M (film, 1951)

In a large American city, a series of brutal murders of young girls takes place, which terrifies the townspeople and confuses the police. One afternoon, a nervous young man, Martin Harrow ( David Wayne ), watches children playing on the street, and soon a little girl draws his attention. From a blind merchant in an amusement park, Martin buys a girl a balloon, and then leaves with her, whistling a catchy tune. Some time later, when they found the body of a child, police chief Regan ( Roy Endel ) appeared on television, reporting that the evidence collected in the case indicated the same way of committing crimes as in the previous killings - in all cases the victims were strangled, and their shoes have been stolen. After warning the police of the need to take all possible precautions and report all cases of suspicious behavior, many citizens, showing excessive vigilance, grab several innocent people on the street.

At a meeting in the police department, the mayor demands from Regan and the chief of the murder department, Cairney ( Howard da Silva ), to arrest the criminal as soon as possible, but so far they have no clues with the case officer, Lieutenant Becker ( Steve Brody ). In desperation, Kearney orders to conduct total checks throughout the city, hoping in this way to find at least some thread leading to the criminal. During a raid in one of the bars, the police detain and soon release Daniel Langley ( Luther Adler ), a former lawyer who, after being fired for drunkenness, began to work as legal adviser to the crime boss of the city of Charlie Marshall ( Martin Geybel ). Alarmed by the endless police searches and checks that interfere with his smoothly running illegal activities, Marshall, with the help of Langley, sets the subordinate leaders of urban criminal groups to begin an independent search for the maniac, whom they call "M". Meanwhile, in the police department, the psychiatrist draws up a profile of the killer, suggesting that this is probably a paranoid schizophrenic whose illness is related to mental trauma received in childhood. Police officers begin to walk around the homes of all single men who have ever suffered from mental illness, eventually getting to the guesthouse in which Martin lives. Posing as the hostess of the Department of Health, Becker, in the absence of Martin, searches his room, but finds nothing out of the ordinary, except for the lamp, to the switch of which a children's shoe lace is tied. Becker reports on Cairney’s drawstring, who decides to return immediately to the guesthouse. During a more detailed search, they find a locked shoe shelf, on which several pairs of shoes of little girls are collected. After that, the police immediately ambushed the guesthouse, while simultaneously starting an intense search for Martin.

Meanwhile, in the amusement park, Martin seduces another little girl with a balloon. When he leaves, playing on a small pipe, the seller of balls recalls that someone was whistling this unusual melody on the day when the girl’s previous murder happened, and causes a group of street criminals. One of them follows Martin, and taking advantage of the chance, puts a mark “M” on his coat with chalk, which becomes a signal for the rest of the criminals. Feeling the surveillance, Martin leads the girl to a shopping and business center just before it closes, hiding from his pursuers in one of the rooms on the top floor. During the detour, the building’s security locks this room, after which Martin falls into a panic, desperately trying to get out the window. The bandits under the threat of weapons force the guards to let them into the building and begin a total floor search of the premises. When Marshall is informed that M is cornered, the criminal king decides to deal with the maniac without the participation of the police, directing all his main forces to the building. Meanwhile, the bandits torture the guard, demanding to indicate the whereabouts of Martin. Soon Marshall arrives, ordering to turn off the alarm and hack all the shops and offices one by one. Hearing Martin pounding frantically in the room, Marshall's men burst inside, free the child, and lead Martin away. After the criminals left, one of the guards manages to turn on the alarm, and soon the police drive up to the mall, which detains two Marshall people who are forced to tell where Martin was taken. To increase the credibility of his organization among the public, Marshall agrees with the editor of a leading newspaper to report on who saved the city from the maniac.

