Movies: 'M'

I came across the film ‘M’ after reading about the notorious child killer and cannibal Albert Fish (yikes!). The connections were based around the story of Albert Fish and how the film ‘M’, released prior to the discovery of Fish’s exploits, expressed social anxieties about and was one of the first cinematic films to address the dark topic of paedophiles and child killers.

‘M’ is not one of those B-movie, graphic horrors, but more of a social commentary concern, directed by the great Fritz Lang, released in the early years of cinema “talkies”. It centres around a young girl named Elsie Beckmann, who is seen walking home alone from school and encountering a mysterious, concealed man, who tempts Elsie with the purchase of a balloon. From this encounter, Elsie does not make it home and her frantic mother is soon screeching for help from the police and the public to find her. As the search goes on for days, Elsie’s kidnapper Hans Beckert, is shown to be writing letters of taunts to the police. These letters become front page news and soon create tension among the general public, anxious about who the writer may be and if it could possibly be their own neighbour. With a lack of progress by the police, the locals take it upon themselves to try and catch Hans, still unidentified, but who has left a number of clues in his path, particularly the distinctive whistling of Grieg’s ‘Hall of the Mountain King’. They soon start to close in on Hans and he is eventually rumbled by the chalk mark of an ‘M’ upon the back of his jacket, placed by a suspicious and convinced member of the public, trying to keep on Hans’ tail. After a somewhat convoluted capturing of Hans, he is cornered in an underground room and finds himself faced with a citizen enforced trial. Hans is no longer the clever, police evader, but instead is reduced to a quivering wreck, on his knees begging for forgiveness and trying to convince everyone that he is sick, unable to resist his unfortunate urges to kidnap and kill.

With clever camerawork and mise-en-scene, Lang is able to create suspense reminiscent of the popular, future Hitchcock films, and offers an interesting insight into the actions of the non-authoritative taking matters into their own hands.

For its time, ‘M’ is a daring film in terms of subject matter, but most notably is an early example of the excellence of German cinema. Furthermore, the lead performance of Hans by Peter Lorre (who would make future appearances in Hitchcock’s work) is an astounding and memorable one.