Moments ago, I stared intently into my computer screen with all of my terrific powers of concentration to influence you – yes, I mean you! – to open this particular film review, with a click of your mouse button. Did it work? Admit it! You know it did! It's a trick I learned from Dr. Mabuse! If so, I am now broadcasting further instructions into your subconscious: send me the number and password for your savings account so that I can use your life savings to destabilize the collective economies of the Western democracies and send their respective stock markets plummeting. Or, perhaps your savings aren't up to that task? I suppose, then, I'll settle for a rating, down there at the bottom of the review. This criminal mastermind stuff is somewhat exhausting, so you'll have to give me a second to catch my breath, anyway. Long before there was Ernst Blofeld, Fu Manchu, Moriarty, Hannibal Lecter, Darth Vader, Lex Luther, or the Joker, there was Dr. Mabuse (pronounced Ma-boo-sa), thrilling movie audiences and keeping little children awake at night. The diabolic Mabuse was the creation of author Norbert Jacques, then incorporated into film by Lang and his wife and co-writer, Thea von Harbou.

Historical Background: Fritz Lang was born December 5th, 1890, in Vienna and survived until 1976. He initially intended to become an architect, following in the footsteps of his father, and began study at the College of Technical Science at Vienna's Academy of Graphic Arts. He was unhappy in that line of work, however, and left home to study art, instead, in Munich and Paris. In Paris, as WW I approached, he scrounged a living designing fashions, painting watercolors, and drawing cartoons. He caught the last train out of France before the border was closed and was soon conscripted into the Austrian army. During the war, he was wounded four times and discharged in 1916 at the rank of lieutenant. He had to spend a year convalescing in a hospital in Vienna, where he began performing with a Red Cross theater group and writing screenplays. In 1919, he took a job with the film studio, Decla, in Berlin, as an editor. He was soon writing scripts and playing small parts. He got his first shot at directing with Halbblut (1919), based on his own screenplay. He had his first noteworthy success with his third film, the two-part Die Spinnen ("The Spiders") (1919 and 1920). Lang had been initially assigned to direct Das Kabinett des Dr. Caligari ("The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"), but the scheduling conflicted with his completion of Die Spinnen, so the project was turned over to Robert Wiene, which was unfortunate for Lang, since the film turned out to be a huge success and one of the pinnacles of German expressionism.

In 1920, Lang began what would be a long collaboration with writer Thea von Harbou – in more ways than one. They were married in 1924 and she acted as either co-writer or sole screenwriter for all of his films up until 1932, when their differing political views tore their marriage apart. Lang won critical accolades with Der müde Tod ("Between Two Worlds") (1921), setting the stage for what would become his greatest triumph yet, the two-part Dr. Mabuse der Spieler ("Dr. Mabuse the Gambler") (1922). This brooding four-and-a-half hour crime thriller was typically shown over two consecutive nights in the theaters of Berlin. Lang is credited with establishing several of the genre categories that film lovers enjoy to this day and Dr. Mabuse the Gambler was really the beginning of the criminal mastermind kind of crime thriller that includes the entire James Bond series. It was also a harbinger of film noir, by taking mainly the vantage point of the criminal and making his principal motivation a desire to control others rather than mere greed. In Germany, even today, the Mabuse character is the best-known master criminal type, even though it's been some thirty years since the last film featuring Mabuse was made. There were about a dozen Mabuse films made altogether, mostly in the sixties, but the one under review here is where it all began. Lang went back to the Mabuse character in one of his first talkies, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), just before fleeing Germany, as the Nazis were consolidating power.

The Story: Dr. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), trained as a psychoanalyst in mind control techniques, has turned his attention to masterminding a vast criminal empire, engaging in stock market manipulation and counterfeiting. Mabuse is also an inveterate gambler, although it hardly qualifies as gambling, since he has the unique capacity to influence his opponents into losing decisions. Mabuse is also an expert at disguises. As the film opens, we see Mabuse shuffling a deck of cards that illustrate his various looks and choosing one at random.

