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.
"Who is the murderer?"
Top Billed Cast
Peter Lorre
Hans Beckert
Ellen Widmann
Frau Beckmann
Inge Landgut
Elsie Beckmann
Otto Wernicke
Inspector Karl Lohmann
Theodor Loos
Inspector Groeber
Gustaf Gründgens
Schränker
Friedrich Gnaß
Franz
Fritz Odemar
The Cheater
Detailed Critic & Audience Reviews
W WiccaburrVerified TMDB Critic
2020-10-07
The movie is classic and yet this is my first time watching this.
Peter Lorre alone is worth seeing this movie as he always played such the great villain. No music keeps your focus on the image and dialogue throughout the movie. Camera work looks pretty awesome especially when they start doing the manhunt.
This movie clocks in at almost two hours so there will be a lot of pacing and dialogue to go through. It will feel a bit dragging when Lorre isn't on the screen but it is well worth going through the film to see how it all plays out....
B badelfVerified TMDB Critic
2023-05-31
So you say you want to enroll in film school? Don't bother. Just watch Fritz Lang's M and Metropolis....
J JamesVerified TMDB Critic
2023-10-20
Random person: Nobody knows him (The murderer). Woman who lives with the murderer: Am I a joke to you?...
J JamesVerified TMDB Critic
2023-10-20
Stone cold classic. Certainly one of the best time films about orange peels being littered....
F Filipe Manuel NetoVerified TMDB Critic
2023-10-28
**One of the masterpieces of classic German cinema.**
There isn't much that can be said about this film that almost everyone hasn't already said or written. It is one of the great films of German cinema, one of the best productions that were made before the Second World War and one of the best films in the career of the renowned director Fritz Lang, who shortly afterward would leave Germany due to the rise of Nazism, refusing to deal with that political regime.
The film is inspired by real events, namely the murderous path of Peter Kürten, the “Vampire of Düsseldorf”, who terrorize...
