ser expuesta es una vitrina. Ya tenía esta película en otras ediciones anteriores, pero eso no ha sido obstáculo para hacerme con esta maravilla. Además me ha llegado, por parte de Amazon, en perfectas condiciones, con su precinto de origen y sin el más mínimo desperfecto, a pesar de lo delicadas que resultan las cajas de cartón de discos y/o películas, sobre todo si, como es el caso, son de color negro.
6 people found this helpful
 Report
Film Buff
5.0 out of 5 stars Into the hall of the mountain king - Lang's masterpiece
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 23, 2018
Verified Purchase
No introductions needed surely for M, Fritz Lang's most celebrated masterpiece. Made in 1931, it seems as modern today as it must have been the day it was released and remains a thrilling experience. Analyzed to death by social scientists, exhausted over frame by frame by university film academics, x-rayed to infinity by amateur (and professional) psychoanalysts, both Jungian and Freudian, and ripped apart by structuralists, there is something for everyone in this extraordinary text. As Tom Gunning has observed in his excellent book (The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity), no one critic can really get to the bottom of all M represents or means, so radical is it's range, so penetrating into the human condition are its insights. But let me try to summarize a few of the reasons why M should be in every serious film collection.

First of all surely must be the film's unique narrative structure. There is no main character in the conventional sense of the term. The film may be all about the serial child killer, Hans Beckert (an astounding performance by Peter Lorre), but he barely appears, let alone speaks until the film's last 15 minutes. He is represented by his absence more than anything else. If you see M as a police procedural then the chief detective, Karl Lohmann (Otto Wernicke) could be seen as the main character, but he isn't introduced until 20 minutes in and doesn't appear at all in the film's concluding kangaroo court. Perhaps it's Der Schranker (Gustaf Grundgens), the head of the underground who organizes Beckert's capture and trial, but again he isn't introduced until late. If anything he is Lohmann's doppelganger, Lang taking great pains in the film to parallel both sides of the law in their hunt for Beckert. No, the main character of the film isn't a person. Instead Lang makes the 'main character' the city of Berlin itself together with the effect Beckert's crimes has on the city's populace. The film's opening few shots, starting with the opening 'gong' of a clock and the children playing their sadistic 'counting out' game (continuing the clock theme), going through Frau Beckmann's reactions to the fact that her daughter, Elsie is late coming home, inter-cutting with scenes of her daughter leaving school to be picked up by a shadow, and then closing with her murder (a ball rolling out of a bush, the balloon bought from a blind street vendor by Beckert for the girl, now entangled in electric wires), all show Lang constantly forcing us to focus us on what lies outside the camera frame (the city), rather than what lies within it.

If the main character of the film is Berlin and its denizens then the main subject is the effect of Beckert's reign of terror, most notably the process by which the killer is trapped and condemned. The film is structured accordingly. Lang's relentless depiction of this process has an obsessiveness which drives the narrative mercilessly forward with no thought at all given to conventional notions of characterization. No film made before or since concentrates so hard on making one shot lead into the next with such inexorable logic. The balloon caught in the wires implies the news has already been transmitted by technology. This leads to the next scene of 'extra' newspapers being distributed on the street, to people reading about the murder on a wall, and to the deep feelings of paranoia that this inspires in everyone. The bad news doesn't unite the people against the murderer. Instead, it divides them and makes them accuse each other in a frenzy to find the beast, the Murderer Among Us (Morder unter uns - the film's original title). Accusations lead to counter-accusations, which lead to pressure on police to try harder to find the murderer, which leads to the criminal underworld being unsettled by the unwanted over-attention given them by the investigation, which leads to the underground deciding to find the murderer themselves, which leads to...and so on, down and down. The relentless logic and inherent mirroring and paralleling made between the 'official' investigation of the police and the 'unofficial' investigation of the criminal underworld is structured by Lang as a tightly coiled spiral which runs around and around, tighter and tighter, gradually roping Beckert in to his fate. Moreover, it is done by excluding him from the screen almost entirely, and it is of course his absence which looms over everyone and everything. It is when Beckert is revealed finally in the kangaroo court where Lang plays his ace card. For instead of a snarling, hideous monster deserving of the death penalty, Lang gives us a poor, frightened, shivering victim of persecution who mouths the (now standard) plea of insanity wherein he can't help doing what he does. He kills, but he has no control over that impulse. His 'defense lawyer' says Beckert is sick and that sick people should be taken to the doctor, not to the executioner. And so Lang achieves the miraculous here. He creates an atmosphere of terror where a whole city is shown to have been shaken by the actions of one monster of a man, but when the monster is revealed, he becomes the film's most sympathetic character. This reversal of audience sympathy is a masterstroke from Lang for suddenly we are in the area of social science. Which is the monster, the man or the society that creates and persecutes that man? That is the question Lang poses when he has Beckert address the camera directly. Are we with him, or against him?