Mabuse's henchmen include the cocaine-addled Spoerri (Robert Forster-Larrinaga), the short, stubby Hawasch (Charles Puffy), who oversees the counterfeiting operation, Georg (Hans Adalbert Schlettow), who doubles as chauffeur and enforcer, and the hapless Pesch (Georg John), who frequently messes up. There's also a henchwoman, Fine (Grete Berger). Cara Carozza (Aud Egede Nissen), a dancer who performs at the Follies Bergere, is utterly devoted to Mabuse, but he merely uses her (and all of the others) to advance his criminal schemes.

In the opening sequence, Mabuse masterminds a rail heist involving a secret treaty between German and Dutch companies and uses the fear that the treaty contents will be revealed to precipitate a plunge in stock prices, buying up the undervalued stocks. Then, he arranges for the stolen treaty to be recovered (without having been compromised), so that his newly acquired stocks soar in value.

Mabuse next targets a young aristocrat and wealthy scion, Edgar Hull (Paul Richter). He uses Cara to lure Hull to one of the many gambling clubs for the wealthy that were extant in 1922 Germany. This one is called "Club 17 + 4." There, disguised as Hugo Bolling, Mabuse uses his mental powers to fleece Hull of over 100,000 marks.

Meanwhile, at police headquarters, State Attorney and Chief Inspector Norbert von Wenck (Bernhard Goetzke) is beginning to suspect that one criminal mastermind lies behind the various destabilizing criminal influences that have been plaguing the city. Lacking the man's name or identity, Wenck refers to him as "The Great Other." Wenck is not above using a disguise or two himself and is the only foil for Mabuse who is not easily manipulated by the mind control gimmicks of the criminal genius.

Also playing a significant part in the story is the Countess Gräfin Dusy Told (Gertrude Welcker), the beautiful wife of Count Told (Alfred Abel). She's typical of the bored German aristocrats, frittering her time away in the gambling dens because, as she says, "I have become sluggish! To rise to life, I require strong sensations." Instead of gambling herself, she enjoys the thrill of watching others win or lose. She ultimately draws the attention of both Wenck, who enlists her aid in his investigation, and Mabuse, who will stop at nothing to possess her. Mabuse is also a thrill-seeker, but his requirements are more perverse: "Nothing is interesting in the long run – except one thing," he says. "There is no such thing as love. There is only desire, and the will to possess what you desire."

What follows is a classic cat-and-mouse game, the outcome of which I won't give away, but which proceeds through the decadent casinos, the jailhouse, and secret lairs to an inevitable showdown.

Themes: As much as anything, Dr. Mabuse the Gambler is a reflection on the decadence and debauchery of German society in the Weimar Republic. The German economy was in such a state of ruins, from hyperinflation and backbreaking war reparations, that the populace had been seized by a devil-may-care attitude. The workers and the poor suffered terribly, as their wages lost most of their purchasing power, but the industrialists and landowners resisted all efforts to stabilize the currency, realizing that hyperinflation served to diminish greatly the real value of both reparation payments and payments on business loans. Those with money spent it wildly and frivolously, since tomorrow it might be worthless. At the newly opened Scharamm's gaming club, the barker announces their motto, "Whatever gives pleasure is permissible," as a gaudy chandelier descends from the ceiling to reveal a dancing girl scantily clad in just a few veils. Lang does a nifty job exploring the relationship between decadence and the desire for sensationalism and eroticism, using the character Countess Told for this purpose, in particular.

