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October 23, 2008
M (1931)
Should I see it?
Yes.


Short Review: This is one of the few times you’ll enjoy when a mob of Germans overreacts to a societal problem.

Fritz Lang's M

This classic German film from Fritz Lang (Metropolis) is truly timeless. The story tells of a hunt for a brutal pedophile played brilliantly by Peter Lorre. Most people know Lorre as the frog-eyed, sweaty guy from Casablanca or The Maltese Falcon. My Geddy Lee loving brother-in-law would know him from being portrayed in Looney Tunes (that’s Lorre being portrayed – not my Geddy Lee loving brother-in-law.) The police have difficulty finding the elusive murderer and begin to disrupt organized crime’s business across the city. Before too long, the gangs of underground criminals join the manhunt.

Lorre’s portrayal will stay with you. He gives us one the great screen villains of all time and cinema’s first serial killer. Even with his jerky, stylized performance, Lorre is still better than most modern actors in similar roles.

One of the most striking things about the film, given it is over seventy-five years old, is how the complaints about justice and the courts are the same as we are hearing from America today. It is a little unnerving when you realize that these complaints are coming from pre-Nazi German citizens, which makes one wonder about the where our country is headed today.

The film establishes the serial killer genre but it's not just about showcasing a creepy character. Lang focuses a majority of the film on the hunt for the elusive child killer. The combining forces of the police and the underground, along with the general citizenry is where Lang hangs his narrative. What is interesting is to take the brooding visuals of this film and consider them against the Nazi propaganda from the same era (Triumph of the Will was released just four years later). The Germany of this film is a secretive, oppressive shadow world where the darkness of the world is all-consuming. Lang seems to be showing the horrible, building evil of the country before the Nazi propagandists could sweep it all under the rug woven by Goebbels and company.

This is a great film not only because it is just simply a well-done suspenseful police drama but also because of it's historical significance, giving an artist's view of a place and time on the edge of destruction.


Related Reviews:
Other classics of note
Phantom of The Opera (1925)
Stagecoach (1939)


Other Critic's Reviews:
Roger Ebert
Classic Movie Guide


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posted by Michelle Obama's Left Nut at 9:00 AM




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1 Comments:

Anonymous Jeff Burton said...

Something that turned me off about this movie was the sympathy ginned up at the end for the child murderer. His cry of "Ich kann nicht anders!" roughly translated means "I can't help myself."

October 23, 2008 at 6:33 PM  

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