Movies that feel likeM (1931)

In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert, a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellant and disruptive to city life that he is even targeted by others in the seedy underworld network. With both cops and criminals in pursuit, the murderer soon realizes that people are on his trail, sending him into a tense, panicked attempt to escape justice.

If you loved M, the closest films we have are The Woman in the Window (1944), Scarlet Street (1945) and Fury (1936). All three share M's contemplative and gritty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Odd Man Out (1947).

🍅 100% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Fritz Langcontemplative tense gritty atmospheric

10 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel

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If M hit the spot, these will too

The Woman in the Window

1944 · dir. Fritz Lang

🍅 83%★ 7.6crime · drama · thrillerPrime Video

Both are Fritz Lang's work, and they rhyme

A seductive woman gets an innocent professor mixed up in murder.

Scarlet Street

1945 · dir. Fritz Lang

🍅 100%★ 7.7drama · crimePrime Video

Fritz Lang working the same nerve twice

The difference: Easier on the tension than M

Cashier and part-time starving artist Christopher Cross is absolutely smitten with the beautiful Kitty March. Kitty plays along, but she's really only interested in Johnny, a two-bit crook. When Kitty and Johnny find out that art dealers are interested in Chris's work, they con him into letting Kitty take credit for the paintings. Cross allows it because he is in love with Kitty, but his love will only let her get away with so much.

Fury

1936 · dir. Fritz Lang

🍅 95%★ 7.8crime · drama · thriller

Both keep coming back to the same thing: film noir

Joe, who owns a gas station along with his brothers and is about to marry Katherine, travels to the small town where she lives to visit her, but is wrongly mistaken for a wanted kidnapper and arrested.

Odd Man Out

1947 · dir. Carol Reed

🍅 100%★ 7.6crime · drama · thrillerMax

Both are built on the same subject: black and white

Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery.

Touch of Evil

1958 · dir. Orson Welles

🍅 96%★ 7.9crime · thriller · dramaPrime Video

Common ground: the investigation

The difference: Made in the 1950s, in a different era of the craft

A border-town bombing draws Mexican investigator Miguel Vargas into a corruption-ridden police investigation led by crooked captain Hank Quinlan, setting off a deadly struggle over power, justice, and truth.

The Night of the Hunter

1955 · dir. Charles Laughton

🍅 93%★ 7.9crime · drama · thriller

The same preoccupation in both: psychopath

In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.

Double Indemnity

1944 · dir. Billy Wilder

🍅 97%★ 8.3crime · thriller

One thread runs through both: film noir

An insurance representative is seduced by a dissatisfied housewife into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, a claims investigator.

Scarface

1932 · dir. Howard Hawks

🍅 98%★ 7.7crime · action · drama

The same mix in both: stillness, then tension

The difference: Leans harder into action than M does

In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant and notorious thug, Antonio 'Tony' Camonte, aka Scarface, shoots his way to the top of the mobs while trying to protect his sister from the criminal life.

Shoot the Piano Player

1960 · dir. François Truffaut

🍅 90%★ 7.4drama · thriller · crimeMax

Common ground: organized crime

Charlie is a former classical pianist who has changed his name and now plays jazz in a grimy Paris bar. When Charlie's brothers, Richard and Chico, surface and ask for Charlie's help while on the run from gangsters they have scammed, he aids their escape. Soon Charlie and Lena, a waitress at the same bar, face trouble when the gangsters arrive, looking for his brothers.

White Heat

1949 · dir. Raoul Walsh

🍅 94%★ 8.1crime · drama · thriller

Different title, same corner of the shelf

A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and then leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. After the heist, events take a crazy turn.

Out of the Past

1947 · dir. Jacques Tourneur

🍅 87%★ 7.9crime · thriller

Both keep coming back to the same thing: black and white

The peaceful life of a gas station owner is disrupted when a man from his past arrives in town and forces him to return to the dark world he had tried to escape.

Killer's Kiss

1955 · dir. Stanley Kubrick

🍅 83%★ 6.5thriller · crime · dramaPrime Video

Both land grit and atmosphere at once

Davey Gordon, a New York City boxer at the end of his career, falls for dancer Gloria Price. However, their budding relationship is interrupted by Gloria's violent boss, Vincent Rapallo, who has eyes for Gloria. The two decide to skip town, but before they can, Vincent and his thugs abduct Gloria, and Davey is forced to search for her among the most squalid corners of the city, with his enemy hiding in the shadows.