History YMMV / M

** Beckert often isn't so much as suspected for a large part of the movie. He's able to blend into the crowd frighteningly easily because he looks like just about anyone else.

*** It has been suggested that Hans simply is an evil person, and a total [[TheSociopath psychopath]], not unlike most serial killers. At the beginning, he sends a letter to the press about his crimes. His InsanityDefense might at best be self-delusions he tells himself to avoid blame and responsibility for his actions. If he truly is incapable of controlling himself, then he should have turned himself over to avoid hurting anyone else (if he was a moral person, he would agree this to be the lesser worse even if his conditions are deplorable, because you know, he would be stopped from killing and raping little girls), but this is rendered sort of null by his letters, which gives credit to the idea that he's playing the victim card. He is also conscious of the fact his actions are wrong. On the other hand, if he truly believed that he ''had'' to kill even if he doesn't want to, the letters would be his way of reaching out to the authorities begging for them to stop him while he struggles to suppress his impulses in the moments where he's not undergoing a psychotic break.

** Beckert often isn't so much as suspected for a large part of the movie. He's able to blend into the crowd frighteningly easily.

** Is Hans really unable to control his impulses? How strong are they? Do they even exist or is the whole insanity thing a sympathy play to justify his crimes and keep the mob from lynching him?
** Even the mob aren't beyond this. Are they really solely concerned with their own well-being and not with justice? If so, why not just shoot Hans and be done with it? Why hold a trial where his evils are spelled out, and why provide a defense advocate to argue for him?
** It has been suggested that Hans simply is an evil person, and a total psychopath, not unlike most serial killers. At the beginning, he sends a letter taunting the police about his crimes. All his excuses are at best self-delusions he tells himself to avoid blame and responsibility for his actions. If he truly is incapable of controlling himself, then he should have turned himself over to avoid hurting anyone else (if he was a moral person, he would agree this to be the lesser worse even if his conditions are deplorable, because you know, he would be stopped from killing and raping little girls), but this is rendered sort of null by his taunting letter, which gives credit to the idea he is simply playing the victim card. He is also conscious of the fact his actions are wrong.

** Alternatively, it might be a case of contradictory/bad writing.

** Even the mob aren't beyond this. Are they really solely concerned with their own well being and not with justice? If so why not just shoot Hans and be done with it? Why hold a trial where his evils are spelled out, why provide a defense advocate to argue for him?
** It has been suggested that Hans simply is an evil person, and a total psychopath, not unlike most serial killers. At the beginning, he sends a letter taunting the police about his crimes. All his excuses are at best self-delusions he tells himself to avoid blame and responsibility for his actions. If he truly is incapable of controlling himself, then he should have turned himself over to avoid hurting anyone else (if he was a moral person, he would agree this to be the lesser worse even if his conditions are deplorable, because you know, he would be stopped from killing and raping little girls), but this is rendered sort of null by his taunting letter. Which gives credit to the idea he is simply playing the victim card. He is also conscious of the fact his actions are wrong.

* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Very much like in Lang's [[Film/{{Metropolis}} other famous work]], the Nazis were ''completely oblivious'' the blatant TakeThat made against them in the film - ''or'', for that matter, the film's intentionally GreyAndGrayMorality. Joseph Goebbels, who was directly ''mocked'' in the movie as [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed der Schränker]], said that it was "fabulous! Against this 'humanitarianism' tripe. For the death sentence!" It took them the emigration of Lang to finally see the movie for what it was. May have been helped by the fact that, [[Film/{{Metropolis}} once again]], Thea von Harbou co-wrote the script.

* MoralEventHorizon: You'd ''expect'' the act of murdering little girls to automatically lose the audience's sympathy and yet many feel bad for him. It is arguably a great example of someone who does monstrous, unforgivable things and can still retain deep down some sympathy.

