#30 - M

If that ain't the shortest movie title ever, I don't know what is :)

We have here a Fritz Lang film - his first with sound - (He had done Metropolis just 4 years earlier, and that was silent as were the ones that he did in between) - it's a masterpiece of German Cinema, and on most top 100 lists of great film watchers.  There are some early strains of film noir here - and I guess it's not that unusual a film for what was called the Weimar era, the Republic that was leading Germany right before the Nazi's came in

So I didn't quite know what we had here - There are virtually no protagonists - just a child murderer on the lam from both the Police and the Criminal Underworld - the plot is simple enough - but one of the great things about this film was Lang's use (or lack thereof) of sound as a painter using it for the first time - it reminds me a bit of how Kurosawa got to use color for the first time in a Samurai film (Kagemusha) - you get a LOT of it

Some scenes are shot without sound - I guess it was partially because sound equipment was expensive, but Lang uses it to great effect (Police sneaking around setting up an ambush for example) - and the work of Peter Lorre, especially in his closing monologue, with the camera lingering on him for extended takes is one of the most famous monologues of cinema.  There is also a musical theme (whistling) designed to lead you to understand when the main character is close even when not on camera

The Blu-Ray extras were fascinating - one included a documentary of the physical history of the film - this film was banned 3 years later in Germany after the Nazi's came to power - and there were French/English versions of the film, that quite frankly, didn't do Peter Lorre's final monologue justice with the extra cuts in it.  No one knows 100% what the initial director's cut was cause it was sliced and diced a few times and when the original negative was found, it was missing a reel

But it's a classic and good to see finally - it was Peter Lorre's breakout role and the one that jumpstarted his career - and he and Lang would both go on to flee Germany and have strong careers here in America for many years.