[7]

Peter Lorre gives a star-making performance as a child murderer running from both the law and the criminal underground in this stylish early ‘talkie’ from Fritz Lang (Metropolis). As much as I love both Lang and Lorre, M is a mixed bag for me. It starts off brilliantly, with the children singing and the villain’s shadowy introduction. But as the movie becomes more about the police and the criminals trying to catch the villain, and not at all about the child murderer himself, I interest wanes a bit. The finale finally brings the perpetrator to the foreground, in a fake courtroom trial held by the criminal underground. Peter Lorre’s character gives a pretentious speech with which I have major issues. I am not comfortable with the fact that this movie asks us to understand the child murderer. In fact, the movie doesn’t even end with the murderer’s legal condemnation — it cuts away before the verdict is given.

I’m liberal, but I’m not so liberal as to give child murderers the benefit of the doubt. I can tolerate a lot of moral gray area as long as the filmmakers don’t take a stand on the gray issues and preach their opinions to me. It’s better to just open up a conversation on the issue rather than take a stand. Especially when the stand you’re taking is that it’s more important to understand child murderers than it is to convict them of their crimes. Maybe if I were opposed to the death penalty, I’d like this movie more. But the way I see it, there is real evil in the world. It sometimes comes in the shape of child murderers, and the death penalty is sometimes much more appropriate than sensitivity training.

I appreciate the closing statement from the dead children’s mothers, as they await a verdict the film will never show: “This won’t bring our children back.” With that, the movie might be suggesting tolerance and justice aren’t enough. But everything up until that final line of dialogue seems to the contrary.

I guess this movie hit a raw nerve with me, as I often find myself arguing with friends about the death penalty. Even despite my huge moral issue with the movie’s ending, it also dragged in its middle hour, and I found the villain’s lack of screen time a bit disappointing. Even with my reservations, this is still a gorgeously made film with some genuinely creepy sequences.