"Do you mean to say that you have to kill?"
In a 1930's-era German city, a series of brutal child murders has gripped citizens in the clutches of terror. Fully aware of a madman preying on children, parents take special care to guard their school-aged kids, exacting a strict curfew and other protective measures around the clock. Yet all their vigilant efforts prove useless when the killer strikes again, this time in broad daylight swiping a young girl off the streets, killing her and dumping her dead body in a city park. Uproarious with outrage, residents clamor for the murderer's capture coercing the police commissioner to approve the most intense level of law enforcement. Within hours multiple patrolmen are on every corner of the city, periodically interrogating residents on a more or less random basis and enhancing infiltration of the city's criminal element in a desperate attempt to corner the villain. Meanwhile the city's organized crime outfit, their operations stagnated by hypervigilant law officers, decide the situation must end; the killer must be caught in order to alleviate the heightened police presence. Employing lines of communication known only to members of the criminal underground and enlisting the aid of homeless street-dwellers, heads of the various racketeering factions throughout the city cooperate to seek out the identity of the murderer and ultimately remove him from the picture.
In what's predominately considered to be his greatest film, renowned German director Fritz Lang presents a masterpiece of a early auditory cinema in this harrowing portrayal of the frenzied atmosphere surrounding a chilling set of serial murders. Loosely based on the real case of serial killer Peter Kurten, the "Vampire of Dussledorf", whose string of murders and sexual assaults in 1929 set the entire country on edge, M is an enchanting, masterful artistic creation, hauntingly engaging with its dark subject matter, social commentary, psychological suspense and brilliant acting by a young Peter Lorre. (DVD M)
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