Psycho The Murder By Bernard Beckmann Analysis

As he reaches the top of the long narrow stairs, he is suddenly faced with a microphone. With a nervous look and sweaty palms, he slowly makes his way to the mic then stops. The microphone is black and cold to touch. Then he looks up to find that he is in front of hundreds of people watching him like a hawk. For two or three minutes, he focuses on the large patient crowd who are anxious to listen to him. Before he begins, he suddenly realizes that he is in front of thousands of people instead of hundreds. His eyes widen as the butterflies in his stomach begin to swirl madly in a circle. Eventually he starts to talk. “Hello everyone” pause “I w-w-w-would” pause “would like to, um, I w-would like to introduce myself. My name, name is Alex”. For

Alex, his use of silence was awkward and unintentional, but in the movie M by Fritz Lang, Fritz uses silence towards his advantage. While some may argue that Fritz Lang use of silence and sound was a disadvantage in his movie, I will analyze how Fritz Lang use of silence and sound throughout the movie M was used towards his advantage with symbolism.
The classic German film opens up with a church bell and a chant from a little kid. The screen is black as the little kid begins to chant, but then the screen fades to a bird’s eye view of group of kids in a circle and a little girl in the middle. The little girl chants “Just you wait a little while, the nasty man in black will come, with his little chopper, he will chop you up!”(). The little girl’s chant describes the serial killer, Beckert, who was preying on little girls. In this scene, Lang uses the church bell as a symbol of something bad to come and he uses the little girl’s chant to portray the randomness and the fear of what was happening in the city at this time.
The next scene starts with a lady carrying a basket of clothes to a door. The lady rings the bell and Elsie Beckmann’s mother answers the door. When Mrs. Beckmann hears the bell, what she did not know was that bell was a warning that something bad was about to happen. The lady begins to complain about the children chanting but Mrs. Beckmann says “if they’re singing, at least we know they’re okay”(). This quote is ironic because at the time, Mrs. Beckmann is not worried about her daughter and believes that she is safe, but she will soon realize that her daughter is in great danger.
As she goes back to cleaning clothes, her clock also warns her as it hits twelve o’clock. With its whistling and cooing, the clock is screaming to Mrs. Beckmann that something bad is coming and is coming soon. As the clock is whistling and cooing, a school bell progressively becomes louder and louder. The scene then fades from Mrs. Beckmann’s kitchen to the outside of a school. The school bell is now warning the parents and students that something bad is to come. If the school bells were not enough warning, car horns honk in the background as the school bells continue to ring. As the school bells try to warn Mrs. Beckmann of what is to come, her little girl is being warned by the sound of multiple car horns honking at her that something terrible is about to happen to her.
The scene switches back to Mrs.

Beckmann getting the kitchen ready then back again to her little girl trying to get home. Her daughter, Elsie Beckmann, is now bouncing a ball down a sidewalk. As the ball bounces, it makes a noise to a beat similar to the song “Psycho The Murder” by Bernard Herrmann. The song “Psycho The Murder” by Bernard Herrmann is a fast paced song that sounds like someone is stabbing something, therefore when Elsie bounces here ball it is a warning that she is the next victim. Elise then proceeds to bounce the ball on a wanted sign and a shadow of a man appears on the wanted sign. He whispers “What a pretty ball!”(). By referring to the ball, he shows the audience that he is the murder because the ball was conveying a stabbing sound and the man liked the

ball.
The scene suddenly changes to Elsie and the man buying a balloon for Elsie from a blind man. As the man purchases the balloon, he whistles the tune “In the Hall of the Mountain King”. The scene again quickly switches back to Mrs. Beckmann cooking in her kitchen. The door bell rings again which warns her that something seriously bad is about to happen. As she opens the door, she realizes that it is Mr. Gehrke, the mailman. She asks him if he as seen Elsie. He responded “Didn’t she just come up the stairs?”(). When he said this, he meant the physical stairs, but it can also be taken as the stairway to heaven, because Elise is being murdered as they speak. Therefore, Elise would have just come up the stairs to heaven. As they continue their conversation Mr. Gehrke also says “She won’t be long now. Good Bye, Mrs. Beckmann”(). As he says this, it can be taken as Elise’s good bye to her mother because again Elise is dying during this scene. Mrs. Beckmann starts to call Elise’s name once Mr. Gehrke leaves. Every time she says “Elise?”(), a painful silence is returned to her. This conveys that Elise has passed away at this time.
The scene suddenly becomes pitch black.

