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M (1931)

Directed by Fritz Lang · Cinematography by Fritz Arno Wagner

Passed99 min65 frames

DramaThrillerCrime

Who is the murderer?

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Stills, screencaps & shots from M

16 of 65 frames — the full set is searchable by lighting, lens, shot size, color and mood with a free account.

M (1931) movie still: medium — Three women in dark mourning clothes sit in a line against a plain wall. The subjects hold white tissues while…M (1931) movie still: medium — A dark urban environment with a street lamp pole visible in the background. An elderly man with glasses and a bowler…M (1931) movie still: wide — A long wooden bench faces the camera in a formal judicial setting. Five men sit in a row behind the desk with stacks of…M (1931) movie still: medium — A man stands in a dimly lit room with an indistinct textured background. The man in a coat and bowtie smiles slightly…M (1931) movie still: medium — A dark, cluttered space filled with wicker furniture and scattered debris. A man wearing a fedora stares intently…M (1931) movie still: wide — A cluttered shop interior viewed through a large multi-paned glass window at night. Several men stand at a counter…M (1931) movie still: wide — A smoke-filled 1940s conference room contains a large oval table with many seated men. The men sit around the table…M (1931) movie still: closeup — A close-up of a circular textured surface embedded within a flat board. Fine parallel grooves run across the…M (1931) movie still: medium — A crowded, dimly lit administrative room contains men in coats and period military helmets. A man sits at a wooden…M (1931) movie still: medium — An office with a large projection screen displaying a numbered fingerprint diagram. A man sits at a desk with a lamp…M (1931) movie still: closeup — A close-up view shows a hand in a black leather glove on a map. The map displays a grid of city streets with small…M (1931) movie still: medium — A dark outdoor space populated by thick tangled bushes and branches. A man wearing a fedora sits partially obscured…M (1931) movie still: medium — A dark indoor space features ornate patterned wallpaper and an antique dark wooden sideboard. Three large human…M (1931) movie still: wide — A wooden table is covered with a collection of personal belongings and jewelry items. Several antique watches,…M (1931) movie still: wide — A modernist concrete entrance structure features a sign reading LANGSAM FAHREN over the passage. A solitary older man…M (1931) movie still: closeup — A man stands in front of a dark, textured brick wall at night. He is reacting to something unseen while holding his…
M (1931) — © Nero-Film AG

M — official trailer

What is M about?

In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert, a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellant and disruptive to city life that he is even targeted by others in the seedy underworld network. With both cops and criminals in pursuit, the murderer soon realizes that people are on his trail, sending him into a tense, panicked attempt to escape justice.

M is a 1931 German mystery thriller film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert, a serial killer who targets children, in his third screen role. Both Lang's first sound film and an early example of a procedural drama, M centres on the efforts of both a city's police force and its criminal syndicates to apprehend a serial child-murderer.

Second paragraph from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Where can you watch M?

US availability for M (1931). Data by JustWatch, listings on TMDB. Availability changes — check the provider for current listings.

Who stars in M?

Who made M?

What does the cinematography of M look like?

Across 65 sampled frames, M builds its coverage from medium shots (45% of the sample), with wide compositions (18%) carrying much of the rest. Cinematographer Fritz Arno Wagner keeps 48% of it in hard-edged, low-key light. 58% of the frames play at night or in the failing light of dusk. Vintage glass shapes the frame. Deep focus keeps foreground and background readable at once in 62% of the frames. The production design places the film in the 1940s.

What is the color palette of M?

The dominant colors across the sampled frames of M (1931) are #8e8e8e, #d0d0d0, #2d2d2d, #060606, #4e4e4e, #afafaf — measured from the per-frame color data FrameThrower extracts for every film.

  • #8e8e8e
  • #d0d0d0
  • #2d2d2d
  • #060606
  • #4e4e4e
  • #afafaf

See the full M colour palette — every hex with its share, plus warmth, saturation and luminance.

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Techniques in this film

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