Characters
* M = Hans Beckert
* Detective Kurt Lohnmann
* SchrSnker = Head of the Underworld
* the children * the mothers
* the prostitutes
* the criminals
* the police
* the citizens

Sound
* whistle
* we hear the murderer before we see him
* telephone conversations
* Mrs. Beckmann calls her daughter

Image and Spectacle
* watching without seeing
* M watching child
* city looking for murderer
* M sees himself
* shadows

Camerawork
* crosscut sequences
*low angel (with Lohnmann)
* bird's eye view (with suspected killer)

Realism

* Düsseldorf murder case
* scientific methods of police investigations

Discourses and Themes
* murder
* criminality
* order and chaos
* guilt and innocence
* the reversal of the authoritarian systemorder and chaos
* the law
* justice
*dehumanization the law
* duality of the self