94. Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert
      M (1931)

The bulging eyes, the doughy face and body, the whiny, nasal voice—Lorre was never destined for leading man status. But he made an excellent heavy or sleazeball sidekick, and here, as the serial child murderer at the center of director Fritz Lang’s masterpiece, he is resplendent. From the moment he first appears, as a silhouetted shadow over the word Mörder (“murderer”), until merciless justice is meted out at the end, his Peer Gynt Suite–whistling predator is at once credibly human and sinister. In the climax, Lorre’s Hans Beckert faces a kangaroo court of underworld criminals, and moans, shrieks, and pleads in vain, trying to explain (“I must . . . I can’t”) his compulsion to kill little girls despite the torment of his guilt.

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