M
M is a 1931 German mystery thriller film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert, a serial killer who targets children, in his third screen role. Both Lang's first sound film and an early example of a procedural drama, M centers on the efforts of both a city's police force and its criminal syndicates to apprehend a serial child-murderer.
Plot
In Berlin, a group of children are playing an elimination game in the courtyard of an apartment building using a macabre chant about a child-killer. Frau Beckmann sets the table for lunch, waiting for her daughter Elsie to come home from school. A wanted poster warns of a serial killer preying on children, as anxious parents wait outside a school.
Cast
- Albert Hörrmann
- Bruno Ziener
- Carl Balhaus
- Carl Junge-Swinburne
- Edgar Pauly
- Elisabeth Neumann-Viertel
- Elisabeth Wendt
- Ellen Widmann
- Else Ehser
- Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur
- Erwin Faber
- Franz Stein
- Friedrich Gnaß
- Fritz Odemar
- Georg John
- Gerhard Bienert
- Günther Hadank
- Gustaf Gründgens
- Hadrian Maria Netto
- Hanna Maron
- Hans Behal
- Heinrich Gotho
- Heinrich Gretler
- Hertha von Walther
- Hugo Döblin
- Ilse Fürstenberg
- Inge Landgut
- Josef Dahmen
- Karl Elzer
- Karl Hannemann
- Karl-Heinz Stroux
- Karl Platen
- Klaus Pohl
- Leonard Steckel
- Lotte Loebinger
- Otto Waldis
- Otto Wernicke
- Paul Kemp
- Paul Mederow
- Paul Rehkopf
- Peter Lorre
- Rolf Wanka
- Rosa Valetti
- Rudolf Blümner
- Sigurd Lohde
- Theo Lingen
- Theodor Loos
- Wolf Trutz
More details
| author | Fritz Lang Paul Falkenberg Thea von Harbou |
|---|---|
| contentLocation | Berlin |
| director | Fritz Lang |
| editor | Paul Falkenberg |
| events | capital punishment serial killer |
| genre | crime drama mystery thriller |
| keywords | abandon anonymous letter apartment building bos build capture child murder claim connect counting-out game crime scene dead children elimination game even fingerprint graphology handwriting analysis improvised in the hall of the mountain king kangaroo court kill office building organized crime police search psychiatric patients ringvereine street vendor wait wanted poster whistle young girl |
| musicBy | Edvard Grieg |
| producer | Seymour Nebenzal |
| productionCompany | Nero-Film |
| publisher | Vereinigte Star-Film GmbH |
| recordedAt | Berlin Germany |
| theme | mystery thriller psychological thriller serial killer vigilante |