12. Dr. Mabuse, Der Spieler (1922) [Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler]
Germany 95m (Part 1) 100m (Part 2) Silent BW
Director: Fritz Lang
Producer: Erich Pommer
Screenplay: Norbert Jacques, Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou
Photography: Carl Hoffman
Music: Konrad Elfers
Cast: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Alfred Abel, Aud Egede Nissen, Gertrude Welcker, Bernhard Goetzke
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This two-part epic was a major commercial success in Germany in 1922, doubtless because of its everything-including-the-kitchen-sink approach, scrambling thrills, horrors, politics, satire, sex (including nude scenes!), magic, psychology, art, violence, low comedy, and special effects. Whereas the escapades of Fantomas (and even Fu Manchu) belong to that netherworld between the surreal and the pulpy, Dr. Mabuse was intended from the outset not merely as flamboyant thriller but as pointed editorial, using the figure of the master-of-disguise supercriminal to embody the real evils of its era.
The subtitles of each of the film’s two parts, harping on about “our time”, underline the point made obvious in the opening act, in which Mabuse’s gang steals a Swiss-Dutch trade agreement –not to make use of the secret information, but to create a momentary stock market panic which affords Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), in disguise as a cartoon plutocrat with top hat and fur coat, to make a fast fortune. He also employs a band of blind men as forgers, contributing to the sense German audiences at the time felt that money was worthless (Mabuse sees this coming and orders his men to switch over to forging U.S. currency since even real marks aren’t worth as much as counterfeit dollars).
The film’s eponymous villain shuffles photographs as if they were a deck of cards, selecting his identity for the day from various disguises, but it is nearly two hours before his “real” name is confirmed –by which time, we have seen Mabuse in several other guises, from respected psychiatrist to degenerate gambler to hotel manager. In Part 2, he appears as an one-armed stage illusionist, and finally loses his grip on the fragile core of his identity to become a ranting madman, tormented by the hollow-cheeked specters of those he has killed and, in a moment which still startles, by the creaking-to-life of vast, grotesque statues and bits of machinery in his final lair. Director Fritz Lang, and others, would return to Mabuse, still embodying the ills of the age –notably in the early talkie Das Testament von Dr. Mabuse and the 1961 hi-tech surveillance melodrama The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse.
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Information
Internet Movie Database (IMdb)
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RapidShare Links
1. Teil: Der große Spieler aka First Part: The Great Gambler
http://rapidshare.com/files/117388319/Dr-Mab-1.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/117391140/Dr-Mab-1.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/117395050/Dr-Mab-1.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/117399407/Dr-Mab-1.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/117402069/Dr-Mab-1.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/117404526/Dr-Mab-1.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/117406688/Dr-Mab-1.part7.rar
2. Teil: Inferno des Verbrechens aka Second Part: Inferno
http://rapidshare.com/files/117408927/Dr-Mab-2.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/117411109/Dr-Mab-2.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/117413129/Dr-Mab-2.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/117415256/Dr-Mab-2.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/117417179/Dr-Mab-2.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/117419398/Dr-Mab-2.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/117421166/Dr-Mab-2.part7.rar
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This article was written by Kim Newman and is included in the book “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die” (Ed. S. J. Schneider)
Copyright © 2006 Quintet Publishing Ltd
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