File:M_poster.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Also known as The Murderers Are Among Us, Murderers Are Among Us
1931 film directed by Fritz Lang
OverviewAI-generated
M is a 1931 German film directed by Fritz Lang, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Thea von Harbou and Paul Falkenberg. Produced by Seymour Nebenzal and Nero-Film AG, the black-and-white thriller features Gustaf Gründgens, Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, and Theodor Loos. The narrative is set in Berlin and focuses on a serial killer and capital punishment. Edvard Grieg composed the music, while Fritz Arno Wagner served as director of photography.
The film has a runtime of 117 minutes, though other sources list durations of 110 and 99 minutes. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures and Netflix in formats including DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and video on demand. The work has received a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.3 score on IMDb. It has won two awards and is categorized as a crime, mystery, and thriller.
Synthesized by Vinony from 48 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, OMDb, Internet Archive, IMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
8.1In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert, a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellant and disruptive to city life that he is even targeted by others in the seedy underworld network. With both cops and criminals in pursuit, the murderer soon realizes that people are on his trail, sending him into a tense, panicked attempt to escape justice.
Cast
- Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert
- Ellen Widmann as Frau Beckmann
- Inge Landgut as Elsie Beckmann
- Otto Wernicke as Inspector Karl Lohmann
- Theodor Loos as Inspector Groeber
- Gustaf Gründgens as Schränker
Themes
- berlin, germany
- germany
- psychopath
- detective inspector
- child murder
- investigation
- film noir
- organized crime
- serial killer
- black and white
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Ratings
IMDb
8.3/10
179,355 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
100%
- Year
- 1931
- Runtime
- 99 min
- Genres
- Crime, Mystery, Thriller
- Rated
- Passed
- Awards
- 2 wins total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- Fritz Lang
- Written by
- Fritz Lang , Thea von Harbou
- Produced by
- Seymour Nebenzal
- Starring
- Peter Lorre
- Cinematography
- Fritz Arno Wagner
- Edited by
- Paul Falkenberg
- Production company
- Nero-Film A.G.
- Distributed by
- Vereinigte Star-Film GmbH
- Release date
- 11 May 1931 ( 1931-05-11 )
- Running time
- 111 minutes
- Country
- Germany
- Language
- German
via Wikipedia infobox
Internet Archive
textsMS1 Mitchell Family Papers, Folder 16 Francis M. Mitchell papers
Read online at Internet Archive →via archive.org
~22 min read
Encyclopedic overview
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. Both Lang's first sound film and an early example of a procedural drama, M centres on the efforts of both a city's police force and its criminal syndicates to apprehend a serial child-murderer.
The film's screenplay was written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou. It features many cinematic innovations, including the use of long tracking shots and a musical leitmotif in the form of "In the Hall of the Mountain King", which is repeatedly whistled by Lorre's character. Lang regarded the film as his magnum opus, and it is widely considered one of the greatest films of all time and an indispensable influence on modern crime and thriller fiction.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “M” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.