M (1931)

M
Director: Fritz Lang
Germany 1931
105 min
Starring: Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke,
Ellen Widman, Inge Landgut and Theodor Loos.


  Synopsis:

Someone is murdering children in a German city. The Police search is so intense, it is disturbing the 'normal' criminals, and the local hoods decide to help find the murderer as quickly as possible.

   or ( pick your favorite synopsis)

When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.

      Review:
Lately, my eyes have been begging for a beautiful, well-made movie with beautiful, eye-popping color so I got a movie like that from the library (Everlasting Moment) and my mom gave me a night off from watching the children so that way, I could watch any movies that I have been wanting to watch.

  But for some reason, instead of watching that eye-candy movie that I have been wanting to watch, I turn on M.   an old b&w foreign film about a child-murderer. Sounds cheerful, doesn't it?
   Did I regret watching this instead of Everlasting Moment? No! M was so.....wow. The camera work, the lighting effect, the mood, the sound, the cinematography, all of it was just perfect.   The murders are not shown directly, it's implied and that made it all the more suspenseful. One other thing that made it more suspenseful was "the whistling" that tells us that the murderer is near by. brrrr.

 This movie is a suspenseful thriller but it's in a subtle way. I don't want to lead you into thinking that this is just like any other R-rated thriller.  One other really interesting thing about this is the way that everyone is shown, the perception of the whistling child-murderer, the perception of the police, and the perception of the "good criminals" and the whole town and it shows compassion for the murderer too!
 That's one of the hardest things to pull-off in movies but Fritz Lang (and Peter Lorre) pulled it off and did one of the best jobs of showing that in the whole movie industry. There is so much to say about this movie, I just want to go buy it and re-watch it again and again. (too bad the DVD is about 25$) This movie may be old but it has not lost any of its power. I think this movie is a must watch for any movie lover. I give it 10 stars.

Wait, just wait

a little while,

soon the boogeyman will come to you

with his chopping knife

He'll cut small pieces out of YOU!