A little girl disappears on her way home from school, the latest in a series of child murders that have tormented Berlin. Feeling the heat from a frantic public, the police initiate a major crackdown on the underworld whose members, both hurting from having their pockets lightened and stirred by their consciences, initiate a citywide manhunt in coordination with the authorities. Born in the tenuous and ever shifting film world circa 1930, Fritz Lang's first foray into talking pictures is nothing short of remarkable. With its brilliant use of light and shadows and an involving socially conscious procedural screenplay meshed with a top-end use of sound all centered on a haunting but not altogether inhuman portrayal by Peter Lorre, M is a dark and thoughtful precursor to film noir.