Soon, members of all city gangs gather in one of the garages where Martin was brought, and after a blind trader confirms that it was Martin who bought the balls from him, the criminal mob rushes at the maniac and begins to beat him. When Marshall offers to extradite Martin to the police, the crowd categorically refuses, wanting to punish the maniac on their own. Marshall fears that if bandits kill Martin, he will be charged with murder, and therefore decides to hold his own court for the public. He instructs the drunk Langley to defend Martin, who offers to listen first to the maniac. Martin says he knew he would end up in court, but thought it would be a legal court. Then he talks about his mother, who taught him that men are born evil and cruel, and in order to correct men, they must be beaten and tortured. And for the sake of saving the children, Martin must kill them so that he would be caught and punished. He had to do cruel things to finally be punished. He did not want this, but could not help himself. Langley takes the floor, declaring that if you kill Martin now, it will not make either our children or any of us better. You can not punish the blind for what he does not see, he must be treated. Langley then begins to blame Marshall and his gang for their own crimes, which cause thousands of children to suffer. Despite Marshall’s attempts to tame the lawyer, Langley exclaims, “So who are the killers here?” Then Marshall shoots him. At that moment, the police arrive, arrest Marshall and take Martin, who is still pleading to be punished.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Seymour Nebenzal was one of the prominent filmmakers of the era of German expressionism , becoming a producer of such films as Pandora's Box (1929), People on Sunday (1930), M (1931), Partnership "(1931)," Three-Penny Opera "(1931) and" Testament of Dr. Mabuse "(1933). Moving to Hollywood, Nebenzal produced the films Douglas Sierk “ Hitler's Mad ” (1943) and “ Summer Storm ” (1944), as well as the film noir “The Chase ” (1946) and “The Station ” (1946) ^[2] . Joseph Losey began his directorial career in the United States, staging, in particular, such noir films as The Dividing Line (1950) and The Thief (1951) ^[3] . This film was shot just before the start of anti-communist purges of the McCarthyism era, Joseph Losey was forbidden to work in Hollywood . The film also featured such Hollywood blacklisted actors as Howard da Silva , Luther Adler and Karen Morley ^[4] . Emigrating to Europe, Losey put his best paintings there, among them psychological dramas based on the scripts of the playwright Harold Pinter's The Servant (1963), The Accident (1967) and The Intermediary (1971), as well as the anti-war dramas For the King and Fatherland "(1964) and" Monsieur Klein "(1976) ^[3] .

David Wayne played significant supporting roles in the fantasy melodrama “ Portrait of Jenny ” (1948) and the romantic comedy “ Adam's Rib ” (1949), after which he played the main and significant roles in such prominent films as the military comedy “ Forward ” (1951) , the romantic comedy “ How to Marry a Millionaire ” (1953), the psychiatric melodrama “ Three Faces of Eve ” (1957), the psychological drama “ The Last Angry Man ” (1959), and later in the science fiction film “ The Strain of Andromeda ” (1971) and in the romantic comedy The First Strip (1974) ^[5] . Howard da Silva is known for numerous notable supporting roles in films such as the military biopic Peak Sergeant York (1941) and the adventure drama Sea Wolf (1941), as well as the films Noir Lost Weekend (1945) and Blue Dahlia . (1946), “ They live at night ” (1948), “ Incident on the border ” (1949), “ Criminal history ” (1950) and “ Fourteen hours ” (1951) ^[6] . “M” and “Fourteen Hours” of Twentieth Century Fox Studios were Da Silva's last films before he was blacklisted and suspended from work in Hollywood. Since 1953, da Silva worked on stage, returning to the cinema only in 1963 ^[7] . Among his later films are the psychological drama David and Lisa (1962), Western Nevada Smith (1966) and the historical musical 1776 (1972) ^[6] . Martin Geybel is known for significant supporting roles in the film Noir Fourteen Hours (1951), The Criminal Strip in the US Press (1952), and The Thief (1952), and later on the mystical drama Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964 ), Western “ Once upon a time there was a trickster ” (1970) and the romantic comedy “ Front page ” (1974). In 1947, as a director, Geibel directed his only picture - the film noir “ Missed Moment ” (1947) ^[8] .

The film became a remake of the classic German film noir 1931, which was also called " M ". The film was also produced by Seymour Nebenzal , the script was written by Thea von Harbow , the director was Fritz Lang , and Peter Lorre played the main role ^[7] . While the first film took place in Berlin at the turn of the 1920s and 30s, in a remake of 1951, the action was moved to Los Angeles in the early 1950s ^{[4] [9]} .

