I’d heard much about this — Fritz Lang’s 1933 updating of an old serial, adapted from a novel about a criminal mastermind. The film uses its lovingly-reiterated generic conventions to take potshots at the Nazis, then ascendant in Germany.
I won’t say much about all this significance–I watched the Criterion disc, which comes with all of these important extras which someday, maybe, when terribly bored or in prep for a poorly-thought-through decision to teach this film, I need more background. Political allegory, censored film, genre/pop film as subversion, etc.
But I will recommend it on the merits. Despite (because of?) its antiquated plot techniques, there’s this dazzling melodramatic aesthetic:
–the mad criminal genius wanders like a ghost, his hypnotic eyes enlarged like a psychotic Hummel;
–one investigator, driven mad by the machinations of the criminal empire, sits in his asylum cell but imagines himself in the room where he last phoned for help, and we see ghostly outlines of that room superimposed over the cell;
–a final loony & wonderful car chase with drivers on soundstages in front of strangely-angled, starkly-lit trees in the film backdrop recalls Alex and his droogs driving through the country (or, rather, you see how Kubrick recalls Lang… for that matter, characters often talk directly into the camera, and I can’t help assuming that Demme stole this technique from Lang, as well).
As with most of Lang’s films, each shot is so meticulously composed that the film could probably work as a series of gorgeous photographs. The actors are still in silent-film mode, but the new wonders of sound provide some great new effects–the opening shots have a soundtrack of a clanging, buzzing industrial center ….
It’s no “M,” and I still vastly prefer “The Big Heat,” but it’s a good flick.
Oh, and I wept like a baby.
is this available on netflix?
yeah! rent it–testament of dr. mabuse…. pretty cool. i’m curious what you’d think…
I believe there is a sequel Lang made in the 1950s–something like “The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse” but I could be wrong…I can’t tell the difference between reality and my nightmarish dreams of eldritch lands of unspeakable horror.
You’re right, Michael. It is called “The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse.” This film has been released under a lot of different titles, from what I understand. It’s also known in the U.S. as “Eyes of Evil,” “The Shadow vs. the Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse,” and “Dr. Seuss vs. the 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.”
watched it last night and liked it a lot. i won’t go over the ground mike’s already covered but i was also struck by how into the explosions and car-chases and special effects the film is. on the one hand you have the social critique (that scene with mabuse’s “empire of crime” description is really something) and you can see why the nazis banned it; on the other, the film seems almost as into blowing things up as michael bay. of course i’m not suggesting a simple parallel. and the prehistoric spirit walking sequences are so much more creepy than current cgi effects. of course if lang was making movies now he might go for the cgi too, but there is a harmony between the melodramatic/gothic aesthetic and cheesy special effects.