M (1951) on Netflix
NR19511h 28mCrimeDramaThriller
A killer is strangling children in Los Angeles and taking their shoes. With police raids disrupting the city's criminals, boss Charlie Marshall orders his men to find the murderer.
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- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.8/102,662 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
In Los Angeles, a killer is strangling children and keeping their shoes, and the police answer the outcry with raids on dive bars and criminal hangouts, hoping the murderer will surface in one of them while innocent people are swept up in the panic. The raids shut down the city's crime syndicate, so its boss, Charlie Marshall, sets his men to hunting the killer; catching him would end the crackdown and bring Marshall favorable publicity before a racketeering trial. Inspector Carney has a psychologist interview patients released from mental hospitals, working up a profile of a possible paranoid schizophrenic shaped by childhood trauma.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about M (1951)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- M was boycotted in some cities over director Joseph Losey's political views, and Ohio film censors barred it from public screenings. After the producers appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the film was approved for exhibition in Ohio without cuts in 1954.
- Losey cast actors who were themselves under suspicion from the Hollywood blacklist: M was Howard Da Silva's last film appearance until 1962's David and Lisa, Karen Morley, blacklisted in 1947, had one of her final roles, and Luther Adler and screenwriter Waldo Salt were also blacklisted.
- The film was shot in downtown Los Angeles, including the now-demolished Victorian neighborhood of Bunker Hill, where David Wayne's character lived in an eccentric mansion known as the Max Heindel house because the early 20th-century astrologer Max Heindel had once lived there.
