The Use Of Sound In Fritz Lang's Sound Films

The use of recorded sound in films was a technological achievement that would dramatically change the way audiences experience cinema. The transition from silent cinema affected many studios and filmmakers, who had to adapt to the new technology to prevent their careers from fading into obscurity. One filmmaker who was able to adapt to the changing industry was director Fritz Lang. The Austrian born director, whose career began in post-war Germany in 1919, made the transition to sound in 1931 with the film M (Germany), which follows a city that is plagued by a series of unsolved child murders. In an article analyzing Lang’s sound films, author Adrian Martin describes his use of sound design as follows:
Lang’s sound design works according
One particularly noteworthy example of motif within M’s sound design is the tune whistled by the child murderer. Throughout the film, one of the most highlighted sounds is the tune of Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” which is repeatedly whistled by the child murderer, Hans Beckert. The motif is first introduced during the scene in which Beckert whistles the tune as he encounters and abducts Elsie Beckmann as she walks home from school. This motif makes a return further into the film, as Beckert whistles it as he attempts to abduct another young girl and is then recognized by the blind beggar because of the tune. Aside from being a means through which the audience and characters within the film can identify the killer, this motif also offers a glimpse into Beckert’s mental state and his ritual. As Lang mentions, “the unmelodic, constantly recurring whistling of the child murderer… gives mute expression into his compulsive urges” (Gandert 35). Whenever the tune is heard within the film, it is during a scene in which Hans Beckert is attempting to abduct a young child. As a result, the audience is able to recognize that the character’s homicidal compulsions are overtaking him. Duke University professor Michael Ryan mentions that, “the reoccurring sound of Beckert’s whistle provides the film goer with a sense of the killer’s inner turmoil and distorted mental state”
In M, the use of sound as a transitional device has effects on both the construction of scenes as well as on the presentation of the narrative. Fritz Lang has mentioned that M marked the first time he had “sound overlap sound,” in the sense that dialogue or sound from the ending of one scene would overlap into the beginning of the following scene, which he feels “not only accelerated the tempo of the film, but also strengthened the dramaturgically necessary association in though of the two juxtaposed scenes” (Gandert 35-36). One particular example in M of sound being used as a transitional device occurs during the scene in which Frau Beckmann waits for her daughter, Elsie, to return home and calls out to her. Each time she calls her daughter’s name, the audience is shown a different location including the apartment complex stairs, the attic, the kitchen table, the park as Elsie’s ball rolls out from the bushes, and Elsie’s balloon as it becomes caught in the telephone lines. According to Michael Ryan, this shows how the mother’s voice is searching for her daughter and travels to each of these locations. “Her voice sees the empty staircase, it sees the attic clothesline, it sees the empty table setting and, lastly, it sees the famous representation of Elsie’s body twisting in