Claude Chabrol M 1931 Interviews - Peter Lorre, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke, Theodor Loos

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,[2] M centres on the efforts of both a city's police force and its criminal syndicates to apprehend a serial child-murderer.[3]

The film's screenplay was written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou. It features many cinematic innovations, including the use of long tracking shots and a musical leitmotif in the form of "In the Hall of the Mountain King", which is repeatedly whistled by Lorre's character. Lang regarded the film as his magnum opus,[4] and it is widely considered one of the greatest films of all time and an indispensable influence on modern crime and thriller fiction.[5][6][7]

An American remake under the same title, directed by Joseph Losey, was released in 1951.
Plot

In Berlin,[8] 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.

Elsie leaves school, bouncing a ball on her way home. She is approached by Hans Beckert,[9] who is whistling "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg. He offers to buy her a balloon from a blind street vendor, and walks and talks with her. Elsie's place at the table remains empty, her ball rolls away through a patch of grass, and her balloon gets briefly caught in the telephone lines overhead before blowing away in the wind.[10]

In the wake of Elsie's disappearance, anxiety runs high among the public. Beckert sends an anonymous letter to the newspapers taking credit for the child murders and promising that he will commit others. The police extract clues from the letter using the new techniques of fingerprinting and handwriting analysis. Under mounting pressure from the government, the police work around the clock. Inspector Karl Lohmann, head of the homicide squad, instructs his men to intensify their search and to check the records of recently released psychiatric patients, focusing on any with a history of violence against children.[11]

They stage frequent raids in seedier parts of the city to question known criminals, disrupting organized crime so badly that Der Schränker ("The Safecracker") summons the bosses of Berlin's Ringvereine to a conference to address the situation. They decide to organize their own manhunt, assigning beggars to watch the children.[12] The police search Beckert's rented room, find evidence there connecting him to both the letter and a past crime scene, and lie in wait to arrest him.[13]

Cast

Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert. M was Lorre's first major starring role and boosted his career, though he was typecast as a villain for years afterward in films such as Mad Love and Crime and Punishment. Before M, Lorre had been mostly a comedic actor. After fleeing the Nazis, he landed a role in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), learning his lines phonetically in order to improve his English.
Otto Wernicke as Inspector Karl Lohmann. Wernicke made his breakthrough with M after playing many small roles in silent films for over a decade. After his part in M he was in great demand due to the success of the film, including returning to the role of Lohmann in Lang's The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, and he played supporting roles for the rest of his career.[17]
Gustaf Gründgens as Der Schränker. Gründgens received acclaim for his role in the film and established a successful career for himself during the Nazi era, ultimately becoming director of the Staatliches Schauspielhaus (National Dramatic Theatre).[18]

Ellen Widmann as Mother Beckmann
Inge Landgut as Elsie Beckmann
Theodor Loos as Inspector Groeber
Friedrich Gnaß as Franz, the burglar
Fritz Odemar as Falschspieler (Cheater)
Paul Kemp as Taschendieb (pickpocket with seven watches)
Theo Lingen as Bauernfänger (con man)
Rudolf Blümner as Beckert's defender
Georg John as blind balloon-seller
Franz Stein as minister
Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur as police chief
Gerhard Bienert as criminal secretary
Karl Platen as Damowitz, a night-watchman
Rosa Valetti as innkeeper
Hertha von Walther as prostitute
Hanna Maron (uncredited) as girl in circle at the beginning
Heinrich Gotho as passer-by who tells a kid the time
Klaus Pohl as witness / one-eyed man (uncredited)

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