History YMMV / M

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Otto Wernicke's Kommissar Lohmann was so popular with viewers that Lang brought him back for ''Film/DasTestamentDesDoktorMabuse'' one year later.

* 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. That's why there are those who see him as a...

** 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?

* JerkassHasAPoint: The prosecutor of the mob trial may be a criminal but he does have a point that whether or not Hans is crazy he is a threat to the children of Germany regardless and killing him would make them more safe.

** 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.

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Arguably the TropeCodifier.
----

* FridgeHorror: Complete with InferredHolocaust, considering what mental hospitals were like in the 1930s, [[MercyKill the death penalty might be kinder for poor Hans]]; he's pretty screwed either way.
** Worse still, remember that the Nazis only assumed power two years after this film was released; how do you think they are going to treat a mentally-ill Jew?
*** [[{{EvenEvilHasLovedOnes}} Especially one who murdered German little girls.]]

* MoralEventHorizon: Subverted for some, in that 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. That's why there are those who see him as a...

* BreakoutCharacter: Otto Wernicke's Kommissar Lohmann was so popular with viewers that Lang brought him back for ''Film/DasTestamentDesDoktorMabuse'' one year later.

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Arguably the TropeCodefier.

* FridgeHorror: Complete with InferedHolocaust, considering what mental hospitals were like in the 1930s, [[MercyKill the death penalty might be kinder for poor Hans]]; he's pretty screwed either way.

*** Especially one who murdered German children

* MoralEventHorizon: Subverted for some, in that you'd ''expect'' the act of murdering little girls to automatically lose the audience's sympathy, and yet there are those who see him as a...

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: 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?

* CompleteMonster: ''Hans''. He murders and rapes little girls throughout the movie and when caught shows no real remorse for his actions instead foisting the blame on his supposed "illness" and then has the balls to launch into a [[{{MoralDissonance}} self-righteous tirade against his mob captors]]... [[{{BigDamnVillains}} for stopping his reign of terror.]] Yeah.
* FridgeHorror: Considering what mental hospitals were like in the 1930s, [[MercyKill the death penalty might be kinder for poor Hans]]. He's pretty screwed either way.
** Worse still, remember that the Nazis only assumed power two years after this film was released. How do you think they are going to treat a mentally-ill Jew?

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

* JerkassHasAPoint: The prosecutor of the mob trial may be a criminal but he does have a point that whether or not Hans is crazy he is a threat to the children of Germany regardless and
killing him would make them more safe.

* CompleteMonster: [I]Hans[/I]. He murders and rapes little girls throughout the movie and when caught shows no real remorse for his actions instead foisting the blame on his supposed "illness" and then has the balls to launch into a [[{{MoralDissonance}} self-righteous tirade against his mob captors]]... [[{{BigDamnVillains}} for stopping his reign of terror.]] Yeah.

* MoralEventHorizon: Subverted, in that you'd ''expect'' the act of murdering little girls to automatically lose the audience's sympathy, and yet...

** EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Very much like in Lang's [[{{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.

** EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Very much like in Lang's [[{{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 GreyAndGreyMorality. 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.

* FridgeHorror: Considering what mental hospitals were like in the 1930s, the death penalty might be kinder for poor Hans. He's pretty screwed either way.

*** May have been helped by the fact that, [[{{Metropolis}} once again]], [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Thea von Harbou]] co-wrote the script.

** EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Very much like in Lang's [[{{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.

** EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Very much like in Lang's[[{{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.

** EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Very much like in Lang's [[{{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.

* MisaimedFandom: The ''[[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]]''. They even took Hans speech at the end to "prove" that Jews were all evil. [[HitlerAteSugar Because Peter Lorre was Jewish, and he played a SerialKiller, 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!"

* MisaimedFandom: The ''[[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]]''. They even took Hans speech at the end to "prove" that Jews were all evil. [[InsaneTrollLogic Because Peter Lorre was Jewish, and he played a SerialKiller, 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!"