Life in the Weimar Republic was so difficult, and the political and economic problems so insurmountable, that the public was desperate for some kind of savior to arrive and rescue their country from its turmoil and debauchery. The old class structure had broken down, to a large extent. Prior to World War, the wealthy land-owning aristocrats maintained an insular society, based on personal relationships and long-standing histories of privileged position. After the war, an upstart breed of nouveau riche emerged, mainly as a result of war profiteering, and began to infiltrate what had been the exclusive denizens of the old nobility. The newcomers lacked the "breeding" and codes of "honor" that had defined the relationships among the aristocrats for centuries. The character Mabuse can be readily identified as representative of the unprincipled nouveau riche, preying on the good old boys at the gaming tables. He also uses social decay as a weapon against the upper class gentry. Mabuse simultaneously epitomizes the myriad destabilizing influences in German society of the time and the unprincipled, single-minded mastermind who could command loyalty and control minds toward a common purpose. The appeal of Mabuse to the theater-going German public in 1922 can be readily understood as the same appeal that Hitler possessed for these people ten years later. The reception accorded Mabuse effectively predicts Hitler. Both were German super-villains to stir the imagination and devotion of the masses. Both Jacques and Lang were yearning for and championing a return to the stability of the old social order, but nostalgic appeals for a return to former times are always hopeless. Weimar Germany had become such an aberrant society that its therapy would come at the cost of millions of lives.

Production Values: The film's plot is standard pulp novel material. The style of presentation mixes expressionism with naturalism, with the expressionism dominating especially in the out-of-doors scenes and naturalism for the interior settings. The sets are outstanding, as was characteristic of the German expressionistic period. The gaudy interiors of the gambling dens duly capture the decadence of the period while the streets outside convey a moody and gothic atmosphere. Cinematographer Carl Hoffmann provides some breathtaking chiaroscuro. Lang's editing incorporates some early montage effects.

The acting is mainly the expressionistic variety, though both Klein-Rogge, as Mabuse, and Goetzke, as Wenck, are relatively restrained, in comparison with the histrionics of the rest of the cast. Klein-Rogge dominates the film, with his searing stare and ruthlessly malevolent demeanor. It doesn't hurt that Lang augments Klein-Rogge's natural acting talent with a variety of special effects to illustrate his mental powers, such as close-ups of his eyes glowering. Three years later, Klein-Rogge played Rotwang, the inventor, in Lang's landmark science fiction film, Metropolis (1927). His other work included The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and A Strange Guest. Goetzke has the easier part, as the stable if dogged adversary. Bernhard Goetzke appeared in such films as The Last Days of Pompeii and Between Night and Dawn. Gertrude Welcker was effective in her somewhat limited role as the countess and also appeared in Nocturne of Love and At the Grey House. Aud Egede Nissen, who played Cara, and Paul Richter, who played Edgar Hull, were later married and were able to draw on some genuine sexual chemistry for their scenes together.

Bottom-Line: There have been several releases of this film, over the years, that differ widely in length, from less than 90 minutes to about 270 (the original length). The beautifully rendered DVD release from Image Entertainment clocks in at 229 minutes, which was plenty long enough for my taste. Moreover, David Shepard, a highly regarded film restorer, presents the film at the correct silent film speed of 20 frames per second (rather than the 24 fps that is the sound film standard). The Image DVD has an exceptionally informative commentary track, featuring the highly knowledgeable David Kalat, author of the definitive book on the Mabuse legacy. Another strong feature of this version is a stylistically appropriate and enjoyable orchestral score by Robert Israel, recorded in digital stereo.

Dr. Mabuse the Gambler is must-see for all who are interested in understanding film history. It's among the best films from the silent film era, but, in contrast to Metropolis, doesn't stand up well by modern standards for its genre. It drags in the middle because there's just too little in the way of plot developments to sustain a film of its length (229 minutes). The mind control gimmick is also a bit feeble when compared to the kind of schemes that most of the Bond villains have going for them. I enjoyed seeing the film once, but will probably not go back to it again anytime soon, in contrast to Metropolis, which could easily stand up to repeated viewing. I'd give this film five stars comparing it only to the body of silent films, but just three stars by the standard of all the films I've seen. I'll go with four-stars as a compromise. If you decide to watch it, be sure to choose the Image Entertainment version.


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from Germany:

The American Friend
Beyond Silence
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
The Blue Angel
Das Boot
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Fitzcarraldo
Kings of the Road
M
The Marriage of Maria Braun
Metropolis
The Nasty Girl
Nosferatu
Pandora's Box
Run Lola Run
Stalingrad
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Threepenny Opera
The Tin Drum
Wings of Desire
Zentropa

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age