History Film / M

* JerkassHasAPoint:
** Beckert is an insane child murderer, but his condemnation of the hypocrisy of the 'court' standing in judgement of him isn't entirely without merit.
** The prosecutor of the mob trial may be a criminal but he does have a point that whether or not Hans is crazy he is a threat to the children of Germany regardless and killing him would make them more safe.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: A complicated example. Hans disgusts all the criminal bigwigs because he kills children, but they're primarily after him because the police looking for him interfere with their crimes. The "defense attorney" notes the hypocrisy of wanted murderers standing in judgment of another murderer. Hans' final speech also [[MoralMyopia calls them out on their hypocritical "standards"]], pointing out that he does what he does [[ReluctantPsycho because he is insane and cannot help himself]], whereas they simply can't be bothered to learn an honest trade. On the other hand, there is a difference between a common criminal or mobster, and a child rapist and serial killer, and the fact they put him to trial, plus the anger they feel against him, lends argument to the fact that, despite some level of hypocrisy in their actions, they are truly disgusted by his actions.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: A complicated example. Hans disgusts all the criminal bigwigs because he kills children, but they're primarily after him because the police looking for him interfere with their crimes. The "defense attorney" notes the hypocrisy of wanted murderers standing in judgment of another murderer. Hans' final speech also [[MoralMyopia calls them out on their hypocritical "standards"]], pointing out that he does what he does [[ReluctantPsycho because he is insane and cannot help himself]], whereas they simply can't be bothered to learn an honest trade. On the other hand, there is a difference between a common criminal or mobster, and a child rapist and serial killer, and the fact they put him to trial, plus the anger they feel against him, lends argument to the fact that, despite some level; of hypocrisy in their actions, they are truly disgusted by his actions.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: A complicated example. Hans disgusts all the criminal bigwigs because he kills children, but they're primarily after him because the police looking for him interfere with their crimes. The "defense attorney" notes the hypocrisy of wanted murderers standing in judgment of another murderer. Hans' final speech also [[MoralMyopia calls them out on their hypocritical "standards"]], pointing out that he does what he does [[ReluctantPsycho because he is insane and cannot help himself]], whereas they simply can't be bothered to learn an honest trade. On the other hand, there is a difference between a common criminal or mobster, and a child rapist and serial killer, and the fact they put him to trial, plus the anger they feel against him, lends argument to the fact that, despite some leveñ of hypocrisy in their actions, they are truly disgusted by his actions.

Was [[ForeignRemake remade in the U.S.]] in 1951 in a version directed by Joseph Losey, starring Creator/DavidWayne as the murderer and [[SettingUpdate updating the setting]] to postwar UsefulNotes/LosAngeles. There was another remake in the form of a 2019 Austrian MiniSeries by TVNOW (''M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder''), starring Sarah Viktoria Frick, Christian Doleza, Lore Niklas, Gerhard Liebmann (as M), Creator/MoritzBleibtreu and Creator/UdoKier. It too updates the setting, to PresentDay UsefulNotes/{{Vienna}}.

Police inspector Karl Lohmann (Otto Wernicke), meanwhile, is investigating the serial killings with modern policework, such as fingerprinting and handwriting analysis. The criminal underworld is also searching for the killer, since more police on the street is bad business for them and they, too, [[EvenEvilHasStandards are disgusted by the killer targeting children.]]

Was [[ForeignRemake remade in the U.S.]] in 1951, in a version directed by Joseph Losey, starring Creator/DavidWayne as the murderer and [[SettingUpdate updating the setting]] to postwar UsefulNotes/LosAngeles. There was another remake in the form of a 2019 Austrian MiniSeries by TVNOW (''M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder''), starring Sarah Viktoria Frick, Christian Doleza, Lore Niklas, Gerhard Liebmann (as M), Creator/MoritzBleibtreu and Creator/UdoKier. It too updates the setting, to PresentDay UsefulNotes/{{Vienna}}.

Was [[ForeignRemake remade in the US]] in 1951, in a version directed by Joseph Losey, starring Creator/DavidWayne as the murderer and [[SettingUpdate updating the setting]] to postwar UsefulNotes/LosAngeles. There was another remake in the form of a 2019 Austrian MiniSeries by TVNOW (''M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder''), starring Sarah Viktoria Frick, Christian Doleza, Lore Niklas, Gerhard Liebmann (as M), Creator/MoritzBleibtreu and Creator/UdoKier. It too updates the setting, to PresentDay UsefulNotes/{{Vienna}}.

