Editing M (1931 film) (section)

== Plot ==
In [[Berlin]],<ref>While the location is never mentioned in the film, the dialect used by the characters is characteristic of Berliners, and a police inspector's map labeled "Berlin" and a policeman's order to take suspects to the "Alex", Berlin's central police headquarters on the [[Alexanderplatz]], make the venue clear.</ref> a group of children are playing an [[Counting-out game|elimination game]] in the courtyard of an apartment building using a macabre chant about a child-killer. Frau Beckmann sets the table for lunch, waiting for her daughter Elsie to come home from school. A [[wanted poster]] warns of a serial killer preying on children, as anxious parents wait outside a school.

Elsie leaves school, bouncing a ball on her way home. She is approached by Hans Beckert,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/fritz-langs-m-blueprint-serial-killer-movie |title=Fritz Lang's M: the Blueprint for the Serial Killer Movie |date=5 September 2014 |publisher=bfi.org.uk}}</ref> who is whistling "[[In the Hall of the Mountain King]]" by [[Edvard Grieg]]. He offers to buy her a balloon from a blind street vendor, and walks and talks with her. Elsie's place at the table remains empty, her ball rolls away through a patch of grass, and her balloon gets briefly caught in the telephone lines overhead before blowing away in the wind.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/fritz-langs-m-blueprint-serial-killer-movie |title=Fritz Lang's M: the Blueprint for the Serial Killer Movie |publisher=bfi.org.uk |date=5 December 2016 |access-date=16 May 2017}}</ref>

In the wake of Elsie's disappearance, anxiety runs high among the public. Beckert sends an anonymous letter to the newspapers taking credit for the child murders and promising that he will commit others; the police extract clues from the letter using the new techniques of [[Fingerprint#Fingerprint identification|fingerprinting]] and [[Graphology|handwriting analysis]]. Under mounting pressure from the government, the police work around the clock. Inspector Karl Lohmann, head of the homicide squad, instructs his men to intensify their search and to check the records of recently released psychiatric patients, focusing on any with a history of violence against children. They stage frequent raids in seedier parts of the city to question known criminals, disrupting organized crime so badly that {{lang|de|Der Schränker}} ("The Safecracker") summons the bosses of Berlin's ''[[Ringvereine]]'' to a conference to address the situation. They decide to organize their own manhunt, assigning beggars to watch the children.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/sep/04/m-review-fritz-lang |title=M review – Fritz Lang's superb thriller fascinates |first=Peter |last=Bradshaw |date=4 September 2014 |website=The Guardian}}</ref> The police search Beckert's rented room, find evidence there connecting him to both the letter and a past crime scene, and lie in wait to arrest him.<ref name="auto">''Monsters of Weimar'' p. 297</ref>

Beckert sees a young girl in the reflection of a shop window and begins to follow her, but stops when the girl meets her mother. He encounters another girl and befriends her, but the blind balloon vendor recognizes his whistling. The vendor alerts one of his friends, who follows Beckert and sees him inside a shop with the girl. As the two exit onto the street, the man chalks the letter "M" (for {{lang|de|Mörder}}, "murderer") onto his palm, pretends to trip, and bumps into Beckert, marking the back of his overcoat with the letter.<ref name="auto"/>  The girl notices the chalk and offers to clean it for him, but before she finishes, Beckert realizes he is being watched and flees without her.

Attempting to evade the beggars, Beckert hides inside a large office building just before the workers leave for the evening. The beggars call {{lang|de|Der Schränker}}, who arrives at the building with a team of other criminals. They capture and torture one of the watchmen for information and, after capturing the other two, search the building and catch Beckert in the attic. When one of the watchmen trips the silent alarm, the criminals narrowly escape with their prisoner before the police arrive. Franz, one of the criminals, is left behind in the confusion and captured by the police. By falsely claiming that one of the watchmen was killed during the break-in, Lohmann tricks Franz into admitting that the gang's only motive was to find Beckert and revealing their plans for him.

The criminals take Beckert to an abandoned distillery to face a [[kangaroo court]]. He finds a large, silent crowd awaiting him. Beckert is given a "lawyer" who gamely argues in his defense but fails to win any sympathy from the improvised jury. Beckert delivers an impassioned monologue, saying that he cannot control his homicidal urges, while the other criminals present break the law by choice. He questions why they believe they have any right to judge him:

<blockquote>
What right have you to speak? Criminals! Perhaps you are even proud of yourselves! Proud of being able to crack into safes, or climb into buildings or cheat at cards. All of which, it seems to me, you could just as easily give up, if you had learned something useful, or if you had jobs, or if you were not such lazy pigs. I can not help myself! I have no control over this evil thing that is inside me—the fire, the voices, the torment!<ref>{{cite web |title=M (1931) |url=http://www.classicartfilms.com/m-1931 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312055844/http://www.classicartfilms.com/m-1931 |archive-date=12 March 2017 |access-date=10 March 2017 |publisher=classicartfilms.com}}</ref><ref>''Monsters of Weimar'' p. 298</ref>
</blockquote>

Beckert pleads to be handed over to the police. His "lawyer" points out that {{lang|de|Der Schränker}}, presiding over the proceedings, is wanted on three counts of manslaughter, and that it is unjust to execute an insane man. Just as the mob is about to kill Beckert, the police arrive to arrest both him and the criminals.

As a panel of judges prepares to deliver their verdict at Beckert's trial, the mothers of three of his victims weep in the gallery. Frau Beckmann says that "no sentence will bring the dead children back" and "one has to keep closer watch over the children". The screen fades to black as she adds, "All of you".<ref>{{cite book |author=Garnham, Nicholas |title=M: a film by Fritz Lang |publisher=New York: Simon and Schuster |year=1968 |isbn=978-0900855184 |pages=15–108}}</ref>