M

 In 1931 Fritz Lang released M, a movie about a child muredrer (at one point it is suggested he is also a child molester) who manages to evade the police of Berlin for weeks while adding to his body count. Police begin cracking down on the whole city in an effort to find any lead. This of course interferes with the activities of organized crime, so the gangsters decide to join in on the hunt for the killer. They team up the the organization of beggars and begin their search.

Peter Lorre plays the killer, and does a splendid job, unsurprising since he later became world renowned  for playing the creepy or shady character in many movies. The movie shows Berlin in the early 1930s before the Nazis had completed their takeover of the city and the country. That alone gives the movie some interest, especially given the very cynical view it gives of Germans of the time.

While the Nazis had not yet taken full power, they were active and powerful. One incident in the production illustrates how much so. While readying production, director Fritz lang learned that he being denied the use of of studio space. While one might expect that it was because the studio owner was uncomfortable hosting a movie about a child killer, it was actually because he was a member of the Nazi party and that party thought the movie was about them. Their reason for thinking this? The original title of the movie was Murderer Among Us. It seems fascists have always had a tendency to tell on themselves. Once Lang assured them they were not part of the movie, he was allowed access tgo the studio.

And, surprisingly, they were really not part of it. Not seen, not mentioned.  The current debates about capital punishment get center stage during the film's climax (Lang seems to have been in the against camp). Mob mentality and the group paranoia that can take hold in a community threatened from within is a big theme, with a couple of scenes seeming to me to be precursors to the climax of 1999's Summer of Sam. But the most important political change happening at the time in Germany was completely ignored, showing that Lang was probably afraid of provoking the Nazis. The half-Jewish director would flee them a couple of years later, following his star Peter Lorre to Hollywood.

The Nazis might have allowed Lang to make his movie, but it still stirred enough controversy that  he received threats while making it. The movie also has much more adult language and a more grim outlook than most Hollywood fare, not only of the time but for a couple of decades later. And the Nazis were obviously not completely okay with the flick, as they banned it in 1934 after solifidying their takeover of power. It remained banned in Germany until the 60s.  All that being said, I haven't said much about the movie. It is interesting, and it is entertaining. While being shocking at the time, it is not graphic at all, so even viewers who would normally be quite upset at the subject matter can watch it without too much distress. The really awful things happen off camera, and are suggested or mentioned rather than shown. You can the the DNA of a large part of the thrillers that would follow it once the production code gave way to the ratings system. After about 50 years Hollywood caught up to what Fritz Lang was doing in Berlin in 1931. I'd say it's worth watching.