The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)
(Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse)
Country: GER
Technical: bw 122m
Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Otto Wernicke, Gustav Diesl
Synopsis:
Ten years after his confinement to an insane asylum, the notorious criminal mastermind appears to be spreading his web of influence once more, with the aim of establishing an Empire of Crime. One of his gang, an ex-con with scruples, resolves to help Inspector Lohmann bring him down, except that he is already dead...
Review:
Unlike its predecessor, Dr. Mabuse, der spieler, which was brimming with ideas and barely seemed able to contain them within a tolerable running time, Lang's sequel is at once a far more concise and cohesive work, a triumphant affirmation of the technical possibilities of sound, and an accurate portrayal of the thuggish zeal of the Hitler Gang itself. Hitchcockian touches abound (mackintoshed figures poised menacingly on a street corner, an assassination at a set of traffic lights, a bomb ticking away), and in not all of them is the influence in the same direction. Many a sequence begins in such a way as to comment ironically on what goes before, making this a masterpiece of editing, as well as of sound, direction and set design.
(Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse)
Country: GER
Technical: bw 122m
Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Otto Wernicke, Gustav Diesl
Synopsis:
Ten years after his confinement to an insane asylum, the notorious criminal mastermind appears to be spreading his web of influence once more, with the aim of establishing an Empire of Crime. One of his gang, an ex-con with scruples, resolves to help Inspector Lohmann bring him down, except that he is already dead...
Review:
Unlike its predecessor, Dr. Mabuse, der spieler, which was brimming with ideas and barely seemed able to contain them within a tolerable running time, Lang's sequel is at once a far more concise and cohesive work, a triumphant affirmation of the technical possibilities of sound, and an accurate portrayal of the thuggish zeal of the Hitler Gang itself. Hitchcockian touches abound (mackintoshed figures poised menacingly on a street corner, an assassination at a set of traffic lights, a bomb ticking away), and in not all of them is the influence in the same direction. Many a sequence begins in such a way as to comment ironically on what goes before, making this a masterpiece of editing, as well as of sound, direction and set design.
(Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse)
Country: GER
Technical: bw 122m
Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Otto Wernicke, Gustav Diesl
Synopsis:
Ten years after his confinement to an insane asylum, the notorious criminal mastermind appears to be spreading his web of influence once more, with the aim of establishing an Empire of Crime. One of his gang, an ex-con with scruples, resolves to help Inspector Lohmann bring him down, except that he is already dead...
Review:
Unlike its predecessor, Dr. Mabuse, der spieler, which was brimming with ideas and barely seemed able to contain them within a tolerable running time, Lang's sequel is at once a far more concise and cohesive work, a triumphant affirmation of the technical possibilities of sound, and an accurate portrayal of the thuggish zeal of the Hitler Gang itself. Hitchcockian touches abound (mackintoshed figures poised menacingly on a street corner, an assassination at a set of traffic lights, a bomb ticking away), and in not all of them is the influence in the same direction. Many a sequence begins in such a way as to comment ironically on what goes before, making this a masterpiece of editing, as well as of sound, direction and set design.