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In the penultimate scene of Fritz Lang’s M (1931), mentally-disturbed child murderer Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) falls to his knees before a kangaroo court and cries out, “I have to roam the streets endlessly, always sensing that someone’s following me. It’s me! I’m shadowing myself!”
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Hans Beckert is the main protagonist of the 1931 mystery thriller film M. He is a serial killer who preys on children, primarily girls, creating general panic and causing both the police and organized crime to come after him. Hans is also known for whistling the tune of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" throughout the film
In the original film, he was portrayed by the late Peter Lorre, who also played Le Chiffre in the 1954 television adaptation of the James Bond novel Casino Royale, Signor Ugarte in Casablanca, and Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon. In the 1951 American remake of the movie, the villain's name was changed to Martin W. Harrow, portrayed by the late David Wayne, who also portrayed The Mad Hatter in the 1960s Batman TV series.
In the film's first scenes, Hans is seen luring Elsie Beckmann, a little girl, with a balloon and is later confirmed to have killed her offscreen. Later, police investigations are shown establishing that there is a serial child murderer on the prowl, Elsie being the ninth victim. A local crime syndicate is also looking for the killer since his crime spree has led to more police patrolling the streets, which is bad for "business". One criminal identifies Hans as the killer with some help from the balloon salesman from the beginning, and marks his jacket with the letter "M" so his associates can track him.
The criminals capture Hans and bring him before a "kangaroo court" presided by a criminal panel, expecting to lynch him regardless of the outcome. Hans claims he cannot control his homicidal urges, that he is compelled to commit his terrible crimes, for which he feels great remorse, by "the fire, the voices, the torment" raging in his mind. He then claims that the other criminals have no right to judge him because they are criminals by choice, while he cannot control himself. The criminals are unmoved by his pleas and swarm him as he tries to escape. However, the police arrive just in time and arrest everyone in the room.
•The reward for capturing him according to a paper was of 10000 marks, or 6210.66 dollars.
•Hans used a red pencil for his letter to the press.
•According to director Fritz Lang in a 1963 interview, he based Beckert on many real German serial killers, including Fritz Haarmann, Carl Großmann (both of whom are mentioned in the film), Peter Kürten, and Karl Denke.
•Before this role, Peter Lorre had mainly been a comedic actor. Though he was thrilled to play such a major part, Peter Lorre came to hate it later as people tended to associate him with being a child murderer.
M is a 1931 German mystery thriller film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre in his third screen role as Hans Beckert, a serial killer who targets children. Both Lang's first sound film and an early example of a procedural drama, [2] M centers on the manhunt for Beckert conducted by both the police and organized crime. [3]
Nov 24, 2020 · In its study of a sadistic murderer named Hans Beckert, (Peter Lorre), on the loose, M takes Lang’s global despair over a dark fate he cannot control and transfers it to a smaller scale. Lang...
Sep 5, 2014 · Likewise, by having both the Berlin police force and the city’s criminal underworld pursue Beckert, the film not only hints at the somewhat murky moral status of the world the culprit inhabits but points to the hypocrisy and hysteria that may turn righteous anger into an uncontrollable witchhunt.
Sep 9, 2022 · Long before Hannibal Lecter, Patrick Bateman, and Norman Bates, there was Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre in his breakout role), the child murderer at the heart of Fritz Lang's landmark 1931 German...
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Apr 6, 2016 · In The Hall Of The Mountain King: Sound in M. M tells the story of child murderer, Hans Beckert’s (Peter Lorre), reign of terror in 1930’s Berlin. Hysteria and panic sets in with each passing day that Beckert remains at large.
