M/YMMV
- Misaimed Fandom: The 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 serial killer, 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!"
- Moral Event Horizon: Subverted, in that you'd expect the act of murdering little girls to automatically lose the audience's sympathy, and yet...
- The Woobie: Only Peter Lorre could make a child killer into a Woobie.