M.

M. – 1931, Fritz Lang

Well, it’s a classic all right. The reason pre-war classics are usually better than post-war classics is because they were pioneering by necessity. M. has its faults, but it was made in 1931, so it’s not like Fritz had the benefit of copying Kurosawa. It was also Herr Lang’s first film made with sound after he had pushed silent film to its’ limits with Metropolis. Post-war films widely regarded as classics can be disappointing, The French Connection and Mean Streets spring to mind. Both are good films, but in their attempts to seem ‘edgy’, though well received at the time, don’t date well in my opinion.

‘Edgy’ was a word that would never have been used to describe a film in 1931, they weren’t post-modern yet. Another word missing from the cinematic lexicon in the thirties was ‘pacing’. The original cut of M. was about 117 minutes long, but the widely distributed edit was cut to 99 minutes. The version I saw was about 110 minutes long, not because it is the best edit, but because they couldn’t find a full print of the original. They cobbled together what extra minutes they could find from the vaults of various European film archives. I doubt the shorter version is missing anything important, but I suppose the whole point of revisiting and restoring these ancient works is to rediscover the director’s original vision as completely as possible.

M. is a directorial masterpiece, it’s also an incredible achievement technically given the time. It is clearly as inspirational and groundbreaking as Citizen Kane, but it doesn’t get the same credit. The most surprising thing about the film is how the subject matter is still so relevant. The villain of M, is a child killing pervert, a goggle-eyed paedophile bogyman who is hunted down by an angry mob of gangsters who decide his crime is far worse than any of theirs. It’s as though Fritz was receiving editions of The Sun from 70 years in the Future.

The bad guy is played by Peter Lorre who went on to have a prolific career in Hollywood as the creepy guy parodied in an hundred Loony Tunes shorts.

M. – The Classic that doesn’t disappoint.