M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder DVD 1931 M - Egy város keresi a gyilkost / Directed by Fritz Lang / Starring: Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Gustaf Gründgens / AKA M - A City Searches for a Murderer / B&W Classic

UPC 5999545560986 / 5999016344275 / IPH 6074 / 5996255606416

REGION 2 PAL DVD

MADE IN GERMANY

AUDIO: German 2.0

SUBTITLES: Hungarian

Total Runtime: 105 minutes

English Summary:

M (German: M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder— M – A City Searches for a Murderer) is a 1931 German drama-thriller film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre. The film was written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou and was the director's first sound film.

The film revolves around the actions of a serial killer of children and the manhunt for him, conducted by both the police and the criminal underworld.Now considered a timeless classic, the film was deemed by Lang to be his magnum opus.

A group of children are playing an elimination game in the courtyard of an apartment building in Berlin using a chant about a murderer of children. A woman sets the table for lunch, waiting for her daughter to come home from school. A wanted poster warns of a serial killer preying on children, as anxious parents wait outside a school.

Little Elsie Beckmann leaves school, bouncing a ball on her way home. She is approached by Hans Beckert, who is whistling "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg. He offers to buy her a balloon from a blind street-vendor and walks and talks with her. Elsie's place at the dinner table remains empty, her ball is shown rolling away across a patch of grass and her balloon is lost in the telephone lines overhead.

In the wake of Elsie's disappearance, anxiety runs high among the public. Beckert sends an anonymous letter to the newspapers, taking credit for the murders and promising that he will commit others; the police extract clues from the letter, using the new techniques of fingerprinting and handwriting analysis. Under mounting pressure from city leaders, the police work around the clock. Inspector Karl Lohmann instructs his men to intensify their search and to check the records of recently released psychiatric patients, focusing on any with a history of violence against children. They stage frequent raids to question known criminals, disrupting underworld business so badly that Der Schränker (The Safecracker) calls a meeting of the city's crime lords. They decide to organize their own manhunt, using beggars to watch the children. Meanwhile, the police search Beckert's rented rooms, find evidence that he wrote the letter there, and lie in wait to arrest him.

German Summary:

M von Fritz Lang mit Peter Lorre in der Hauptrolle ist eine der ersten deutschen Tonfilmproduktionen. Die Cahiers du cinéma listeten M im Jahr 2008 in ihrer Liste der 100 besten Filme aller Zeiten auf dem sechsten Platz, die beste Platzierung für eine deutsche Filmproduktion.

Ein unbekannter Kindermörder versetzt die Bewohner Berlins in Schrecken und Hysterie – was noch intensiviert wird durch die Berichterstattung der Presse und überall angeschlagene Fahndungsplakate. Schließlich nimmt nicht nur die Polizei, sondern auch die in Unruhe versetzte Unterwelt die Verfolgung des Serienmörders auf. Eine hohe Belohnung ist ausgesetzt.

Eine Mutter in einem Arbeiterstadtteil wartet ungeduldig auf die Rückkehr ihrer Tochter aus der Schule. Diese ist aber mit einem nicht gezeigten Mann mitgegangen. Der schenkt der kleinen Elsie Beckmann Süßigkeiten und einen Luftballon und erschleicht sich so ihr Vertrauen. Als man die Leiche des Mädchens findet, verstärkt die Polizei ihre Anstrengungen, ohne eine erfolgversprechende Spur zu finden. Von den Behörden muss eine steigende Nervosität der Bevölkerung konstatiert werden: Es kommt zu wechselseitigen Verdächtigungen und anonymen Anzeigen, was die Anspannung und Übermüdung der Polizeibeamten weiter verschlimmert.

Hungarian Summary:

Berlin, 1930. Lohmann bűnügyi felügyelő egy diáklány gyilkosát keresi. A város csibészei is őt keresik. Meg is találják, és egy kasszafúró vezetésével a maguk bíróság elé állítják. Csupán a rendőrség felbukkanása menti meg a gyilkost a lincseléstől.

Cast / Szereplők:

• Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert. M was Lorre's first major starring role, and it boosted his career, even though he was typecast as a villain for years afterward in films such as Mad Love and Crime and Punishment. Before M, Lorre had been mostly a comedic actor. After fleeing from the Nazis he landed a major role in Alfred Hitchcock's first version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), picking up English along the way.
• Otto Wernicke as Inspector Karl Lohmann. Wernicke made his breakthrough with M after playing many small roles in silent films for over a decade. After his part in M he was in great demand due to the success of the film, including returning to the role of Karl Lohmann in The Testament of Doctor Mabuse, and he played supporting roles for the rest of his career.
• Gustaf Gründgens as Der Schränker (The Safecracker). Gründgens received acclaim for his role in the film and established a successful career for himself under Nazi rule, ultimately becoming director of the Staatliches Schauspielhaus (National Dramatic Theatre).