Number 59 on IMDb's Top 250
A psychotic child murderer stalks a city, and despite an exhaustive investigation fueled by public hysteria and outcry, the police have been unable to find him. TBut the police crackdown does have one side-affect, it makes it nearly impossible for the organized criminal underground to operate. So they decide that the only way to get the police off their backs is to catch the murderer themselves. Besides, he is giving them a bad name. The beggers union starts watching all the children in the town for any suspicious characters until a blind man recognises a familiar whistle that he heard just before the last child disappeared. The criminals spring into action and one is able to "mark" the target to make him easier to follow. That mark? The letter "M" for murderer. Hilarity ensues. Will the criminals be able to exact their revenge? Or will the police find the murdere in time?
Trivia: The tune that Peter Lorre's character whistles is "In the Hall of the Mountain King," from the "Peer Gynt" suite, by Edvard Grieg. Peter Lorre was Jewish and fled Germany in fear of Nazi persecution shortly after the movie's release. Fritz Lang, who was half Jewish, fled two years later. Peter Lorre's climactic speech was appropriated by Joseph Goebbels for the Nazi propaganda film The Eternal Jew, a Holocaust apologist film that blames Jews for devaluing German culture with degenerate art. Because Lorre was Jewish, the film uses his final speech as "proof" that Jews exemplify innate criminality, and refuse to take responsibility for their wrongdoings. (Ed. Note: Leave it to the Nazis to subvert everything the touched.)
Peter Lorre plays one of the first serial killers ever portrayed on film. The child murderer is one of the first characters ever to be associated with a leitmotif, in this case the character whistles "In The Hall Of The Mountain King." Later in the film, the mere sound of the song lets the audience know that he must be nearby, just offscreen. Cool Beans! I got to use the word leitmotif!
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1 comment:
That is cool beans.
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