M (1931) (****)

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Fritz Lang’s seminal German masterpiece is extremely filmic sophisticated for an early sound film. The dark thriller induced the cinematic world to Peter Lorre. Many of the innovations it introduced have become standards in filmmaking. From its precise plotting to its psychological depth to its cutting irony, the film has more in common with modern cinema than the films of its era.

Children sing a song about a child killer on the prowl. Mrs. Beckman (Ellen Widmann) awaits the arrival of her daughter home from school. Cut to: a mysterious man buying her daughter Elsie (Inge Landgust) a balloon from a blind vendor (Georg John, DAS TESTAMENT DES DR. MABUSE). Soon we see that same balloon tangled in electric wires. Lang takes his time setting the emotional state of this German town where the citizens are on edge, wanting to string up anyone who even talks to a child.

Karl Lohmann (Otto Wernicke, DAS TESTAMENT DES DR. MABUSE) is the cocky police inspector who starts raiding known criminal hangouts in a desperate search for the killer. He knows they have little evidence and that 80% of the leads that come in are bogus. All he has is two letters written by the killer, taunting the police. Meanwhile, Schranker (Gustaf Grundgens) gathers the criminal element of the city and organizes a mob of burglars to search for the killer. The police raids are bad for business. The criminals can go where the police cannot go. So it becomes a race to whether the law or the criminals will catch the killer first.

The fact that the criminals do a better job hunting down killer Hans Beckert (Lorre, CASABLANCA) is wonderfully ironic. More irony comes as Beckert is fingered by an unexpected way. He hums the tune “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and it becomes an ominous motif for the character. We hear that tune and we know he’s around even if he’s off screen. Lang was one of the first to use this old stage technique in film. The film’s most famous visual is when Beckert is tagged with an M on his back so that he can be tracked. This leads to a brilliantly constructed sequence where the criminals search a busy office building right at closing time for the killer. It has the feel of a chase scene and a heist film.

The psychology of the characters is complex for a film of its time. Lorre’s Beckert makes an impassioned speech toward the end of the film about his compulsion to kill. His mind is consumed with killing or getting caught at every moment. Only killing can let him release the tension. Wernicke’s Inspector Lohmann is a crafty lawman, who is a predecessor to great lawmen like Tommy Lee Jones’ Samuel Gerard in THE FUGITIVE. His reverse psychology against the burglar Franz (Friedrich Gnass) is classic. Grundgens’ Schranker is a cool customer. His bowler hat, black leather trench coat with the collar turned up and cane make him out like an early gangster and it’s hard not to notice the influence on Kubrick’s A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. He’s a business man who happens to work in an illegal field.

The film ultimately has something to say about the guilt of criminals and the difficult work that men of the law have in catching them. The last note of the film says a lot about the futility of punishment for heinous crimes as well. Lang paints the most difficult issues in gray, while making definitive statements that are hard to argue against. It makes the film’s message powerful and moving. There’s no moralizing here.

Or is he? In 1931, the Nazis were rising to power. The world of M is a paranoid and dirty world where citizens inform on their neighbors and criminals and the law are indistinguishable at times. With this in mind, the final line of the film — “One has to keep closer watch over the children. All of you” — takes on even greater meaning.

Crime has been a topic of films since their beginning. Lang made it art with this one. He used his craft to its fullest extents and expanded it and commented on his times. Every crime story, especially the police procedural and serial killer subgenres, that followed owes a great deal of gratitude to M. But few have even come close to equaling it since.