This was a highly anticipated movie for me, I wanted to watch this for years. Today I finally got to it.
It's a crime movie from 1931 Germany. Since it's still well known made me curious and assured me it wouldn't be that bad a movie. After watching it I was blown away.
It's about a city that is haunted by a serial killer who targets little girls. Police and gangsters all try to catch him but can they? That is the question.
This is really a masterpiece. Shot in 1931 but using techniques that are still used to this day, as far as I know inventing them or being the first to use them. For example voice over was invented by Fritz Lang and his crew. They also take great use of editing, probably the best editing in a movie of that time I've ever seen. There is one outstanding scene in which gangsterbosses are meeting up at the same time the police forces are having a discussion. So we get cuts from one meetup to the next and back, almost as if they were on the same table. This is used perfectly to tighten up the movie, any other director would probably just have 2 discussions at different times in the movie, but this is so much better.
Also even though this is a sad movie with a horrible subject (child murders), they still have funny comedy parts in it.
In some scenes Lang actually produced silent footagd instead of sound as in most parts which feels kind of off at first but still gets you into an eerie mood.
Also something that still isn't used that much is the fact that from the beginning on we know who the killer is. We see his shadow very early and hear him talking to a girl, then we see him from the back wearing a trenchcode and shortly after we see him in full, doing faces into the mirror.
The actor of course is Peter Lorre who does a great job. To be honest he is a creepy looking dude to begin with and his voice isn't what I would call nice to hear. But that makes him so much more fitting to the role. Also his final monologue, telling why he does this all is very good, great acting.
Another great shot I want to mention is when the group of beggers found the killer we have a long scene of them following him silently, sometimes filled with jokes but as he gets more aware what is happening the scene gets more and more serious and even a little scary. I really loved that scene.
Also we get a camera zooming in through a window.
I'm going to tackle a spoiler subject now, if you haven't seen the movie and you liked this review go watch it and come back for the last segment ;) I give it 5 out of 5 stars and a like. This is a masterpiece.
SPOILERS AHEAD
This movie tackles many important subjects, still present to this day. First the people all being anxious because everybody could be the killer. But what I want to talk about is the ending. Peter Lorre is caught by the gangsters and they are giving him a "fair" trial, if he loses it, he is sentenced to death. And then he gives a speach. He isn't killing out of fun. He is mentally ill and voices in his head tell him to kill the girls. So he wants to be spared.
The gangsters who are also the judges say he has to be killed anyway, that he could flee from mental institutions.
So the questions asked are "death sentence yes or no?" and "what about the mentally ill?". Two questions that are asked to this day. I won't give my opinion because it doesn't matter in a movie review, but it's worth giving these questions a thought. The movie ends with the police arriving, saving him and he gets a trial. In a last shot we see a grieving mother saying "This won't bring back our daughters." The end.
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