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.
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Was the film M based on a real serial killer?
Often linked to Peter Kürten, but Lang denied drawing from that case.
Critics and reviewers have often said that M was based on the Düsseldorf serial killer Peter Kürten, whose crimes took place in the 1920s. Fritz Lang denied it. In a 1963 interview with the film historian Gero Gandert he said that when he chose the subject there were many serial killers terrorizing Germany, naming Haarmann, Großmann, Kürten and Denke. The film's underworld of organized criminals was inspired by the real Berlin Ringvereine.
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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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Wikimedia FoundationM (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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