Editing M (1931 film) (section)

== Production ==
Lang placed an advertisement in a newspaper in 1930 stating that his next film would be {{lang|de|Mörder unter uns}} (''Murderer Among Us'') and that it was about a child murderer. He immediately began receiving threatening letters in the mail and was also denied a studio space to shoot the film at the [[Staaken Studios]]. When Lang confronted the head of Staaken Studio to find out why he was being denied access, the studio head informed Lang that he was a member of the [[Nazi party]] and that the party suspected that the film was meant to depict the Nazis.<ref>Jensen, Paul M. ''The Cinema of Fritz Lang''. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. 1969. {{ISBN|978-0498074158}}. p. 93</ref> This assumption was based entirely on the film's original title and the Nazi party relented when told the plot.<ref>Wakeman, John. ''World Film Directors'', Volume 1. New York: H.W. Wilson Company. 1987. {{ISBN|0824207572}}. p. 614.</ref>

''M'' was eventually shot in six weeks at a ''Staaken Zeppelinhalle'' studio, just outside Berlin. Lang made the film for [[Nero-Film]], rather than with [[Universum Film AG|UFA]] or his own production company. It was produced by Nero studio head [[Seymour Nebenzal]] who later produced Lang's ''The Testament of Dr. Mabuse''. Working titles for the film included {{lang|de|Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder}} (''A City Searches for a Murderer'') and {{lang|de|Dein Mörder sieht Dich an}} (''Your Murderer Looks at You'').<ref>Jensen. p. 93</ref> While researching for the film, Lang spent eight days inside a mental institution in Germany and met several child murderers, including [[Peter Kürten]]. He used several real criminals as extras in the film and eventually 25 cast members were arrested during the film's shooting.<ref name="Jensen. p. 94">Jensen. p. 94.</ref> Peter Lorre was cast in the lead role of Hans Beckert, acting for the film during the day and appearing on stage in [[Valentine Katayev]]'s ''Squaring the Circle'' at night.<ref name="Jensen. p. 93">Jensen. p. 93.</ref>

Lang did not show any acts of violence or deaths of children on screen and later said that by only suggesting violence, he forced "each individual member of the audience to create the gruesome details of the murder according to their personal imagination".<ref name="Wakeman. p. 615">Wakeman. p. 615.</ref>

[[File:LangM.jpg|thumb|Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert, gazing into a shop window. Lang used glass and reflections throughout the film for expressive purposes.]]
''M'' has been said, by various critics and reviewers, to be based on serial killer [[Peter Kürten]]—the "Vampire of [[Düsseldorf]]"—whose crimes took place in the 1920s.<ref name="Crime Library">{{cite news |last = Ramsland |first = Katherine |author-link = Katherine Ramsland |title = Court TV Crime Library Serial Killers Movies |publisher = [[Crime Library]] |url = http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/serial_killer_movies/8.html |access-date = 28 October 2006 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061103193626/http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/serial_killer_movies/8.html |archive-date = 3 November 2006 |df = dmy-all }}</ref><ref name="Gary Morris">{{cite web |last = Morris |first = Gary |title = A Textbook Classic Restored to Perfection |publisher = Bright Lights |url = http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/29/m.html |archive-url = https://archive.today/20130102073457/http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/29/m.html |url-status = dead |archive-date = 2 January 2013 |access-date = 12 January 2007 }}</ref> Lang denied that he drew from this case in an interview in 1963 with film historian Gero Gandert: "At the time I decided to use the subject matter of ''M'', there were many serial killers terrorizing Germany—[[Fritz Haarmann|Haarmann]], [[Carl Großmann|Grossmann]], Kürten, [[Karl Denke|Denke]], [...]".<ref>"Fritz Lang on ''M'': An Interview", in ''Fritz Lang:'' M'' – Protokoll'', Marion von Schröder Verlag, Hamburg 1963, reprinted in the Criterion Collection booklet.</ref><ref>''Monsters of Weimar'' p. 293</ref> Inspector Karl Lohmann is based on [[Ernst Gennat]], then director of the Berlin criminal police.<ref>Kempe,
Frank: [https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/kriminalist-ernst-gennat-buddha-vom-alexanderplatz.932.de.html?dram:article_id=295121 ''“Buddha vom Alexanderplatz“''], [[Deutschlandfunk Kultur]], 21 August 2014 (in German).</ref>