Most of the film was filmed in lower Los Angeles in the Victorian quarter of Bunker Hill (now much remodeled), and also close to the funicular known as Angel Flight . But the most impressive full-scale shooting was carried out inside the Bradbury Building office complex (1893) in downtown Los Angeles, in the film you can see the basement, characteristic stairs and balconies, as well as the roof of the building. The remaining scenes were filmed in the Ocean Park area in Santa Monica ^[7] .

Overall rating of the film

After the film was released, Variety magazine gave him a generally positive assessment, noting that “the production of Losey skillfully presented this grim topic” ^[9] . Later, many historians compared the picture with the classic film " M " (1931). So, film historian Spencer Selby described the picture as “a faithful remake of the original masterpiece of German expressionism Fritz Lang ” ^[10] , and Michael Keeny generally agreed with him, pointing out that it was “a good remake of Lang’s superior film, in which Peter played the role of infanticide Lorre " ^[11] . Film critic Hal Erickson also noted that “director Losey needed a lot of courage to take on the remake of Fritz Lang’s classic horror film“ M, ”but he generally coped with this challenge” ^[4] .

TimeOut magazine drew attention to the fact that after the release of the movie, Losey inevitably underwent "humiliating comparisons with the most famous film of Lang." At the same time, according to the magazine, the main problem of the movie Losey was a weak ending. As the director himself admitted, "I myself could not believe in the idea that the whole criminal world could unite against a killer." In addition, as TimeOut recalls, in the final of his painting, Lang achieved a “double knockout” with a magnificent speech by Lorre, in which he turns the accusation against his accusers, giving rise to a complete revolution in the sympathy of the audience - it becomes clear that he is helpless in the fight against his illness, and, moreover, he himself is a victim of bullying. However, what was the strongest statement in Germany in the early 1930s, "Losey turned into a weak slap in the face." In general, the magazine continues, “the first part of Losey’s film is excellent, with a wonderful use of the nature of Los Angeles , presented as a strange and frightening concrete jungle, and the outstanding game of David Wayne , which is quite comparable to the game of Lorre” ^[12] .

Cinema expert Alan Silver drew attention to the fact that "the Losey film is an almost accurate remake of the Fritz Lang film, with the difference that the action is transferred to American soil," especially noting that "thanks to the skillful use of full-scale shooting, the film gained the atmosphere of the American film noir ." At the same time, according to Silver, the film has a number of problems related to the fact that “the type of criminal fraternity”, which in the film Lang reflected the real situation in Germany of his time, cannot be reliably transferred to American soil in the early 1950s . To the strengths of the film, Losey Silver attributed the scenes of the killer being alone in his apartment, thanks to which the viewer with greater anxiety than Lang feels the illness and the perverted nature of the offender, who receives sexual arousal from fun with children's shoelaces and a clay doll ^[13] .

Actor rating

Variety Magazine paid special attention to the strong acting in the film. According to the magazine, Wayne plays a strong and convincing role as a killer of young children. Luther Adler, in the role of a drunken gangster lawyer, gives an outstanding game, as does Martin Gabel in the role of a gangster leader, and Howard da Silva and Steve Brody in the roles of policemen ^[9] . Keeney also noted Wayne’s excellent play as a miserable pedophile , and Adler as Gabel’s alcoholic lawyer, who must defend the murderer before the court of his colleagues - thieves, thugs and racketeers. ^[11]

• Alain Silver (Editor), Elizabeth Ward (Editor). Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, Third Edition . - Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press, 1992 .-- ISBN 978-0-87951-479-2 .
• Spencer Selby. Dark City: The Film Noir . - Jeffeson, NC and London: McFarland & Co Inc, 1997 .-- ISBN 978-0-7864-0478-0 .
• Michael F. Keaney. Film Noir Guide: 745 Films of the Classic Era, 1940–1959 . - Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2010 .-- ISBN 978-0-7864-6366-4 .

• M on the IMDB website  
• M on the Allmovie website  
• M on the site of the American Film Institute
• M on Turner Classic Movies