Closely bedded into the relentless obsession of Lang and Thea Von Harbou's narrative structure (his wife's contribution to the script cannot be over-emphasized) is an extraordinarily complex mise-en-scene. Perhaps in no other film is the frame of any one image packed with so much information at any one time. Working closely with cameraman Fritz Arno Wagner Lang constantly alternates between overheads to huge close-ups to create a visual texture which resembles finally a huge net which closes in around Beckert. The numerous topographical shots take their cue from the scene where the police draw circles around the area of the Elsie Beckmann murder on a map of the city. For example, the overhead shot of Beckert running to and fro trying to elude his pursuers (following the realization that he has been identified) makes him resemble a cockroach around which a giant glass has been up-ended and against the sides of which he is bounced around as it closes in on him. He is trapped by the urban grid demarcated by the map of the city. In other words he is trapped by the city itself - the film's main character. These topographical shots alternate with huge close-ups (Beckert reflected in the mirror, Lohmann shot from a camera buried underneath his desk) which exaggerate and caricature. 'Caged' compositions abound, especially of Beckert trapped behind bars in the office attic, the burglar left by his mates climbing up out of a hole to find himself caged by the police, the scene where Beckert sees a potential victim in a shop window framed in a mirror which is then refracted back with Beckert himself in the frame, and then of course the vast vault of the distillery cellar used for the final scene.

Lang takes as a basis for his mise-en-scene the work of the German Expressionist movement, especially Georges Grosz, Max Beckmann and Ludwig Kirchner to create a series of stunning images - the circle of kids playing in the apartment block courtyard shot from above, the shot of the 'empty despair' of Frau Beckmann looking down the staircase which leads to infinity, the Georges Grosz caricature of the men drinking beer which ends in one accusing another of murder, the overhead shot of the street just prior to the police raid and the crowd scenes which deliberately evoke Beckmann and Kirchner. Lang was aware in 1931 that expressionism was somehow old fashioned (his earlier silent films make even greater use of it) and so he also took on board the Neue Sachlichkeit (the New Objectivity) of the time as evinced by sequences where objects take on the meaning of emotions. The shot of Elsie's empty table place speaks volumes of absence and the effect it has on her mother. The horror of Elsie's death is portrayed by means of a ball and a balloon (innocence lost). Then there's the amazing shot after the police raid on the bar of the paraphernalia of criminality. Guns, knives, knuckle-dusters, wrenches, drills, screw-drivers, stolen jewelry, wallets, expensive furs and so on are all displayed in one shot by Lang with fastidious precision to show the passion for crime that these people possess. Most recognizably Langian of all is the use of shop windows where goods are laid out especially to attract and inspire consumer desire. It is in such windows that Beckert finds his victims (goods designed to satisfy his desire?). The new objectivity first introduced here in M marks a transition in Lang's work from his obsessive arranging of people (in Metropolis (1926) for example) to an obsessive arrangement of objects - something that dominates Lang's films here on in. Shop windows appear in almost every film after M.

