M

(1931) Grieg’s “The Hall of the Mountain King,” from Peer Gynt, is whistled off-screen, little girls disappear, and both polizei and the underwent (that is, cops and crooks) start separate manhunts for the child-molesting murderer. The cinema’s first serial killer story and still perhaps the most terrifying, Lang’s first sound film — and personal favorite (“I prefer M,” he declared in Godard’s Contempt) — met Nazi resistance under its original title, Murderers Among Us, until Lang let them know it was based on the reallife Düsseldorf murderer Peter Kürten — and not them. Erstwhile Brecht regular Peter Lorre became world-famous overnight as the squealing, helpless murderer, despite his inability to whistle (the dubbing was by Lang himself). Innovative in its use of sound and image juxtapositions, as well as its ultimately sympathetic portrait (“I can’t help myself!”) of a sexual psychopath, M (the title derives from the shoulder chalk mark tagging Lorre as Mörder) proved on its original release too rich for the blood of the New York Times critic, who squeamishly tsked, “More horrible than anything that has so far come to the screen... too hideous to contemplate.” Despite its world-classic status, M has been all too often seen through the years in multi-generational dupe prints, generally missing the final scene and frustratingly under-subtitled in typical early- 30s style. This stunning new version includes new English subtitles and footage missing from earlier restorations. Approx. 117 min. DCP.

Restored by TLEFilms Restoration & Preservation Services (Berlin) in association with Archives Françaises du Film — CNC (Paris) and inPostFactory (Berlin)

A KINO LORBER RELEASE

REVIEWS

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“LANG’S GENRE-ESTABLISHING PENULTIMATE MASTERPIECE!”
– Slant 

“VIRTUALLY RE-INVENTS THE ART OF MOVIE STORYTELLING! A masterpiece structured with the kind of perfection that calls to mind both poetry and architecture and that makes even Lang’s disciples’ classics seem minor by comparison.”
– Jonathan Rosenbaum

“M seems every bit a more substantial and technically complex work than Lang’s previous landmark, 1927’s Metropolis... as perfect an example of pure cinema in the sound era as one is likely to find.”
– Chris Cabin, Slant