[[ForeignRemake Remade in the U.S.]] in 1951, in a version directed by Joseph Losey, starring Creator/DavidWayne as the murderer and [[SettingUpdate updating the setting]] to postwar UsefulNotes/LosAngeles. There was another remake in the form of a 2019 Austrian MiniSeries by TVNOW (''M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder''), starring Sarah Viktoria Frick, Christian Doleza, Lore Niklas, Gerhard Liebmann (as M), Creator/MoritzBleibtreu and Creator/UdoKier. It too updates the setting, to PresentDay UsefulNotes/{{Vienna}}.

* HonorAmongThieves: Der Schränker makes it clear that the mob intends to kill Hans for his heinous crimes, but he gives Hans to rights to defend himself and even a good lawyer just to show that even criminals like him are more honorable than him.

* JokerJury: The criminals' court at the end (although Hans is far from a hero).

* BittersweetEnding: Beckert is brought to trial, with the bonus of criminals who tried to kill him arrested as well, but the climax establishes that neither execution nor medical treatment seem to be a totally fitting sentence, and it won't bring back the kids anyway.

* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: Hans again. In fact, Peter Lorre was typecast as this role for years afterward. Subverted in that Hans Beckert managed to kill several children and successfully evade the police in the first part of the film and the time before and is only this because of his patheticness and guilt after being caught.

* StabTheSalad: After luring in his next victim, Hans pulls out a switchblade, which he uses to cut an orange.

* ButtMonkey: Franz, one member of the gang that breaks into the office building to find Beckert. He gets left behind when everyone bails out after the silent alarm is tripped, then arrested and questioned by the police, and finally tricked by Lohmann (through a [[BlatantLies false statement that one of the watchmen has died]]) into revealing the reason for the break-in and where Beckert is being taken.

* ButtMonkey: Franz, one member of the gang that breaks into the office building to find Beckert. He gets left behind when everyone bails out after the silent alarm is tripped, then arrested and questioned by the police, and finally tricked by Lohmann into revealing the reason for the break-in and where Beckert is being taken.

* SinisterWhistling: In what is probably the TropeMaker, the titular [[SerialKiller child killer]] whistles "In The Hall of The Mountain King" right before he tracks down his victims. This is used to great effect, with many scenes keeping the killer off-screen; meaning on the whistle itself carries the dread. The tune itself contains multiple pauses and breaks in odd places, giving it an additional sense of wrongness. As Creator/PeterLorre could not whistle, it was the Director Creator/FritzLang himself, who provided the iconic tune.

The film is widely regarded as an important masterpiece in the history of cinema, and Lang himself considered it to be his MagnumOpus.

As the film opens, that leitmotif -- "In the Hall of the Mountain King", from Edvard Grieg's ''Theatre/PeerGynt'' -- is whistled by Hans Beckert (Creator/PeterLorre) as he buys a balloon for a little girl named Elsie Beckmann from a blind street vendor. A scene later, Elsie hasn't come home from school and her worried mother shouts her name as the camera shows the abandoned balloon drifting up into the telephone wires.

''M'' (original German title ''M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder'', "A City Searches for a Murderer") is a 1931 crime film written and directed by Creator/FritzLang. Thea von Harbou (Lang's then-wife) co-wrote the script.

It is about a serial child killer in UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic-[=era=] UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}} and the people who try to find him: the police, the criminal underworld, and the city's beggars. One of the earliest examples of FilmNoir, ''M'' provides not only stark black-and-white images but also a haunting {{leitmotif}} heard throughout the film.

It is about a serial child killer in UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic-[=era=] UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}} and the people who try to find him: the police, the criminal underworld, and the city's beggars. One of the earliest examples of FilmNoir, ''M'' provides not only stark black and white images but also a haunting {{leitmotif}} heard throughout the film.

It is about a serial child killer in UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic-[=era=] UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}} and the people who try to find him: the police, the criminal underworld, and the city's beggars. One of the earliest examples of FilmNoir, ''M'' provides not only stark black and white images, but also a haunting {{leitmotif}} heard throughout the film.