M movie review & film summary (1931) | Roger Ebert (2024)

The horror of the faces: That is the overwhelming image thatremains from a recent viewing of the restored version of “M,” Fritz Lang'sfamous 1931 film about a child murderer in Germany. In my memory it was a filmthat centered on the killer, the creepy little Franz Becker, played by PeterLorre. But Becker has relatively limited screen time, and only oneconsequential speech--although it's a haunting one. Most of the film is devotedto the search for Becker, by both the police and the underworld, and many ofthese scenes are played in closeup. In searching for words to describe thefaces of the actors, I fall hopelessly upon “piglike.”

Whatwas Lang up to? He was a famous director, his silent films like"Metropolis” worldwide successes. He lived in a Berlin where the left-wingplays of Bertolt Brecht coexisted with the decadent milieu re-created in movieslike "Cabaret.” By 1931, the Nazi Party was on the march in Germany, althoughnot yet in full control. His own wife would later become a party member. Hemade a film that has been credited with forming two genres: the serial killermovie and the police procedural. And he filled it with grotesques. Was theresomething beneath the surface, some visceral feeling about his society thatthis story allowed him to express?

Whenyou watch "M,” you see a hatred for the Germany of the early 1930s that isvisible and palpable. Apart from a few perfunctory shots of everydaybourgeoisie life (such as the pathetic scene of the mother waiting for herlittle girl to return from school), the entire movie consists of men seen inshadows, in smokefilled dens, in disgusting dives, in conspiratorialconferences. And the faces of these men are cruel caricatures: Fleshy, twisted,beetle-browed, dark-jowled, out of proportion. One is reminded of the starkfaces of the accusing judges in Dreyer's “Joan of Arc,” but they are moreforbidding than ugly.

WhatI sense is that Lang hated the people around him, hated Nazism, and hatedGermany for permitting it. His next film, "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse”(1933), had villains who were unmistakably Nazis. It was banned by the censors,but Joseph Goebbels, so the story goes, offered Lang control of the nation'sfilm industry if he would come on board with the Nazis. He fled, he claimed, ona midnight train -- although Patrick McGilligan's new book,Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast,is dubious about many of Lang's grandiose claims.

Certainly"M” is a portrait of a diseased society, one that seems even more decadentthan the other portraits of Berlin in the 1930s; its characters have no virtuesand lack even attractive vices. In other stories of the time we see nightclubs,champagne, sex and perversion. When "M” visits a bar, it is to showcloseups of greasy sausages, spilled beer, rotten cheese and stale cigar butts.

Thefilm's story was inspired by the career of a serial killer in Dusseldorf. In"M,” Franz Becker preys on children -- offering them candy and friendship,and then killing them. The murders are all offscreen, and Lang suggests thefirst one with a classic montage including the little victim's empty dinnerplate, her mother calling frantically down an empty spiral staircase, and herballoon--bought for her by the killer--caught in electric wires.

Thereis no suspense about the murderer's identity. Early in the film we see Beckerlooking at himself in a mirror. Peter Lorre at the time was 26, plump,baby-faced, clean-shaven, and as he looks at his reflected image he pulls downthe corners of his mouth and tries to make hideous faces, to see in himself themonster others see in him. His presence in the movie is often implied ratherthan seen; he compulsively whistles the same tune, from "Peer Gynt,” overand over, until the notes stand in for the murders.

Thecity is in turmoil: The killer must be caught. The police put all their men onthe case, making life unbearable for the criminal element ("There are morecops on the streets than girls,” a pimp complains). To reduce the heat, thecity's criminals team up to find the killer, and as Lang intercuts between twosummit conferences -- the cops and the criminals -- we are struck by howsimilar the two groups are, visually. Both sit around tables in gloomy rooms,smoking so voluminously that at times their very faces are invisible. In theirfat fingers their cigars look fecal. (As the criminals agree that murderingchildren violates their code, I was reminded of the summit on drugs in"The Godfather.”)

"M”was Lang's first sound picture, and he was wise to use dialogue so sparingly.Many early talkies felt they had to talk all the time, but Lang allows hiscamera to prowl through the streets and dives, providing a rat's-eye view. Oneof the film's most spectacular shots is utterly silent, as the captured killeris dragged into a basem*nt to be confronted by the city's assembled criminals,and the camera shows their faces: hard, cold, closed, implacable.

Itis at this inquisition that Lorre delivers his famous speech in defense, orexplanation. Sweating with terror, his face a fright mask, he cries out:"I can't help myself! I haven't any control over this evil thing that'sinside of me! The fire, the voices, the torment!” He tries to describe how thecompulsion follows him through the streets, and ends: "Who knows what it'slike to be me?”

Thisis always said to be Lorre's first screen performance, although McGilliganestablishes that it was his third. It was certainly the performance that fixedhis image forever, during a long Hollywood career in which he became one ofWarner Bros.' most famous character actors ("Casablanca,” "TheMaltese Falcon,” "The Mask of Dimitrios”). He was also a comedian and asong-and-dance man, and although you can see him opposite Fred Astaire in"Silk Stockings” (1957), it was as a psychopath that he supported himself.He died in 1964.

FritzLang (1890-1976) became, in America, a famous director of film noir. Hiscredits include "You Only Live Once” (1937, based on the Bonnie and Clydestory), Graham Greene's "Ministry of Fear” (1944), "The Big Heat”(1953, with Lee Marvin hurling hot coffee in Gloria Grahame's face) and"While the City Sleeps” (1956, another story about a manhunt). He wasoften accused of sadism toward his actors; he had Lorre thrown down the stairsinto the criminal lair a dozen times, and Peter Bogdanovich describes a scenein Lang's "Western Union” where Randolph Scott tries to burn the ropes offhis bound wrists. John Ford, watching the movie, said, "Those are Randy'swrists, that is real rope, that is a real fire.”

Foryears "M” was available only in scratchy, dim prints. Even my earlierlaserdisc is only marginally watchable. This new version, restored by theMunich Film Archive, is not only better to look at but easier to follow, sincemore of the German dialogue has been subtitled. (Lorre also recorded asoundtrack in English, which should be made available as an option on theeventual laserdisc and DVD versions.) Watching the new print of "M,” Ifound the film more powerful than I remembered, because I was not watching itthrough a haze of disintegration.

Andwhat a haunting film it is. The film doesn't ask for sympathy for the killerFranz Becker, but it asks for understanding: As he says in his own defense, hecannot escape or control the evil compulsions that overtake him. Elsewhere inthe film, an innocent old man, suspected of being the killer, is attacked by amob that forms on the spot. Each of the mob members was presumably capable of tellingright from wrong and controlling his actions (as Becker was not), and yet as amob they moved with the same compulsion to kill. There is a message theresomewhere. Not "somewhere,” really, but right up front, where it's awonder it escaped the attention of the Nazi censors.