PARTS & 2 DR. MABUSE (1 ) Movie Review

Doktor Mabuse der Spieler

Fritz Lang's two-part film is a massive fresco of depravity and violence—a portrait of a society so close to the brink of self-destruction that a single madman can come close to pushing it over. Dr. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) is a brilliant criminal mastermind whose designs are nothing less than to profit from—as well as accelerate—the wholesale decadence that already exists in the Berlin of 1922. Mabuse's powers of persuasion are incomparable, as is his ability to disguise himself in countless insidious but familiar forms. Part one—originally subtitled An Image of Our Times—shows Mabuse unable to control himself when losing at the gambling tables, but equally unable to handle winning. His thirst for power—in the form of money—struck a chord with German audiences of the day, who were used to the staggering inflation and wild revelry that made the stylized nightclubs and pumped-up passions of Lang's film seem like a tame documentary. A decade later, in 1933, when the nation had indeed found one man to be in charge of its national criminal empire, Lang produced a sequel—The Testament of Dr. Mabuse—following which he fled the country for Hollywood. More than simply a prescient warning, however. Dr. Mabuse: Der Spieler remains a fascinating, sprawling spectacle, and one of the most powerful visions of evil ever committed to film.

NEXT STOP … Spies, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, M

1922 242m/B GE Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Aud Egede Nissen, Alfred Abel, Gertrude Welcker, Lil Dagover, Paul Richter; D: Fritz Lang; W: Thea von Harbou, Fritz Lang; C: Carl Hoffmann. VHS SNC, MRV, NOS