(M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder, Fritz Lang, Germany 1931, 99 min., 35mm, German with English subtitles)
In director Fritz Lang’s first sound film, a series of child murders in an unnamed German city causes the police to mistakenly crack down on the criminal underworld. To protect its business, the mob undertakes its own investigation to catch the real culprit. Peter Lorre, in his breakthrough role, plays the driven and surprisingly sympathetic killer. Lang brings many of his silent film techniques to this early sound film and the sparse use of sound is used to perfection, alternating silence with the ominous whistling of Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” that heralds the killer’s arrival.
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