M (The Criterion Collection)
Peter Lorre made film history with his startling performance as a psychotic murderer of children. Too elusive for the Berlin police, the killer is sought and marked by underworld criminals who are feeling the official fallout for his crimes. This riveting, 1931 German drama by Fritz Lang--an early talkie--unfolds against a breathtakingly expressionistic backdrop of shadows and clutter, an atmosphere of predestination that seems to be closing in on Lorre's terrified villain.Mis an important piece of cinema's past along with a number of Lang's early German works, includingMetropolisandSpies. (Lang eventually brought his influence directly to the American cinema in such films asFury,They Clash by Night, andThe Big Heat.)Mshouldn't be missed. This original 111-minute version is a little different from what most people have seen in theaters.--Tom Keogh