Rating: NR
Length: 110 minutes

Standard 1.19:1 B&W Not Anamorphic

German: Dolby Digital Mono

English

It's 1931 in Germany and someone is terrorizing a large city by murdering its children. The criminals in the city are unable to continue with their illegal activities due to the heightened state of the police department so they enlist in the search for this mad man so life for them can return to normal. Who, if anyone, will get to this man first?

This isn't a suspenseful whodunit, you know from the very beginning who the criminal is. And better yet you don’t even know the extent of his crime other than the little girls are dying; leaving what happened to them to the viewer's imagination was very effective. You also have to give kudos to Peter Lorre; he managed to evoke feelings of sympathy towards the end of the film which, considering what he had done, couldn't have been an easy task.

If you own the previous Criterion release of this film, you can throw it away. This has a more complete version of the film and the picture quality is substantially better. The disc has plenty of extras including an interview with the director. I only mention this because prior to the interview, there is a screen letting you know that the director is noted for his lying; that was weird.

Since this one of the early speaking films, the first for this director, there are scenes of complete silence so don't play with your remote; the one with the cars and cops surrounding a building was just weird. Also, unless you're fluent in German, you'll have to settle for subtitles.

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer, presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.19:1
• Audio commentary by German film scholars Anton Kaes, author of the BFI Film Classics volume on "M", and Eric Rentschler, author of The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and Its Afterlife
• Conversation with Fritz Lang, a 50-minute film by William Friedkin
• Claude Chabrol’s "M le Maudit", a short film inspired by "M", plus an interview with Chabrol by Pierre-Henri Gibert about Lang’s filmmaking techniques
• Classroom tapes of "M" editor Paul Falkenberg discussing the film and its history
• Interview with Harold Nebenzal, the son of "M" producer Seymour Nebenzal
• A physical history of "M"
• Stills gallery, with behind-the-scenes photos, and production sketches by art director Emil Hasler
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• Plus: a 32-page booklet featuring an essay by film critic Stanley Kauffmann, a 1963 interview with Lang, the script for a missing scene, and contemporaneous newspaper articles

This is a great film that kicked off the career of Peter Lorre who fled Germany after its release; he was Jewish and saw the writing on the wall with Hitler coming to power. For those of you that won't watch films that have subtitles all I've got to say is you’re missing out on some great ones including "M"!

Fritz Lang   [Metropolis, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse]

Gerhard Bienert - Criminal secretary

Rudolf Blümner - Beckert's defender

Friedrich Gnaß - Franz, the burglar

Gustaf Gründgens - Schränker

Georg John - Blind panhandler

[The Testament of Dr. Mabuse]

Paul Kemp - Pickpocket with six watches

Inge Landgut - Elsie Beckmann

Theo Lingen - Bauernfänger

[The Testament of Dr. Mabuse]

Theodor Loos - Inspector Groeber

[Metropolis, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse]

Peter Lorre - Hans Beckert

[20000 Leagues Under the Sea, Arsenic and Old Lace, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon]

Fritz Odemar - The cheater

Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur - Police chief

Franz Stein - Minister

Otto Wernicke - Inspector Karl Lohmann

Ellen Widmann - Frau Beckmann

IMDB
DVD Verdict