- Germany
- 1931
- 110 minutes
- Black and White
- 1.19:1
- German
- Spine #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 & CreditsOpen
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 Gnaß |
| 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
SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET:
- 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
