M

M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (1931)

Timing: 1:50 (110 min)

8.061/10
2433

7.908/10
16369

8.3/10
181000

All about film

Video 4

Photo 68

Actors and characters

Release date

1931-05-11

Country

Germany

Production

Nero-Film AG

Genre

Drama, Thriller, Crime

Budget

$0

Revenue

$35 274

Website

Director

Fritz Lang

Actors

Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke, Theodor Loos, Gustaf Gründgens, Friedrich Gnaß, Fritz Odemar, Paul Kemp, Theo Lingen
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Egon Jacobson

Producer

Seymour Nebenzal

Operator

Fritz Arno Wagner

Composer

Artist

Audition

Editing

Paul Falkenberg
All team (12)

• The first sound film directed by Fritz Lang.
• The film's plot is based on the real events of the case of serial killer Peter Kürten from Düsseldorf.
• Fritz Lang himself whistled the melody from "Peer Gynt" during the film's sound recording. This is one of the earliest known examples of using a musical theme associated with a specific character in cinema.
• Fritz Lang claimed that he invited real criminals to film the courtroom scene of Becker's trial.
• In July 1934, after Lang had already left Germany, the film was banned from screening by Nazi censorship.
• Due to the unusual aspect ratio of the image (1.20:1), the frame was noticeably cropped from the top and bottom in early editions of the film.
• The full version of the film has a runtime of 117 minutes.
• The film was initially planned to be titled «Mörder unter uns» («Murder Among Us»), but during filming, Lang decided to name the film with the single-letter abbreviation «M».
• Initially, the film was planned to be titled “Murder Among Us.”
• Fritz Lang himself whistled the melody from "Peer Gynt" during the sound recording for the film. This is one of the earliest known examples of using a musical theme associated with a specific character in cinema.
• The film was originally planned to be titled "Mörder unter uns" ("A Killer Among Us").