Who Is Fritz Lang's First Sound In The Movie M

The Movie "M" by Fritz Lang is the story of a serial killer and the reactions to his presence by the public and the police. It is Fritz's first sound film and I will be talking about some shots from the Chapter 3.

At the beginning of the shot, there is off-scene noises, it sounds like a guy voice. It is after that the image comes up that you can see that it is a little boy running in the street to sell his newspapers. You can hear footsteps, but they are not as loud as it is supposed to be when someone is running at that pace. He gave newspapers to only two people. After the first young boy left the frame, two other boys came and the tone on their voices got louder and more aggressive. You could also hear their footsteps more clearly and with

more precision than the first young boy. The two young boys gave the papers to more people. It was to show how pressing the news were and that people had to read it. It was to show that it was serious matter and people shouldn't miss it. The voices of the kids screaming on the street were odd, their clear echoes make it evident that the movie is a studio production.
In the second shot, we have a bold headed man and we cannot see his face (no light), we are seeing him from the back to keep the mystery.

You can still hear people from the street but as an off-scene noise and it shows how close the murderer is from everyone, yet no one knows where he is. Lang uses off-screen sound throughout to explore danger beyond the frame of the film. He is smoking a cigar and is whistling. His whistle has a nice tone. The whistle shows that he is calm. He is also writing a letter to be published to the Press. People are usually anxious when they are writing about something dangerous (talking about the police) but he is not, he is calm and smoking which is showing no regrets or remorse about what is happening. The whistle starts from being loud and nice to slowly less quiet and unpleasant towards the end of his letter. He is getting anxious towards the end of the letter which explain why the whistle is slowly stopping for seconds to get back one. At the very end of end of the letter, the whistle was very fast and even faster than the beginning. The whistle linked with a wicked deed, and we are left impatient to discover the details of the crime it announces, it stands for a moment of

discovery.
In the following shot with the paper on the wall, you see a lot of people in front of a board, but they are talking in silence.

It is to show that they all frightened that this might happen to their children. There is however a noise which is coming from the next shot. Lang had to show the two sides: the people in front of board worried about their children and the other people, the ones around the table, smoking cigars and laughing about the matter. You could not hear certain noise like the cigars burning, the some of the men talking while he was reading because Lang wanted to show how serious the problem was. There was a long pause before the first man with the glasses started to talk. They were talking not loud and it gradually starting to get louder and the tone in their voices got more aggressive. The guy that was reading the newspaper put the cup down and it made a really strong noise. That is when the other guy got up and the sound of his voice got louder. Lang wanted us to understand that things were getting heated and that they were about to

fight.
In the shot where the little girl was coming with her little bike, you could hear her coming by the noise that she was making. The ladies were making eye contacts, were talking but you couldn’t hear what they were saying. That silence was to anticipate what the man was about to say to the child. The tall guy got out the shop and he got out without making any noise, not even footsteps noise. It was for the old man to not hear him and talk freely to the little girl. There was also no nose when the tall guy was walking towards the man and when the girl left the frame. In this scene Lang makes great use of camera angles to show the man's persecution. All the silence is for us to focus on the guy. When he is speaking to the little girl, he is now shot from a high angle while he was first shot straight on, and his accusers from a very low angle, showing the way they tower over him.

Lang's films are marked by a tension between innocence and evil. M is a transitional film. Dialogue sequences are blending with silent sequences. Lang edited the sound using them sparingly and with control to achieve specific effects.