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Despite a long and distinguished career the production team of Powell and Pressberger were effectively ruined by the furore of criticism and demands for censorship generated by this film.

'Peeping Tom' is a great film and one that modern film makers could learn from. Even good films like 'Seven' and 'Silence of the Lambs' have a regretable tendency toward melodrama and gross overacting in the portrayal of serial killers. 'John Doe' (Kevin Spacey) and 'Buffalo Bill' (Ted Levine) are laughable travesties of their real life counterparts, who seem harmless when approaching or luring a potential victim.

One of the things that critics of his time could not forgive Powell is that he makes his killer 'Mark Lewis' (Karl Boehm) human and likeable. a sensitive and intelligent young man, he is the product of bestial cruelty inflicted upon him in childhood (the scenes showing film of him being tortured as a boy by his scientist father are horrifying in the true sense of the word)

This is a sophisticated film demanding of the viewer that he or she not only takes part in watching a compelling thriller but are also provoked into contemplating the forces that work on a man who commits such crimes.

After watching 'Peeping Tom' one does not have the customary closure common in such thrillers of seeing a 'monster' the viewer could not emphasise with destroyed and the world made safe again, (much the theory behind the justification of capital punishment). Rather we have the experience of seeing the tragic self destruction of a man arguably as much a victim as those he killed.

To critics this was reprehensible - 'siding with the murderer'. The man who wrote the script, however, knew at first hand what makes a killer - since he was responsible for selecting secret agents to fight behind enemy lines in World War 2. He had to choose men - and women - who would not hesitate to kill. How many writers can claim this level of insight?

'Peeping Tom' is a classic and I rate it an eye catching 9 out of 10

One of the greatest movies ever made.

Based on the murders committed in the late 1920's by Peter Kurten in the area around Dusseldorf (Kurten was guillotined in 1931, the year that 'M' was made and released)

The black and white cinematography is wonderful to see - modern colour photography is lost when trying to evoke gas lit or fog laden streets and the sense of atmosphere that pervades this film is remarkable.

The murder of children is a topic difficult to portray on screen - usually (for reasons of taste) we are merely shown the grief of the bereaved parents and the steely determination of detectives to catch the killer. Nothing in 'M' fits this stereotype.

Peter Lorre is superb as the killer who sits in greasy cafes whilst whistling Grieg's 'In The Hall of the Mountain King'from the 'Peer Gynt' Suite in an effort to drive the evil compulsions that he is unable to resist from his mind. As the music grows faster and more insistent, he succumbs, unwillingly to his terrible urges. He is seen picking up a small girl and buying her a balloon; the pair descend a flight of stairs into a murky alley and seconds later the balloon drifts up the stairway - a throat clutching image that speaks more to the fears of the viewer than the goriest of special effects.

We have a stout and jolly policeman (who greatly resembles Ernst Gennert, the detective who investigated the Kurten case) in hot pursuit of the killer.

Also in pursuit are the criminal fraternity - who are annoyed at the intense police activity generated by the killings, which is stifling their predations. Indeed, it is eventually the criminals who catch the killer and subject him to a trial in their lair. Lorre argues that they cannot understand the compulsions that drive his actions and is mocked by his captors.

Suspenseful, artistic and intellectually satisfying, 'M' is a great cinema classic which I unhesitatingly award a munificent 10 out of 10