M (1931)

Directed by Fritz Lang. Starring Otto Wernicke, Gustaf Gründgens, Friedrich Gnaß, Peter Lorre, Theodor Loos, Fritz Odemar, Theo Lingen, Ellen Widmann, Rudolf Blümner, Georg John.

Serial killer thriller, procedural drama, and social criticism rolled into one, this gripping milestone of the early sound era chronicles the manhunt for a child murderer (Lorre) haunting the streets of Berlin, undertaken by both the police and the underworld—the former toils in the name of law and order, while the latter is desperate to find him because the increased paranoia in the city makes it difficult for them to carry out their illicit business. Yet both sides take on similar visual motifs and attitudes, and their selfishness and amorality are laid bare by unflattering camera closeups and belligerent outbursts. The killer, although never cast in a sympathetic light, is more pathetic than cruel, burdened by a compulsion he can’t defeat, and when he finds himself trapped, hunters clawing at the door, the audience can share his terror. The chilling offscreen-murder montage near the beginning and the criminals’ kangaroo court near the end are among the most timeless sequences of its era, losing none of their visual and emotional power. Lorre is absent for much of the first two acts, heard through his whistling of the “In the Hall of the Mountain King” melody as often as he’s actually seen, but then he dominates the finale with a wretched and terrified portrayal for the ages. Remade in America two decades later.

97/100