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This was certainly an enticing movie. However, althouth this does fall under the category of German expressionism which houses more extreme expansions of the mind in the cinematic sense, i found this to an exemplary movie based on its dramatic elements - mainly Peter Lorre's contribution.

Lorre did an outstanding presentation of the psychotic child murderer Hans Beckert. It is my sense that most actors during that era were of the method acting school. I find it hard to believe that Lorre acted like a child murderer for the months leading up to this movies produciton......which makes his performance all the more remarkable. The quick but detailed mental breakdown of Beckert is not best expressed through Lang's mastery of film - which should be mentioned, are present throught the movie and are not to be left out - but through Lorre's mastery of human emotion and psychology. It takes a true virtuoso to make an audience feel for a murderer - a child murderer at that, yet that is what Lorre is, a master of his craft.

I think the name of Lang's game is simplicity. This being his first sound-movie, i find it amzaing how seamlessly Lang integrated the sounds - diagetic and non - with the movie. It added intensity, fear, and captured the audience fully. Yet Lang did nothing huge, nothing ostentateous, nothing that would bring the word "expressionism," to most peoples' minds. Lang finds beauty and emotion through his actors, and through subtle backround indications of symbolism.

A great movie and an important step in the future of crime-dramas. I believed it to be a masterpiece. I give it four out of four replays.