Director, Fritz Lang was a highly innovative genius for the early German cinema. Ranging from expressionist art films to American film-noirs, Lang has become an inspirational guide for filmmakers, one of the great artists in the 20th century. During the German Expressionist movement, Lang had made a number of pictures, including his science-fiction masterpiece, Metropolis (1927). Metropolis is considered to be his finest piece to debut on the silver screen, a dystopian future under the regime of capitalism towering over with machines, juxtaposed by the Biblical allusion of The Tower of Babel. His craft is without question, creating new techniques with editing and special effects. Some of the films that he made later in Germany, reflected the social crisis of fear of the public.

M from my point of view remains an essential to Lang’s craft of film. It was his first sound feature, and the first film to make actor, Peter Lorrie an icon. It opens with a high angle shot of a group of children singing about a child murderer roaming the streets in Berlin. This soon foreshadows as we soon follow a little girl walking along playfully, when a certain figure (off-screen, but his shadow is silhouetted against the wall) looms over her. M is a psychological thriller at its peak. Peter Lorrie as the pedophiliac killer, Hans Becker was very uncanny for me in a profound sense. His performance was gripping, heart pounding, a nihilistic emotion of rage about to burst at any given moment. His acting was stunning, though his screen-time was limited and only giving one monologue.

The majority of film basically is devoted for the police and criminal underground in search of the child killer. But these are strong, potential performances. Otto Wernicke is brilliant as Inspector Lohmann. Some of the characters give off a cruel gesture, nearly repugnant in usage of their expression. Ironically, Peter Lorrie appears as though he was innocent. It is as though German society has no moral conscience; perhaps this is a reflection, a satire of the rise of Nazism. A motif that Lang uses within the film is Becker peering through his reflection, such as the scene with the shop-glass window displaying a stylized inventory of knives and sharp utensils. A very potent way of expressing, an illustration of someone rather uncommon, but beneath his outer shell there is something rather sadistic. Becker gleefully gives little girls treats and his friendship before he kills them.

Lang’s use of light and shadow is so stunning. He gives his own impression of Berlin as a dark and haunting place of no virtue. Basically, using low-key lighting techniques that receive a foreboding mood to the plot. There is almost an illuminated loathing when viewing the Germany society. It plays as a social commentary. Lang’s usage of the camera becomes the leading eye of suspense. His angles and shots produce an effect that reveals the characters’ mannerisms. A pivoted sequence is when Lorrie has been discovered being the child murderer as a civilian places a powdered shaped “M” on his waistcoat, in the next scene Lorrie looks over his shoulder through a mirror and begins to threat. I look this iconic image as a revealing his true colors begin to unfold, he witnesses himself. The “M” would be the symbol for murder. This is truly become a favorite.