As the serial killer whistles the tune of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg, pubs are engulfed by cigarette smoke. The police are on the lookout for a serial killer who preys on children. Fritz Lang paints a harrowing image of Nazi Germany in M (1931). Lang considers "M" to be his magnum opus, and I don’t doubt it. He can be credited with creating two genres with one film: thriller and police procedural.
The film has had a huge influence on the thriller genre, building rising tension with each passing minute and keeping the audience in anticipation of what is about to unfold. Hans Beckert, played by Peter Lorre in his breakout role, is a creepy yet menacing villain. His large eyes make you feel as if he’s staring into your soul. However, he doesn’t have much screen time, as most of the film focuses on the efforts to catch him. As a procedural drama, Lang takes us through the investigative process, making us feel like flies on the wall of a forensic lab, analyzing fingerprints and handwriting.
M is Fritz Lang’s first tryst with sound. Though made in the early sound era, Lang ensures that he makes the most of it. He introduces the idea of a leitmotif, a recurring short ‘musical phrase’ that accompanies a person, idea, or place. In the film, Beckert whistles the tune of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" almost every time he is on screen; after a point, every time we hear the tune, we know that Beckert is nearby, even off-screen. The purpose of a leitmotif is to create a sense of pattern or order. Leitmotifs have now become extremely common and can be seen in all kinds of films whenever a particular character, place, or idea recurs. Lang uses dialogue to convey more information in a single shot, resulting in fewer cuts and longer takes. Notably, the film can also be credited with the introduction of long tracking shots.
Lang plays with the idea of order, showing how the disappearance of the children disrupts the city’s order. The police conduct a massive manhunt to restore this order, which causes chaos in the criminal underworld due to the increase in police raids. The structure of the film resembles a series of dominoes, falling one after the other. As both the police and the criminal underworld set out to catch the murderer, Lang illustrates just how out of order the entire system is. Nazi Germany is depicted through the lens of someone who passionately hates it; we see this in the disgusting underground pubs and the ugly faces of those within.
M is not just about a serial killer or the quest to catch him; it’s also about a diseased society. According to Lang, the film delivers a message to parents about the importance of caring for their children and not neglecting them. Fritz Lang had significant troubles with the Nazis, ultimately leading to his fleeing the country. *M* is upfront in its portrayal of Nazis without actually showing them, and amusingly, it slipped through the Nazi censor board at the time. As I’ve recently discovered Fritz Lang, what truly inspires me is his power of imagination and creative storytelling. Being creatively confined by the shackles of a discouraging society while still making films that set the benchmark for modern cinema is indeed fascinating.
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