Review of M (1931) by Christopher B — 16 Jan 2017

This is one of the best films ever made. period. exclamation point!! This is also a pretty good film if you're not used to sub-titles. It's not dialogue heavy.

Lorre became an international celebrity with this film, and it's hard to imagine any other actor playing the part. Unfortunately, it also type cast him for a couple of decades, until he was retype-cast as a drunk. Lang, already recognized as a competent director after Metropolis, cemented his reputation world-wide as a great director of "talkies' too. *Note: -until the rise of Naziism in the mid 30's, German cinema was possibly the best in the world - the US merely had a larger potential audience to gain profits by.

Fans of Dexter owe a lot to Lang's M. The movie begins with some mothers, nervous about their children's safety. We are introduced to a nice, quiet neighbor whom no one would suspect of also being a crafty murderer. Enter the intelligent and determined police who have only the flimsiest of leads, and criminals who want to beat the police to the psycho - he's disrupting their normal business by putting all citizens in an uproar! Cinematography and editing are among the best.

*Note: real career criminals were used as extras in this film!

By the time you get to the "Hilfe, HILFE", you'll be seeing parallels in the problems of living in a 21st century modern society. How far have we come since the first cities sprang up hundreds of years ago? Will we ever outgrow a need for police?

*WARNING*: this film may get you thinking about today's social/political problems.

If you get the chance, no..., go out of your way and make sure you watch the extras that come with the 80th anniversary DVD. Unless you've NEVER been interested in any interview or DVD extra of a Spielberg film; or a Capra, Hitchcock, Polanski, Kubrick, Lucas, Scorsese, Barry Levinson, Billy Wilder, Oliver Stone, Ken Burns, Joss Whedon, ...production. (In which case, why did you read this far??) Then watch M again. Yes, THIS film is THAT good.