Closely allied with Lang's meticulous mise-en-scene is the innovative sound design of the film. This was Lang's first sound film, but he uses it with consummate expertise - the use of over-lapping dialogue in the crowd scene where people are reading about the Beckmann murder on the wall show Orson Welles wasn't the first to use it in Citizen Kane (1941). The telephone conversation between the minister and the policeman is a wonderful example of how to convey information quickly and with maximum impact. As they talk the visuals move with supreme logic from one police method of investigation to another - I'm sure Lang remembered this when he made the first sequence of The Big Heat (1953) where he used the telephone to similar jaw-dropping effect. Then there are the sheer number of scenes in which Lang uses no sound at all - the lead-up to the police raid, the chase of Beckert where he is marked on his back with an 'M' and the frightening court scene where the poor victim begs for mercy as the majority bay for blood. There is no music in the film. The only tune comes from a whistled (by Lang himself) rendition of Grieg's 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' by Beckert. On one level this was the very first example in cinema where a character becomes identified by a little leitmotif to sinister effect - something which has become commonplace in films ever since. On a deeper level Lang alludes to the original Ibsen play where the troll king asks Peer Gynt, "What is the difference between a troll and a man?". The Old Man of the Mountain later answers "Out there, where sky shines, humans say: 'To thyself be true'. In here trolls say: 'Be true to yourself and to hell with the world'". This of course takes us into the heart of Beckert, a man split in two (he is first introduced as two by way of mirrors) whose ego has no control over his troll-like id when turned-on sexually.

There are so many levels on which we can approach M. One important strand must be its very contemporaneity. Inspired initially by a newspaper article by Egon Jacobson, the film seems to leap out of the 1931 newspapers reporting real mass murderers like Harrmann, Grossmann, Denke, and most notoriously of all Peter Kurten, the Dusseldorf monster. Kurten was important for the film as not only were memories of him recent among Germans, but elements where lifted literally from the case. Kurten was apprehended with the help of members of the criminal underground, and the character of Lohmann is based on one of the detectives involved in the case. It is even alleged that Kurten was one of many child killers who Lang and Harbou interviewed when preparing the script. Then there's the film's analysis of the way the mass media insinuates itself within each of us, the film's use in penological debate and its investigations into basic metaphysics. And, of course we can't ignore the film's political dimension. Replete in sinister black mac, bowler hat and cane, Der Schranker looks every bit the Gestapo interrogator, especially of course in the final scene. He constantly recommends exterminating Beckert the way the Nazis later exterminated the mentally sick and of course the Jews. Is the 'M' on Beckert's back a precursor for the star of David later worn by Jews? Josef Goebbels certainly thought so as shown by his later use of M as propaganda by linking psychopathic behavior with the Jews, taking Peter Lorre's Jewishness in real life as a springboard for his foul assertions. The fact that Lang offers all this (and much more) with no pat answers of any kind shows what a masterpiece the film is. The only moral drawn in the film would be that of the mothers at the end, that mothers mustn't neglect their children. Beyond that, Lang leaves us free to draw our own conclusions. The ambiguity is fascinating. Goebbels thought the film the greatest argument for capital punishment he had ever seen! Lang himself later had people believe exactly the opposite. The truth is M can be interpreted any which way we like and to take one concrete interpretation over any other is to ignore the truly radical complexity of this stunning work of art.

If perfect cinema is defined as original narrative told with innovative pictures and sound then there isn't a more perfect example of the phenomenon than M. The film should be seen by everyone and this superb Masters of Cinema release makes it a mandatory purchase. The quality of the restored version is little short of stupendous with both sound and vision ultra-sharp. Included along with the usual informative booklet are two commentaries and also the whole of the British release of M where Peter Lorre acts in English. It is shorter than the restored release and the out-takes are very interesting in what they say about Lang's construction as it was meant. For example, several gongs accompany the credits at the beginning, not just the one 'gong' of fate present in the restoration. Also, the end is changed with the mothers gone and replaced by the kids continuing their game from the film's beginning. Finally, there is a 24 minute interview with Lang himself in which he shows himself to be a showman forever steeped in pushing myths about himself. As Patrick McGilligan has demonstrated (in his biography, Fritz Lang, the Nature of the Beast), both tales, first of the way Lang came to shoot M at an old Zeppelin hanger, and then second, how he left Germany overnight after being offered leadership of the German film Industry by Goebbels, are fictitious. These MoC releases do seem rather expensive and I have hesitated to buy some of them, but this release of M is worth every penny. See it and be astounded.
16 people found this helpful
 Report