1001 Club - M (1931)

#63. M (1931)

Why It's In The Book: "In the early 1930s, MGM’s production genius Irving Thalberg assembled all his writers and directors for a screening of Fritz Lang’s German thriller M, then criticized them en masse for not making films as innovative, exciting, profound, and commercial as this…
M is an unusual piece of storytelling, presenting a series of montage-like scenes (often with voice-over narration, a new device) that add up to a portrait of a German city in terror." -1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Member Ratings

Chip Lary - 10/10
"M isn’t just some dusty, dated film that is only watched now because of its place in history. It is every bit as relevant and chilling today as it was back when it first came out more than eighty years ago."
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Klaus Ming - 10/10
"arguably relevant in both film and philosophical discussions, providing important social commentary in the form of brilliant cinema."
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Michaël Parent - 10/10
"...Lang made a name of himself by directing some of the most influential films of all-time with his Metropolis, Spione, Dr. Mabuse, Die Nibelungen, and M amongst many others."
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TSorensen - 10/10
"Among the 100 first movies on the list this is my favorite. On any scale it is a top ranker."
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Adolytsi - 9/10
"A harrowing achievement from Fritz Lang, and one that he considered his masterwork. Justly so."
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Nicolas Krizan - 9/10 
"manages to evoke both creeping fear, strong disgust and finally even a kind of desperate sympathy"
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Siochembio - 9/10
"You won’t ever hear Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” the same way again."
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Squish - 9/10 
"the questions of privacy, Justice versus The Greater Good and punishment for the insane are all approached in Lang's script without any sort of preached excuses or spiteful condemnation."
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Movie Guy Steve - 9/10 
"Few filmmakers today have the guts to make a film like M today; that Lang had the guts 80 years ago deserves some respect."
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Kim Wilson - 7/10
"A must-see on many levels: cinematic, societal, and historical."
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Overall Rating: 9.2/10