M (1931)

M

Fritz Lang

Germany 1931

110 minutes

Black and White

1.19:1 German 30
Synopsis
　　A simple, haunting musical phrase whistled offscreen tells us that a young girl will be killed. “Who Is the Murderer?” pleads a nearby placard as serial killer Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) closes in on little Elsie Beckmann . . . In his harrowing masterwork M, Fritz Lang merges trenchant social commentary with chilling suspense, creating a panorama of private madness and public hysteria that to this day remains the blueprint for the psychological thriller.

Cast

Hans Beckert Peter Lorre
Frau Beckmann Ellen Widmann
Elsie Beckmann Inge Landgut
Superintendent Lohmann Otto Wernicke
Superintendent Groeber Theodor Loos
Safebreaker Gustaf Gründgens
Burglar Friedrich Gna
Cardsharp Fritz Odemar
Pickpocket Paul Kemp
Confidence trickster Theo Lingen
Counsel for the defense Rudolf Blümner
Blind street vendor Georg John
Credits
Director Fritz Lang
Screenplay Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang
Cinematography Fritz Arno Wagner
Sound Adolf Jansen
Editing Paul Falkenberg
Producer Seymour Nebenzal
Production Design Emil Hasler and Karl Vollbrecht
Disc Features
SPECIALEDITIONDOUBLE-DISCSET:

Restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
　　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
The long-lost English-language version of M, from a nitrate print preserved by the British Film Institute (on the Blu-ray edition)
Conversation with Fritz Lang, a 50-minute film by William Friedkin
Claude Chabrol’s M le maudit, a short film inspired by M, plus a video interview with Chabrol about Lang’s filmmaking techniques
Video interview with Harold Nebenzal, son of M producer Seymour Nebenzal
Classroom audiotapes of editor Paul Falkenberg discussing the film and its history, set to clips from the film
Documentary on the physical history of M, from production to distribution to digital restoration
Galleries of behind-the-scenes photographs and production sketches
　　Plus: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Stanley Kauffmann, the script for a missing scene, three contemporaneous newspaper articles, and a 1963 interview with Lang
From the Current
The Mark of M by Stanley Kauffmann Dec 6, 2004

　　It’s hard to believe that M was made in 1931. If we allow for the fact that it’s in black and white, it is more engaging to the eye, more incisive in its irony, more firm in its grasp of social complications than most of the films that come along today. Take the very first shot. Children are . . .

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Anyone buying Criterion's new blu-ray release of M?

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