The title M comes from a chalk mark (for 'murderer') placed by a beggar on the back of a suspected serial child killer.
Fritz Lang's M (1931) remains remarkably modern despite premiering in the early sound era. Peter Lorre as the homicidal maniac shines in the last 20 minutes or so, after he's cornered by an organized gang of street people and taken to an abandoned warehouse for a mock trial by every grifter, burglar, robber and miscreant in Berlin.
Nothing Lorre ever did subsequently approaches the passion and fear for his life that he exudes in this unfogettable scene in front of a crowd of low-lifes who convicted him even before he was ever apprehended.
Lang's experimentation here with extreme camera angles, shadows, rapid cuts and earthy language surpass anything seen in the U.S. at that time and because of these, M has a timeless quality.
The film originally ran 117 minutes and was cut drastically for a 1960 re-release to just over 90. In recent years, bits and pieces long ago excised have been found and restored, so that with DVD editions such as CRITERION COLLECTION's, M now clocks in at 109+ minutes.
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