The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Directed by Fritz Lang
Written by Fritz Lang, Norbert Jacques, and Thea von Harbou
1933/Germany
Nero Film – AG
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel
Dr. Mabuse: The ultimate purpose of crime is to establish the endless empire of crime. A state of complete insecurity and anarchy, founded upon the tainted ideals of a world doomed to annihilation. When humanity, subjugated by the terror of crime, has been driven insane by fear and horror, and when chaos has become supreme law, then the time will have come for the empire of crime.
Hitler banned this for good reason. Regrettably, it has an effective and scary message for our own times.
The movie begins with a long, tense, dialogue-free sequence in which a spy is hiding in a back room of a printing plant. We hear the almost unbearable din of the machinery. The spy is detected. Criminals fail to kill him in an explosion.
Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (1922) introduced the world to the titular criminal mastermind. He has been confined in an insane asylum for a decade and producing page upon page of writing. Otherwise he appears completely catatonic. The writings started out as nonsense but gradually they became detailed instructions for a variety of terroristic crimes.
The spy, a disgraced former member of the homicide squad, had been trying to redeem himself with Inspector Lohmann (Otto Wernicke) our old friend from M (1930). He reaches out to Lohmann on the phone but before he can reveal anything he is snatched from his room. He is later housed in the same asylum as Mabuse, completely insane. The only clue Lohmann has in some cryptic scratching on a window.
Dr. Mabuse has been running a vast criminal empire through hypnosis. His control survives his death. We follow Lohmann’s investigation and the efforts of one of Mabuse’s minions to get to the bottom of things in the name of love.
I love the atmosphere of dread Lang creates in this movie and the wonderful performance by Otto Wernicke as Lohmann. Hitler banned the film and you can certainly see why folks might see a similarily between Dr. Mabuse’s organization and his own. Lang departed for France shortly thereafter and from there to the United States where he had an illustrious second career. This was one of my favorites of its year and I don’t foresee it dropping from my new list. Highly recommended.
