The 20th century produced many iconic arch-villains, both in real life and in fiction. Among the latter, one of the most famous—partly because it allegedly inspired the former—is the criminal mastermind Dr. Mabuse. He first appeared in Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, a 1921 serialised crime novel by the Luxembourgish writer Norbert Jacques. A year later, the novel was adapted in Germany into the eponymous silent film directed by Fritz Lang, which is nowadays considered one of the classics of Weimar cinema and also marks the beginning of a film series that would last for decades.
The title character, played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge, is Dr. Mabuse, a psychoanalyst who also possesses hypnotic abilities as well as a talent for impersonation, which he abuses to create a small criminal empire together with a band of confederates. His modus operandi includes taking various identities, one of which is that of a famous stockbroker who makes a killing at the stock market through a carefully staged robbery of a courier carrying important business documents. His next target is Edgar Hull (played by Paul Richter), the son of a wealthy industrialist who, with the help of the beautiful dancer Cara Carozza (played by Aud Egede-Nissen), gets cheated out of a small fortune in an illegal casino. The person who suspects that all these incidents might be the work of a single individual is State Prosecutor Norbert von Wenk (played by Bernhard Goetzke), who begins his own investigation, sometimes employing impersonation himself. To catch Dr. Mabuse, he receives the help of the beautiful Countess Dusy Told (played by Gertrude Welker), whose mentally unbalanced husband, Count Told (played by Alfred Abel), is one of the victims of Mabuse's manipulations.
Producer Erich Pommer obtained the rights and work on the film began while Jacques' novel hadn't been serialised to completion. This might explain why scriptwriter Thea von Harbou and director Fritz Lang felt more constrained by the literary source and its serial nature, resulting in a film that at times resembles early silent cinema serials, including those by the French director Louis Feuillade that had obviously served as inspiration for Lang. Ultimately, Dr. Mabuse is an extremely long film that lasts nearly four and a half hours in its integral version and was originally distributed in two parts. As such, it requires considerable patience from viewers, even those accustomed to the technical limitations of silent cinema. It takes some time before Dr. Mabuse properly gets going, but once it does, von Harbou's script makes good sense, and viewers will be rewarded with interesting characters, a compelling plot, and its action-packed resolution. The long running time also allows Lang to turn his film into a commentary on the state of Germany in the early 1920s, including economic chaos reflected in stock market shenanigans and currency manipulations, as well as political troubles mirrored in Mabuse taking the identity of a street agitator who stirs an impoverished mob to do his bidding. Lang even takes the luxury of commenting on German Expressionism, which is explicitly mentioned in the characters' dialogue. Lang's realistic approach is also reflected in scenes featuring nudity and characters using rather salty language for 1920s standards.
Dr. Mabuse benefits greatly from an inspired cast. Rudolf Klein-Rogge, who was married to Thea von Harbou during production, delivers a strong performance in the complex role that requires his character to take multiple identities. During the shooting, von Harbou began an affair with Lang, whom he would eventually marry. All that, however, didn't affect the film's quality. Klein-Rogge's separation from his wife was amicable, and the actor later had no problems working with Lang again, resulting in his most iconic role as the mad scientist Rotwang in Metropolis five years later. Lang also demonstrates his willingness to use technical innovations, such as in the hallucination scenes that feature reasonably impressive special effects for its time, as well as nighttime cinematography, something quite rare in cinema of that era.
Dr. Mabuse was rather successful at the box office, and one of its fans was allegedly an up-and-coming politician named Adolf Hitler. Some critics were prone to interpret Dr. Mabuse as an embodiment of anti-Semitic stereotypes, but later, many saw Dr. Mabuse as an inspiration for the future German leader and his hypnotic speeches that helped him seduce the masses and pave his way to power. In 1933, shortly before Hitler's rise to power, Lang made the sound sequel The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, and in West Germany in 1960, he made another sequel titled The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, which would later spawn a series of four additional films produced by Artur Brauner.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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