All you can hear is “Extra! Extra! Extra!”(). Then suddenly you see people handing out newspaper and people huddled around a man with newspapers. The extra being repeated multiple times in a loud shouting voice is there to grab everyone’s attention. Every time someone said extra, more and more people were wanting to know what the crime is and who the murder could be. Then scene fades to a man writing a something while whistling the familiar tune of “In the Hall of the Mountain King”. By whistling the familiar tune, the audience knows that he is the murder and that he is planning something bad because the last time he whistled this tune, a little girl died. The scene quickly goes back to the crowd of people out on the streets. Everyone becomes quiet as a man reads the news report. As he reads the report, the scene changes again to a bird’s eye view of a group of men also reading the same news report. Having both the public and the criminals read the news report at the same time shows how panic and anxiety raised

simultaneously.
The scene suddenly shows an old man reader a newspaper. As he is catching up on news, the audience hears a loud squeaking noise that becomes louder until we see a little girl on the scooter. The loud squeaking from her scooter warns him that something unfortunate is to come. The little stops right in front of him and ask what time it was. As he tells her the time, bystanders become worried and jump to the conclusion that he is the child murder. Because all the bystanders concluded that the old man was the child murder, chaos occurred. When this happens, the audience hears millions of different voices caught up in anger and fear. Lang does this to show how high the anxiety is in this city.
In order to decrease anxiety in the city, the police come out in search on the child murder. During these forty seconds, Lang has the film complete silent. He does this because the child murder is unaware that the police are searching every building and hunting for him, therefore if he is not aware of what going on, then he will not hear it. In next scene the audience hears a loud whistle and a car horn honking. These obnoxious noises are warning someone that the police are coming. A popular bar with a lot of people and the child murder inside hear the whistling and honking and begin to panic. As they try to escape, the police block off the exit. The crowd again hears the same whistling as they are lead back down into the bar. This whistling is warning the child murder that he is not safe and that the police is near.
Later on in the movie, a father is walking his daughter to school. As they walk closer to the school, car horns were honking and bells were ringing to warn the girl and the father that this is the area where the child murder hunts his prey. The scene continues with multiple children window shopping. When the children get distracted, the cars honk their horns to warn them of the dangers of being distracted at this time. It warns them that something horrible as being murdered can happen to them.
The scene switches to an officer looking up old mental patients. He finds Beckert’s records and heads to his house. While he is at his house, he finds out that Beckert just left but he is still welcomed in and waits in his room. When he is in Beckert’s room, the scene is silent. This scene is silent because the officer does not want to alarm Berckert’s wife. During the silent scene, he searches Beckert’s entire bedroom. Right before he finds evidence, the scene switches to murder with the sound of car horns screaming in the background. The car horns are simply warning everyone within the area that there is the murder and that something bad is about to happen. Beckert is window shopping and finds himself look are knives. While looking at the knives, he sees the reflection of a little girl. He tries to fight the want to kill her, but then caves in and begins to follow her. As he follows her, multiple car horns begin to honk once again to warn the little girl along with his disturbing whistle. Fortunately, the little girl ran into her mother.
While some people may continue to disagree by saying that Fritz Lang use of silence and sound was a disadvantage in his movie, I believe that Fritz Lang use of silence and sound throughout the movie M was used towards his advantage because of how he used it to symbolize warnings and death. Although Alex’s use of silence was awkward, in the movie M by Fritz Lang, Lang uses silence towards as an advantage.