FAQ

When little Elsie Coster (Robin Fletcher) becomes the next child to be abducted and murdered in Los Angeles and the police are wasting their time tracking down unsuccessful leads to the culprit, Underworld boss Charlie Marshall (Martin Gabel) convinces the other leaders of organized crime to find the psychopath on their own. Enlisting the help of street beggars, the best persons to loiter unnoticed on the streets and monitor all children at all times, criminals and beggars work together to find their suspect...Martin Harrow (David Wayne).

M is a 1951 remake of M le maudit (1931) (1931), a film based on a screenplay written by German-Austrian film-maker Fritz Lange and his wife Thea von Harbou. Their screenplay is said to be based on a newspaper article written by Egon Jacobson. The screenplay for the remake was written by Leo Katcher, Norman Reilly Raine, and Waldo Salt.

Organized crime has been undergoing great losses due to the intense search and seize of the police, so they decide to go after the murderer themselves.

In the basement of a parking garage, a kangaroo court is in session, comprised of the leaders and the members of the various criminal organizations. When identified by the blind balloon vendor (John Miljan) as the man who bought a balloon for Elsie Coster, Harrow attempts to escape but is beaten by the crowd who wants to kill him on the spot. However, Marshall stops them and assures them that he will turn over Harrow to the police himself. Harrow is then given a chance to explain himself, blaming his uncontrollable impulse to murder children on an abusive father and a mother who taught him that men are born evil and need to be punished in order to be good. Because of this, Harrow explains, he is driven to kill children so that they won't be subjected to this ugly, cruel life. In the final scene, the angry crowd surges forward to lynch Harrow just as the police arrive and lead him away.