** It has been suggested that Hans simply is an evil person, and a total psychopath, not unlike most serial killers. At the beginning, he sends a letter taunting the police about his crimes. All his excuses are at best self-delusions he tells himself to avoid blame and responsibility for his actions. If he truly is incapable of controlling himself, then he should have turned himself over to avoid hurting anyone else (if he was moral person, he would agree this to be the lesser worse even if his conditions are deplorable, because you know, he would be stopped from killing and raping little girls), but this is rendered sort of null by his taunting letter. Which gives credit to the idea he is simply playing the victim card. He is also conscious of the fact his actions are wrong.

** It has been suggested that Hans simply is an evil person, and a total psychopath, not unlike most serial killers. At the beginning, he sends a letter taunting the police about his crimes. All his excuses are at best self-delusions he tells himself to avoid blame and reaponsibility for his actions. If he truly is incapable of controlling himself, then he should have turned himself over to avoid hurting anyone else (if he was moral person, he would agree this to be the lesser worse even if his conditions are deplorable, because you know, he would be stopped from killing and raping little girls), but this is rendered sort of null by his taunting letter. Which gives credit to the idea he is simply playing the victim card. He is also conscious of the fact his actions are wrong.

* OneSceneWonder: Leeser only appears in one scene, but it's a pretty memorable one, given how he follows the killer through the streets and marks his shirt with chalk so that others will recognize him.

* TheWoobie: Only Creator/PeterLorre could make a child killer into one.

* MisaimedFandom: ''UsefulNotes/{{Nazi|Germany}}s'', of all people. They even took Hans' speech at the end to "prove" that Jews were all evil (using it in the infamous antisemitic pseudo-documentary ''Der Ewige Jude'' - "The Eternal Jew"). Because Peter Lorre was Jewish, and he played a SerialKiller, [[HitlerAteSugar that means that all Jews are serial killers, right?]] It's doubly ironic from the lawyer's equally-impassioned speech in which he states, "No one has the right to kill a man who is incapable of responsibility for his actions! Not even the state!"

** Hans simply is a Complete Monster, and a total psychopath, not unlike most serial killers. At the beginning, he sends a letter taunting the police about his crimes. All his excuses are at best self-delusions he tells himself to avoid blame and reaponsibility for his actions. If he truly is incapable of controlling himself, then he should have turned himself over to avoid hurting anyone else (if he was moral person, he would agree this to be the lesser worse even if his conditions are deplorable, because you know, he would be stopped from killing and raping little girls), but this is rendered sort of null by his taunting letter. Which gives credit to the idea he is simply playing the victim card. He is also conscious of the fact his actions are wrong.

* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Very much like in Lang's [[Film/{{Metropolis}} other famous work]], the Nazis were ''completely oblivious'' the blatant TakeThat made against them in the film - ''or'', for that matter, the film's intentionally GreyAndGrayMorality. Joseph Goebbels, who was directly ''mocked'' in the movie as [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed der Schränker]], said that it was "fabulous! Against this 'humanitarianism' tripe. For the death sentence!" It took them the emigration of Lang to finally see the movie for what it was. May have been helped by the fact that, [[Film/{{Metropolis}} once again]], [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Thea von Harbou]] co-wrote the script.
* HarsherInHindsight: Or at least, ironic in hindsight. Der Schranker, the faux-Nazi head of Berlin's underworld, is played by Gustaf Grundgens, who became director of the Prussian National Theater under the Nazis and a favorite of Hermann Goering.

* TheWoobie: Only Peter Lorre could make a child killer into one.

* MisaimedFandom: The ''[[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]]''. They even took Hans speech at the end to "prove" that Jews were all evil. Because Peter Lorre was Jewish, and he played a SerialKiller, [[HitlerAteSugar that means that all Jews are serial killers, right?]] It's doubly ironic from the lawyer's equally-impassioned speech in which he states, "No one has the right to kill a man who is incapable of responsibility for his actions! Not even the state!"