The Girl in the Moon came right at the dawn of the sound period.
When I finished it, UFA wanted me to add sound to portions of it--sound effects for the rocket going off, ect. One of their executives had been in New York and had seen the first sound picture there and was very enthusiastic about it. I, on the other hand, felt that sound would kill the style of the film. So UFA told me that they would break their contract with the Fritz Lang Film Company. My lawyer said to me that I had to live up to all of my obligations to UFA, otherwise I couldn't win my case. This went on for seven months and I had to give up to UFA my chief actress, my three architects, and several other people. I was very disgusted with filmmaking and wanted to become a chemist. Just at this time an independent producer who did not enjoy a very good personal reputation constantly came to me asking me to make a picture for him. I always turned him down until finally I said to him, "I'll make you a proposition: I will make a picture for you provided that you have nothing to do with it but give me money to make it. You will have no right to cut anything or to change anything; the film must be finished and exhibited to audiences exactly as I made it." This film was M .
M was your first sound picture and many think your masterpiece.
It is difficult for me to choose which is my best film, but I like M . I discovered Peter Lorre, who had been working in impovisational theatre before he came to Berlin where I saw him, and I chose him for the key role of the child murderer in what was to be his very first film.
Did you have any problems working with him?
The only difficulty that I had with him was that he insisted that he couldn't whistle. Now in general I am not interested in the music that is used in a movie. Having a musical background for a love scene, for example, has always seemed like cheating to me. But the mournful whistling of the murderer in M was crucial since it helped establish his sinister character. My wife offered to whistle on the soundtrack for Lorre but it didn't seem to me to fit properly. Then the cutter volunteered and he was not right either. I am a musical moron who can't carry a tune but I decided to dub the whistling myself. It was off-key and turned out to be just right since the murderer himself is off balance mentally. This was a lucky accident which I couldn't have planned; so, you see, I don't take credit for everything that turns out right in my pictures.
