Fritz Lang M vintage film still / Germany 1931

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Description: Harrowing scene from the expressionist German film classic M, with Peter Lorre

Very rare vintage gelatin silver print
8 x 10 inches (20.3 x 25.4 cm.) USA
Small professional conservations. Fine.

M [1931]
Austrian-born Fritz Lang made M in Germany where it premiered in May 1931 before being banned by the Nazis three years later. In retrospect, many believe M hastened Lang's departure from Germany in 1934. Lang often spoke of how the Nazis were offended by the film's original title, Murderers Among Us (assuming it was about them). He also spoke of the difficulty getting permission to make the film at the studios where it was eventually made in its entirety, but Lang scholars believe he often embellished the truth. Inconsistencies in many of his stories over a number of years have led many historians to view Lang's anecdotes with a pinch of salt. In many interviews Lang spoke of being offered the position "head of National Socialist Film" by Goebbels and Hitler, but there is no evidence of a Lang meeting in Goebbels' complete appointment calendar or diaries (which survived the war intact).

M is a fiercely intelligent overview of an entire town's attempt to hunt down the serial child killer in their midst. Lang's first sound film effortlessly blends noir, German Expressionism, social commentary, and documentary with a keen nose for humour. Combining a God's eye view of the police procedural, separate attempts by the town's underworld to stop the killer, and insight into the killer's own world, Lang weaves these disparate elements into a highly intelligent meditation on capital punishment. Without preaching or espousing one viewpoint over another, Lang transparently lays everything on the table for the audience to make up their own minds. The unexpected and thoroughly brave ending is one of the most memorable in movie history. Critic Stanley Kauffman wrote, "M is more engaging of the eye, more incisive in its irony, more firm in its grasp of social complications than most of the films that come along today." Lang's intention was for M to be a wake up call for parents. Rather than focus on the whodunnit and subsequent hunt for the murderer, Lang highlighted the serial killings of children as preventable, something we could protect against by knowing where our children are at all times. Lang bravely shows the internal frustration of Lorre's character and questions the use of capital punishment for such an illness, a sentence that was served on Peter Kürten (The Vampire of Düsseldorf), a child murderer who rocked Germany a few years earlier. - Nick Wrigley

Status: No Longer Available	Reference#: 06_281
Condition: Fine	Year: 1931
Country: USA
Height: 8 in. (20.32 cm)
Width: 10 in. (25.40 cm)

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