MABUSE LIVES!
***
Directed by Fritz Lang, Harold Reinl, Werner Klingler, Paul May and Hugo Fregonese.
Starring Wolfgang Preiss, Gert Fröbe, Lex Barker. Thriller, Germany, Certificate 12.
Released in UK on Limited Edition Blu-ray on 31st March by Eureka Entertainment.
Next to METROPOLIS, German director Fritz Lang’s hypnotic villain Dr. Mabuse may lack the influential clout that his template setting sci-fi epic still manages to exert, but the fiendish lord of crime has managed to influence cinema in a number of ways in his own fiendish manner. A noted influence on Christopher Nolan and Heath Ledger’s instantly iconic Joker, this character created by author Norbert Jacques in 1921, was leading devoted armies of criminals and bringing entire countries to a fearful standstill with his ingenious and devious plans long before any number of Batman and Bond villains, all of whom owe a debt to cinemas first supervillain.
Brought to the screen in 1922, in the four and a half hour epic DR. MABUSE, THE GAMBLER and later in 1933 with THE TESTAMENT OF DR MABUSE, Lang’s films were prescient in predicting the rise of fascism in his own country. Lang’s escape to the US after the Nazi’s came to power, and Goebbells banning of TESTAMENT, is well documented as well as the string of classic film noir’s he helmed. Lang returned to his home country in 1960 to helm THE THOUSAND EYES OF DR. MABUSE. This would prove to be Lang’s directorial swansong but its box office success would kick start a new franchise that saw the hypnotic master of disguise return from the afterlife and embark on yet another epic crime spree.
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Brought together for the first time on home release in the UK from Eureka these six films show how the titular character would change with the times, his own malign influence fading away under the opposing influence of other pulp characters who would rise to prominence in that decade. However, THE THOUSAND EYES kicks things off in great style, proving a fitting conclusion to Lang’s own career. Again that unerring degree of prescience comes into play as it once more commentates on the state of the nation as a chilling surveillance state, a notion that now seems to be spreading globally in a manner that Mabuse would be proud of. This is a tale where the villain, long thought deceased after the events of the previous film, seems to exert a near metaphysical influence on a number of characters on both sides of the law. It keeps the viewer guessing up until an expertly realised and executed reveal that brings events to an action packed close. Actor Wolfgang Preiss makes for an entertaining villain whose role would decrease over the following five films in increasingly silly ways.
Also of note here is the heroic and imposing figure of Inspector Kras, a dogged detective whose tenacity would see him face off against Mabuse two more times, in the immediate sequel THE RETURN OF DR. MABUSE and the fourth entry/soft remake THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE before switching sides and taking on the role of GOLDFINGER.
After Lang steps away, there is a marked decline in quality and style as the films go on. What follows though manages to effortlessly entertain in its own way, particularly for fans of other 60’s properties such as THE AVENGERS and THE CHAMPIONS, with the increasingly sci-fi oriented plots that replace Lang’s subtly occult leanings and cold war paranoia. The invisibility device that sees Mabuse’s suspected obsession with an actress, who works in Berlin’s Metropol theatre, the same theatre that features so prominently in Lamberto Bava’s DEMONS, soon pales into insignificance once we are introduced to the mass mind controlling cameras of SCOTLAND YARD HUNTS DR MABUSE or even the island based world threatening weapon of mass destruction in THE DEATH RAY OF DR MABUSE that brings this set of a films to a close in a style completely different from the one that started it.
Eureka Entertainment have done a sterling job here in presenting this entertaining and memorable set of films. The crisp and clean 2K remastering brings 1960’s West Germany to sparkling monochrome life as Mabuse and his many cohorts unleash cromewave after crime wave. Author and genre expert Tim Lucas provides illuminating and informative audio intros to each film, while David Cairns and Fiona Watson provide further info through an expertly edited and presented video essay that delves into these films' place within the larger “krimi” genre. Presented in a sturdy case alongside a hardback volume packed with more essays and rare stills this will no doubt be an essential purchase for longtime Mabuse fans and a neat intro for those unfamiliar with this dark prince of the criminal underworld.
Iain MacLeod