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M

Also Known As M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Moerder
World and International Narrative Cinema

M is Fritz Lang's first sound film, a tense hunt for a child murderer, played by Peter Lorre in his breakthrough role, told partly through the criminal underworld's own manhunt for him alongside the police. Released in 1931, it is now widely regarded as one of the great early achievements of sound cinema, using sound, including a recurring whistled motif from Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King, as a storytelling device rather than a mere novelty of the new technology.

Facts
Release Year
1931 1
Country
Germany 1
Classification
Original Language
German 1
Connections

Associated With

As Fritz Lang's first sound film, M used a dense, non-theatrical soundtrack, including a recurring whistled leitmotif borrowed from opera to signal the killer's presence, an early and influential use of sound as a storytelling device rather than a novelty.

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Fritz Lang, Figures
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1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation
  • M (1931 film), Lead and Plot
    considered by many film scholars to be a masterpiece of the early sound era
  • M (1931 film), infobox: Release date
    M is a 1931 German mystery thriller film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert, a serial killer who targets children, in his third screen role.
  • M (1931 film), infobox: Country
    M is a 1931 German mystery thriller film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert, a serial killer who targets children, in his third screen role.
  • M (1931 film), infobox: original title
    M is a 1931 German mystery thriller film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert, a serial killer who targets children, in his third screen role.
  • M (1931 film), infobox: Release date, original language
    M is a 1931 German mystery thriller film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert, a serial killer who targets children, in his third screen role.
  • Created By: Fritz Lang, M (1931 film), infobox: Directed by
  • Associated With: Sound on Film, M (1931 film), Production: Use of sound
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