M (1931)

M (NR) - Review

"M is for Masterful Filmmaking"

A hypnotizing look into the desperately sick mind of a kid murdering psychopath, told with the 1-2 visual punch of silent-era storytelling and starkly beautiful German Impressionsim.  Fritz Lang (Metropolis) directs Peter Lorre (The Maltese Falcon) as the depraved regret filled Hans, preying on
the children of Berlin.  The killings are implied, the acts unmentioned, leaving one's mind to macbrely fill in the blanks.  The visuals are designed to shock without showing, a child's plaything left unattended, her balloon tangled in the telephone lines, it is your subconcious that shows you the terrible things that have happened.

Lorre is fantastic, scuttling and evading the authorities on his tail, which are shown generating and following almost present day police procedure (an almost B&W Law and Order).  He is unable to control his urges, and must continue killing, but when a blind man recognizes the whistled tune that always follows the crime, Hans is chased and tracked down, culminating in a vigilante courtroom in some slum basement where Lorre pleads to the townsfolk that he did nothing by choice, that he is a victim of his own sick brain.  Once again we are only hinted at the outcome, but the victims mothers grief and suffering  are not shied away from.  They look into the camera and weep for us to take better care of our children as the film ends.

Lorre's courtroom speech is star making, the images are masterful storytelling and masterpiece photography in the same frame.  As mundane as serial killer movie plots have become in our national media, it is refreshing to watch a film made in 1930s do it better, do it more shockingly and with more emotional punch while at the same time having realistic non-demonizing psychological study of a killer and a difficult moral judgement about those who think in black and white about criminality.  Even in photography, there are shades of grey

10 Watchful Mothers out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)