Lang's depiction of the Berlin underworld in the film was inspired by the real ''Ringvereine''.<ref name="Lee p.18">Lee p.18</ref> The film's portrayal of the ''Ringvereine'' as organized with a board of directors that were dominated by a charismatic master criminal was based on reality.<ref name="Lee p.18"/> Likewise, the practice of the ''Ringvereine'' shown in the film of providing financial support for the families of imprisoned members was also based on reality.<ref name="Lee p.18"/> The break-in of an office building depicted in the film was inspired by the real life 1929 break-in of the Disconto Bank in Berlin by the Sass brothers gang, though unlike in the film the objective was [[larceny]], not to capture a serial killer.<ref name="Lee p.18"/> The ''Ringvereine'', which were officially wrestling associations that existed for the physical betterment of German men, always sought to promote a very 'respectable', almost middle-class image of themselves.<ref>Schulte-Bockholt p.23</ref> Like the Mafia, the ''Ringvereine'' paradoxically portrayed themselves as the guardians of society's values, who upheld a certain social order. The image the ''Ringvereine'' sought to project was as "professionals" whose crimes did not harm ordinary people.<ref name="Kaes, Dimendberg, Jay p.719">Kaes, Dimendberg, Jay p.719</ref> Though the ''Ringvereine'' were known to be gangsters, their hierarchal structure and strict discipline led to a certain popular admiration for them as a force for social order unlike the psychopathic serial killers who murdered random strangers for reasons that often seemed unfathomable, sparking widespread fear and dread.<ref name="Kaes, Dimendberg, Jay p.719"/> In an article originally published in ''Die Filmwoche'', Lang wrote that the crime scene in Germany was "such compelling cinematic material that I lived in constant fear that someone else would exploit this idea before me".<ref>{{cite news |last=Lang |first=Fritz |url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1457-my-film-m-a-factual-report |title=My Film M: A Factual Report |work=[[The Criterion Collection]] |date=25 May 2012 |access-date=11 May 2021}}</ref>

The [[Weimar Republic]] was marked by intense debates about the morality and efficiency of capital punishment, with the political left arguing that the death penalty was barbaric while the right-wing argued that the death penalty was needed to maintain law and order.<ref name="Kaes, Dimendberg, Jay p.719"/> Adding to the debate was popular interest in the new science of psychiatry, with many psychiatrists arguing that crime was caused by damaged minds and emotions which could be cured.<ref name="Kaes, Dimendberg, Jay p.719"/> In the background was a popular obsessive fear of crime and social breakdown, which was fed by sensationalist newspaper coverage of crime.<ref name="Kaes, Dimendberg, Jay p.719"/> In addition, for many conservative Germans, the Weimar republic was itself born of crime, namely the [[German Revolution of 1918–1919|November Revolution of 1918]] which began with the [[Kiel mutiny#Wilhelmshaven mutiny|High Seas Fleet mutiny]]. According to this viewpoint, its origins in mutiny and revolution made the Weimar Republic an illegitimate state that could not maintain social order.<ref name="Kaes, Dimendberg, Jay p.719"/> Lang followed these debates closely and incorporated them into several of his Weimar-era films. The debate at Beckert's "trial" about whether he deserved to be killed or not paralleled the contemporary debates about capital punishment in Germany.<ref name="Flipscreeen">{{cite news |title=The Uncomfortable Justice of Fritz Lang's 'M' |url=https://flipscreened.com/2020/11/18/the-uncomfortable-justice-of-fritz-langs-m-1931/ |access-date=2 November 2021 |publisher=Flipscreen |date=18 November 2020}}</ref> The fact that ''Der Schränker'', a career criminal, serves as both the prosecutor and judge at the kangaroo court, egging on the mob of criminals to kill Beckert, seems to suggest that Lang's sympathy was with the abolitionists.<ref name="Flipscreeen"/> The arguments that ''Der Schränker'' makes at the kangaroo court, namely that certain people are so evil that they deserved to be killed for the good of society, was precisely the same argument made by supporters of the death penalty.

The incorporation of social issues in the film can be seen through the lens of Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s ''Monster Culture (Seven Theses)''. The first of these theses states that “The monster is born only at this metaphoric crossroads, as an embodiment of a certain cultural moment—of a time, a feeling, and a place.”<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctttsq4d |title=Monster Theory: Reading Culture |date=1996 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-2854-4 |edition=NED - New |doi=10.5749/j.ctttsq4d.4|jstor=10.5749/j.ctttsq4d }}</ref> Beckert, as the "monster" in this film, embodies the cultural moment, reflecting Weimar society's interest in morality and criminality.

=== Use of sound ===
''M'' was Lang's first sound film, and he experimented with the new technology.<ref name="Jensen. p. 95">Jensen. p. 95.</ref> It has a dense and complex soundtrack, as opposed to the more theatrical "talkies" being released at the time. The soundtrack includes a narrator, sounds occurring off-camera, sounds motivating action and suspenseful moments of silence before sudden noise. Lang was also able to make fewer cuts in the film's editing, since sound effects could now be used to inform the narrative.<ref>Jensen. p. 103.</ref> The film was one of the first to use a ''[[leitmotif]]'', a technique borrowed from [[opera]]; it associates a melody with Lorre's character, who whistles "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Edvard Grieg's ''[[Peer Gynt (Grieg)|Peer Gynt]]''. Later in the film, the mere sound of the song lets the audience know that he is nearby. This association of a musical theme with a particular character or situation is now a film staple.<ref name="Leitmotif">{{cite web |last = Costantini |first = Gustavo |title = Leitmotif revisited |publisher = Filmsound |url = http://www.filmsound.org/gustavo/leitmotif-revisted.htm |access-date = 10 May 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060421054317/http://www.filmsound.org/gustavo/leitmotif-revisted.htm |archive-date = 21 April 2006 |url-status = dead }}</ref> As Lorre could not whistle, Lang himself dubbed Beckert's whistling.<ref name="Falkenberg Classroom Tapes">{{cite web |last = Falkenberg |first = Paul |title = Classroom Tapes – M |publisher = The Criterion Collection |year = 2004 |url = http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=30&section=review&rid=325 |access-date = 8 August 2007 |archive-date = 29 September 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070929122819/http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=30&section=review&rid=325 |url-status = dead }}</ref>