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This was in every way very much ahead of its time. This is a very powerful movie dealing with a very dark subject matter.

It is even a disturbing movie for these times. When Peter Lorre is pleading to a citizen's court that he can't help himself I hear the pleas of Andrea Yates, the woman who drowned her five children in Texas that it wasn't her fault. I hear the plea of Joseph Duncan who kidnapped and murdered children, it wasn't his fault.

No, there is no violence in this movie, it isn't scary in the least. It is a character drama, a portrayal of a sexual deviant that is just heart stopping. It shows the paranoia that Atlanta went through with the Atlanta child murders but only 50 years ahead of that time and in Germany.

This movie is very relevant today, probably far more relevant today than it has ever been before which is a very sad commentary on our society as a whole. I am sure that Fritz Lang thought that his movie would raise the awareness enough to end the problem once and for all or at least that there would be a cure for this behavior by 2007.

No, no cure outside of either locking them up forever or killing them. My compassion is nearly limitless for those oppressed, down trodden, helpless, or beaten up and kicked around but does it extend to a confessed child murderer? I'd say it does as long as that compassion is for the society that has been wronged. For the family of the victim. If the offender is in pain then we should do what it takes to alleviate that pain, preferably via a needle.