M (1931)
Who is the murderer?
Director: Fritz Lang · Writers: Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou
In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert, a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellant and disruptive to city life that he is even targeted by others in the seedy underworld network. With both cops and criminals in pursuit, the murderer soon realizes that people are on his trail, sending him into a tense, panicked attempt to escape justice.
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Trailer
Director
Fritz Lang
Cast
Peter Lorre
Hans Beckert 
Ellen Widmann
Frau Beckmann 
Inge Landgut
Elsie Beckmann 
Otto Wernicke
Inspector Karl Lohmann 
Theodor Loos
Inspector Groeber 
Gustaf Gründgens
Schränker 
Friedrich Gnaß
Franz 
Fritz Odemar
The Cheater 
Paul Kemp
Pickpocket with Six Watches 
Theo Lingen
Bauernfänger 
Rudolf Blümner
Becker's 'Attorney' 
Georg John
Blind Panhandler User Reviews (5)
The movie is classic and yet this is my first time watching this. Peter Lorre alone is worth seeing this movie as he always played such the great villain. No music keeps your focus on the image and dialogue throughout the movie. Camera work looks pretty awesome especially when they start doing the manhunt. This movie clocks in at almost two hours so there will be a lot of pacing and dialogue to go through. It will feel a bit dragging when Lorre isn't on the screen but it is well worth going through the film to see how it all plays out.
So you say you want to enroll in film school? Don't bother. Just watch Fritz Lang's M and Metropolis.
Random person: Nobody knows him (The murderer). Woman who lives with the murderer: Am I a joke to you?
Stone cold classic. Certainly one of the best time films about orange peels being littered.
**One of the masterpieces of classic German cinema.** There isn't much that can be said about this film that almost everyone hasn't already said or written. It is one of the great films of German cinema, one of the best productions that were made before the Second World War and one of the best films in the career of the renowned director Fritz Lang, who shortly afterward would leave Germany due to the rise of Nazism, refusing to deal with that political regime. The film is inspired by real events, namely the murderous path of Peter Kürten, the “Vampire of Düsseldorf”, who terrorized people at the same time and also had young teenagers as his victims. The film manages to capture very well the feeling of fear that existed among the people of the city and the attempts that the police made to find this merciless killer. The cinematography, in black and white, still shows signs…
