One of the first movies to use sound!

Today is time for a German movie released in 1931, a black and white thriller. I'm sure you already know what I am talking about.

M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder, known just as M, one of the first movies to use sound so as to include other innovations never seen before. It's directed by Fritz Lang.

This movie is partially based on real events, on the case of Peter Kürten, a serial killer who killed several kids in the German city of Düsseldorf.

So as you can guess it's about the manhunt of this child predator.

It's well recognisded as a masterpiece of cinema, and sure it is, because there were no basis on which to act, there weren't even thrillers to take as an example or movies with sound at all. The main highlight that I would emphasize is the use of the leitmotif, a short musical phrase which is associated to the character played by Peter Lorre, yes, the man who knows too much.

The story is entertaining, it has a good plot, more or less predictable, but it is what it has to be. The pacing is alright, a bit slow, the movie manages to be engaging just at parts, there are others which are a bit derivative (under my perspective), about the use of the sound there is nothing to blame, and the leitmotif rocks.

Against the final part of this movie we see a big moral dilemma confronted with the power of legal laws. The third act for me is the best one, since it shows this strong and difficult debate of what to do with this rapist/killer of children, you probably know the alternatives that were taken into account. I don't really know which is the best one, probably the legal way, but the only thing that I'm sure about is how great is the need of the population to have laws and police that can control, in a certain way, our behaviours. This moral dilemma is never easy, anyway, if we only acted guiden by our instict, things would surely end in the most chaotic way possible.

To conclude, I have to say that I was a bit bored at parts, I mean I'm not blaming this early piece, but if you want to be objective by understanding cinema as a form of entertainment, it isn't the best choice to take, I guess, but it's surely one of the best choices to dig into the history of cinema, mainly to see the early pieces which worked as a basis for all the content that we consume today.

Give it a check if you are curious about how this thriller ends, would they choose the rational option or the impulsive and natural one?