M (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] Starring Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Gustaf Gründgens, et al. (2010)

Fritz Lang's classic early talkie crime melodrama is set in 1931 Berlin. The police are anxious to capture an elusive child murderer (Peter Lorre), and they begin rounding up every criminal in town. The underworld leaders decide to take the heat off their activities by catching the child killer themselves. Once the killer is fingered, he is marked with the letter "M" chalked on his back. He is tracked down and captured by the combined forces of the Berlin criminal community, who put him on trial for his life in a kangaroo court. The killer pleads for mercy, whining that he can't control his homicidal instincts. The police close in and rescue the killer from the underworld so that he can stand trial again in "respectable" circumstances. Some prints of the film end with a caution to the audience to watch after their children more carefully. Filmed in Germany, M was the film that solidified Fritz Lang's reputation with American audiences, and it also made a star out of Peter Lorre (previously a specialist in comedy roles!). M was remade by Hollywood in 1951, with David Wayne giving a serviceable performance as the killer.
Condition:NEW. Brand New Factory Sealed

Product Details

UPC: 715515057714
Source: CRITERION
Region Code: A
Presentation: B&W, Wide Screen
Editions: Subtitled
Time: 1:50:00

Features:
Audio commentary by german film scholars Anton Kaes and Eric Rentschler; The long-lost english-language version of m, from a nitrate print preserved by the british film institute; Conversation with Fritz-lang, a 50-minute film by William Friendkin; Claude Chabrol's M Le Mandit, a short film inspired by William Friedkin; Claude Chabrol's M Le Mandit, a short film inspired by M, plus a video interview with Chabrol about Lang's filmmaking techniques; Video interview with Harold Nebenzal, son of M producer Seymour Nebenzal; Classroom audiotapes of M editor Paul Falkenberg discussing the film and its history, set to clips from the movie; Documentary on physical history of M, from production to distribution to digital restoration; Gallery of behind-the-scenes photographs and production sketches; Plus: a booklet featuring as essay by film critic Stanley Kauffman, the script for a missing scene, three contemporaneous newspaper articles, and a 1963 interview with Lang