Review of M (1931) by Steven B — 05 Feb 2009

Fritz Lang's M, the first "talkie" from Germany, was decade ahead of its time. It just doesn't fit with the whole style of filmmaking from the early days of film in America...at least from what I've seen.

The story is layered with suspense around the citywide manhunt for Peter Lorre's child-killer character. We see the vast staff of the police force and bureaucracy systematically following procedure and coming up empty.

In their attempts to make the city safer, it has become much more difficult for organized crime to go about their business. The bosses come up with a plan to exact their own form of justice on the killer.

The film ends up somewhere I never expected at its climax, and then turns on its head once again at the end. Way back in 1931, I never would have expected a film to bring out in the open the concept of uncontrollable compulsion to kill, but this film does- and does it better than perhaps any film ever has.

It also calls into question the meaning of true justice. What does a compulsive killer deserve? The way the criminals come together as a team to find Lorre's killer as he holds out hiding in a building reminds me of a heist movie- only the treasure here is a wanted man.

The film, being in the early days of sound in movies, does not have a score, and the sound editing is very bad by today's standards. I can forgive these moments of muted sound because of the year it was made, and because the cinematography (also years ahead of its time) more than makes up for it.

I don't think M is as well known as it should be, perhaps that is because it is not American. It's a shame. It quite possibly might rank higher in my mind than either Citizen Kane or Cassablanca (though I'll have to see this and CK again to officially say that).