Sadly Over-hyped

One of my all time favorites.

Best movie ever!

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

M like Manichean? What can you say of a plot driven by criminals and where good people are rather inefficient for the most part and where the most despicable character earns our own sympathy. This is a movie using such stark black-and-white contrasts, noir in its soul and gray in its core.M like Mob Mentality? Fritz Lang personal "J'accuse" against a system where accusers aren't all innocent. M like Maturity? The film also consecrates German Expressionism as a peak of creativity and social relevance, a sequence in history where Berlin became, literally, the best area and arena of expression to an art that had reached its maturity. Or M like Mörder, murderer in German, Maudit in French (doomed) and Masterpiece in the universal language of cinema.M like Menace (and Music). Children are singing an elimination game of ominous undertones, later we see little Elsie playing with the balloon, a shadowy silhouette appears, the face remains unrevealed while we hear the whistling of "In the Hall of Mountain King". Before the 'shark' theme in "Jaws" to the "Psycho" shrieking violins, the "Peer Gynt" tune became the first notable leitmotif meant to suggest an evil presence, the perfect device to put us in the victims' standpoint for the first act, as powerlessly as the poor mother calling Elsie while her balloon (the bait used by Hans Beckert) is drifting along the telephone wires. The effects are then shown through the growing fame of the new 'Jack the Ripper' figure, the ensuing paranoia with any adult basically talking to a child is assaulted. The killer is a menace to an already crisis-stricken society, forcing the police department to triple the efforts: psychiatric cases are explored, handwriting analyzed and daily and nightly raids operated to make further pressure on the criminal world. M for Methodic. For its second act, "M" iss the seminal police procedural.While covering that angle with a documentary-like precision, Lang still seems dubious about the police's efficiency and provides an interesting twist by paralleling the work of the law with the outlaws'. In a long sequence where both sides brainstorm about the methods to use to find him, we swing back and forth from one world to another and the only indicator of the side of the law we're put in is the presence of uniform, last time I saw criminals acting like politicians in a masterpiece, it was in "The Godfather". One even points out insightfully that the killer must be a bourgeois, because it's the very standard of life that provides the level of idleness driving any easily corruptible mind to the most extreme corners. M like the sign on the shoulder.So in a famous sequence, criminals, helped by the street beggars find Hans Beckert quicker than the police force, he was betrayed by his trademark whistling and (irony) a little girl who noticed the infamous letter marked on his shoulder. The following chase takes maybe too much time for the film's own good. Not saying the film could do without the struggle to catch him but the court is such a high point of cinema's history that the previous part seems more forgettable. And Peter Lorre with his round face, innocent eyes when he's cornered like a rat and utters his memorable speech, gives the performance of a lifetime, as a living symptom, a man incarnating the sickness of a society where bad people toy with justice and the worst of all acts as childishly as his victims, claiming innocence with such rabid eloquence he's almost convincing.Beckert says he can't control his impulses, a little voice urges him to commit the irreparable acts and his body language is simply gut-wrenching when he simply can't put "words". His 'lawyer' makes a good point about the past of some accusers, whose Becket call hypocrites because they could choose to be honest, but the accusers retort that whether he's responsible or not, he's still a menace. Sure, whether their reasons are selfish or ethical is debatable but can we empathize with Beckert?M like Modernity. Looking at Twitter or Youtube or Facebook comments today, you can tell there's something ferocious and still on-going about mob mentality and a film like "M" could be deemed as feeble and liberal in the way it provides a tribune to a child molester, the worst possible crime.M like Multilayered.Yet there are some powerful truths hiding underneath the thriller, the truth about a society sick of its own contradictions, determined to impose standards of morality (white) and condemning true crimes (black) but indulgent toward activities that have no worse repercussion. That the film ends with black-clad mothers admitting their own responsibility is perhaps the most optimistic thing about "M", the sentence doesn't matter, what matters is the lesson behind... but did German learn the lesson?Ironically, one could have seen the rise of the Nazi empire as the antidote, like Thea Von Sarbou who wrote the film and worked for the Nazi regime, other could also see it as its worst possible consecration like director Fritz Lang. That he didn't side with the criminals at the end emphasizes an intuitive comprehension of his world and allowed this film to be hailed as a true, intelligent, nightmarish and alas, premonitory masterpiece.. with M as the mark of a disillusioned genius.M like Meditative? Mysterious? Mantic?Interestingly, the French title is "M le Maudit", meaning the doomed one, as if Beckert was the living incarnation of a doomed society, as if there was indeed something rotten in the Weimar Republic and It wouldn't get any better after but could Fritz Lang anticipate it? Looking up his second masterpiece "M", I was wondering whether Lang reflected his own rejection of German society or cared enough to warn the audience against the impending doom of decadence. Surely, the director behind "Metropolis" could only pinpoint with the accuracy of a soothsayer the limits of a civilization that might take its heritage for granted.

WOW !!What a movie...While being a thrilling serial killer manhunt story, this one looks into the modern society where parent-child relationships are getting distant, the two sides of the law, police and underworld, insanity, the legal system, justice and right to live- even of a child killer.One of Fritz Lang's best works. Cinematography is amazing. Performances are brilliant, specially from Peter Lorre.It's a landmark in psychological thriller genre, A Masterpiece.9+/10

M A smart approach towards pacing up the feature by focusing on the big events or sequences amd investing all the chips in and mesmerize the audience along with the essential information that proves worthy later on. Fritz Lang is definitely no short on execution but also introduces some new lights on the whole 'mystery' genre with Thea Von Harbou where it focuses on the thrill of it and not the responsibility of it that mostly looks like homework in the end. Peter Lorre; the anti-hero in here has easily the hardest work given since he barely had enough verbal sparring between anyone and had to communicate the audience through the visual medium throughout the feature and he has done it well. M is that rare feature that shows the viewers its different perspective towards genre, characters and even humanity and this is where it sweeps away all the charm.

Someone here on wrote "You'll remember this one forever" here on IMDB and I have to say that person is absolutely right. The fact that it is one of the first movies where they speak on camera makes it even more interesting and sometimes disturbing. The characters are fenomenal and the world that is pictured in this murder / crime / thriller is tremendous. The script is written with exact precision and I love the dark, almost depressing atmosphere that is within this movie.I was immediately sold when I saw and I will see this movie again soon. Just to compare how it has grown on me. Whenever someone ask me if I have "a favorite movie" I answer with this one. "M" and another movie called "Children of Paradise".Being a thriller with all the ingredients that a crimthriller needs. This is a must see. I could go on and on why you should see it.Fritz Lang, Peter Lorre and cat and mouse at its core.Just watch it!