Posted by milliefs on 2007/1/7 10:30:00 (1103 reads)

Review - M

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After over 70 years of ever increasing blood, guts and gore introduced into our films, Fritz Lang's M still holds up without one single drop of blood shown on film . . .

. . . now that's a masterpiece.

Before I watched this film it had three strikes against it in my book - it was black and white, it was subtitled and it was just plain old. Not that these things necessarily make a movie bad, they just make it one that I will fight watching. I am thrilled that last night, I finally gave up that fight.

You truly feel the terror of a town held captive by a seemingly uncatchable child murderer as yet another of their children, little Elsie Beckmann (Inge Landgut) is snatched from the streets on her way home from school. The only evidence of her grisly demise glimpsed by riveted viewers is Elsie's striped ball rolling in solitude in the grass and the strange balloon purchased by her murderer, Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre), floating untethered up into the power lines.

I constantly found myself amazed at the power of one image to convey the feeling of what is now blatantly shoved into the faces of most horror movie viewers. As I said in the opening - not one drop of blood is shown in this film.

As the police struggle to catch this depraved lunatic subjecting every inch of every seedy little dive to nightly raids and townspeople begin to turn on one another in a desperate attempt to put an end to this madness, the criminals of the town become quite fed up. Not only is this monster snatching up and doing unspeakable things to the children, but he is really putting a hamper on their business dealings as well. Their monetary wells are beginning to run dry and this forces them to spring to action.

It is quite interesting the way Lang switched back and forth between the progress of the police and the criminals. You are never quite sure until the end who will actually get to Beckert first or what his fate will be once caught. Also interesting is the debate Lang throws up about criminality vs. insanity in the case of Beckert. I found myself twisted over wanting to see Beckert pay for his crimes. I mean, should he be executed like the mad dog that he was, or should he be institutionalized because he knew not what he did?

M is an excellent film and a strong recommend. I am still getting chills now hearing Beckert whistle In the Hall of the Mountain King in my mind . . .

If you enjoyed M, here are reviews of other recommended movies:

The Silence of the Lambs
Se7en

M Movie Cast and Credits

Directed by
Fritz Lang

Writing credits
Egon Jacobson (article) uncredited
Thea von Harbou (script) and
Fritz Lang (script)

Cast (in credits order)
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, the burglar
Fritz Odemar .... The cheater
Paul Kemp .... Pickpocket with six watches
Theo Lingen .... Bauernfänger
Rudolf Blümner .... Beckert's defender
Georg John .... Blind panhandler
Franz Stein .... Minister
Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur .... Police chief
Gerhard Bienert .... Criminal secretary
Karl Platen .... Damowitz, night watchman
Rosa Valetti .... Elisabeth Winkler, Beckert's landlady
Hertha von Walther .... Prostitute

Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Walter Burke .... (uncredited)
Behal Carrell .... (uncredited)
Josef Dahmen .... (uncredited)
J.A. Eckhoff .... (uncredited)
Else Ehser .... Woman (uncredited)
Karl Elzer .... (uncredited)
Ilse Fürstenberg .... (uncredited)
Anna Goltz .... Woman (uncredited)
Heinrich Gotho .... (uncredited)
Heinrich Gretler .... Man (uncredited)
Günther Hadank .... (uncredited)
Albert Hoermann .... (uncredited)
Ellen Isenta .... Woman (uncredited)
Karl Junge-Swinburne .... Man (uncredited)
Albert Karchow .... (uncredited)
Werner Kepich .... (uncredited)
Hermann Krehan .... (uncredited)
Kurth Leeser .... (uncredited)
Rose Lichtenstein .... (uncredited)
Lotte Loebinger .... Woman (uncredited)
Sigurd Lohde .... (uncredited)
Alfred Loretto .... Man (uncredited)
Paul Mederow .... (uncredited)
Margarete Melzer .... (uncredited)
Hanna Meron .... Girl in circle at the beginning (uncredited)
Trude Moos .... (uncredited)
Hadrian Maria Netto .... (uncredited)
Günter Neumann .... Man (uncredited)
Maya Norden .... (uncredited)
Fred Nurney .... Man (uncredited)
Edgar Pauly .... Man (uncredited)
Klaus Pohl .... Witness/one-eyed man (uncredited)
Franz Poland .... (uncredited)
Paul Rehkopf .... (uncredited)
Hans Ritter .... (uncredited)
Agnes Schulz-Lichterfeld .... (uncredited)
Leonard Steckel .... Man (uncredited)
Wolf Trutz .... (uncredited)
Otto Waldis .... (uncredited)
Borwin Walth .... (uncredited)
Rolf Wanka .... Man (uncredited)
Bruno Ziener .... (uncredited)

More Reviews of M

Classic Horror Movie Review of M
M Movie Review and Information Page at The Internet Movie Database

Rating: 10.00 (1 vote) - Rate this Article -

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Poster	Thread
demonboy	Posted: 2007/4/14 13:32 Updated: 2007/4/14 13:32
Pooka Joined: 2005/5/16 From: Posts: 36	Re: M M is a GREAT movie. Not good, Great. Unfortunately, many people are put off by the fact that it is an old, black and white move that is in another language (German) with English subtitles. For most people this is enough to stop them from watching this movie. Which in my opinion is a huge mistake. For an old movie, the acting in M is actually very good and believable. It also never shows any blood or gore, yet is able to generate more suspense than alot of modern movies. Even though it is old, M is one movie noone should miss.