M

Thomas Cattaneo

2/11/02

Understanding Movies

Fritz Lang "M"

The 1931 German classic "M" was an extremely scary movie. The film touches on many of the typical Lang themes such as: justice & revenge, mob hysteria, the anticipation in watching a helplessly trapped person unsuccessfully trying to escape as greater forces move in. I personally thought the film was wonderful for its time. It wasn't the plot because it the typical plot that we have seen over and over. What sells the movie for me is the acting. It is so good that it can almost be defined as overacting because of the outstanding jobs done by all the lead actors but especially by Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert. The way he uses his eyes to show his emotions was pretty cool it was a something I hadn't really seen too much of in too many movies.

The sound in the movie was very interesting at times. There were scenes where you would see people moving and talking but yet there was no sound. It added an extra bit of suspense and fear to the movie and made the movie that much better. There was another scene where the beggars were out looking for the murderer, and one of the beggars was running a music cart and you could hear children's voices in the background. This added to the suspense because you don't know if the killer is around or not but all you can hear is children and see them running around it added an eerie like effect to the movie.

I had to do a little research but I found out what song the killer was whistling it was the Grieg theme from `In the Hall of the Mountain King'. This theme has become synonymous with trouble, and menacing situations. The sound of the killer's whistling is what inevitably gets him caught. The blind balloon seller sold a balloon to young Elsie Beckmann