Ian (Flash Review)Where do I even start describing this? At its core this is a detective thriller as a police inspector is on the trail of a recent random crime wave. As clues emerge, they lead to a man who is inside an insane asylum; that's strange. This man's scribbling writings are detailed accounts of the actual crimes that just occurred. How can this be!? There is a lot more to the story which weaves through many characters and unusual scenes that are all very intriguing. The cinematography is striking and there are smart uses of various camera angles and the film stock is rich. There are several scenes with double negative characters. One scene amazed me as visually transparent person physically handed a 'real' person a stack of papers. Very cool in 1933 and even today! The story is unique and even has a car chase, explosions and booby-traps.

Dalbert Pringle This German Crime/Thriller from 1933, which was directed by Fritz Lang, may be somewhat slow-paced and over-long at 121 minutes, but, all the same, it does contain some striking images and is notable for its "expressionistic" camera-work.This film also has something of an interesting bit of history behind its release, which saw it banned from being screened in Germany until 1951.As the story goes - When Adolph Hitler rose to power in 1933, Joseph Goebbels was appointed Minister of Propaganda. Being in this position of great authority, Goebbels had "Dr. Mabuse" (as well as other films) banned in Germany.Goebbels believed that "Dr. Mabuse" was the sort of film that would seriously decrease the audience's confidence in its statesmen since it showed that an extremely dedicated group of people (of the criminal-minded type) were perfectly capable of overthrowing any state with violence (which sounds exactly like what the Nazis did).Needless to say, Lang, who was worried about the advent of the Nazi regime, partly because of his Jewish heritage, soon emigrated to France, and, then, in 1936, to Hollywood, USA."Dr. Mabuse" tells the tale of a new wave of diabolical criminal activity that has gripped the city of Berlin. Clues to its source lead to the nefarious criminal-mastermind, Dr. Mabuse who, even though he has been imprisoned in a mental asylum for nearly a decade, is actually capable of incredible feats of mind-control using telepathic-hypnosis.

LeonLouisRicci The first thing that literally Jumps out at the Viewer while watching this 1933 Movie is that Visually it doesn't look like a 1933 Movie. The Contrast and the Sharpness are Breathtaking. This is just the beginning of the Enhanced and Surprising Experience that is Mabuse.It is also no Wonder that this Film is one of the most Lauded and Praised of Early Foreign Cinema. Another of those German Expressionisms that You hear so much about. All the while Hypnotized by its Stylism, the Pulp/Sci-Fi/Horror/Crime Amalgamation unfolds, the Viewer is Entranced by a Grandiose Vision of the Director and Dr. Mabuse.Evil is Portrayed as a Hybrid of Matter and Spirit, perhaps taking some of the Blame and placing it in the Realm of the Supernatural. But Criminal Masterminds and Tyrannical Dictators do behave as though there is some sort of Possession, whether it be Self-Imposed Megalomania or Directed from the Pits of Hell, does it really matter? The resulting Devastation is the same.The Film Wavers between Slam-Bang, Enthralling Entertainment and Political Posturing Stimulating Thought and, perhaps Action from its Audience. The Latter most likely the reason the Nazis banned the Movie and Fritz Lang said Goodbye to Germany, His Native Land. The Film remained Lost and Butchered for quite a while, but it is back now, completely Restored and Looking as Good as Ever, and what a Sight it is.

kurosawakira I have yet to see the first Mabuse film, something I'm more than willing to do now that I've encountered this lovely, masterful film. It's a brilliant tour de force in film-making, not only in technique but in narrative as well, and also a uniquely brave and astute exploration of sound in film. Consider that this is the man's second sound film, and that sound film hadn't been around that long in the first place. The sound. This is amongst the funniest films I've ever seen. Not the kind of Marx Brothers witticism-kind of funny, but filmically funny: humorous, yes, but easygoing in the cinematic sense, where one astonishingly acute and functional idea is followed by another, resulting in a frantic display of discovery and joy. That kind of funny. There are various moments of the kind here, from the sound transition from the ticking of the bomb to breaking an egg with a spoon to the visual transitions of opening a book and entering its plot in the next shot.Wernicke is just as brilliant as one might expect, and his Lohmann has become an insignia of sorts. Everything works. Even Wera Liessem's overtly shallow Lilli works in the context of the film, her near-swooning love for Kent reducing her to a mere ornament without much to add, but the general ambiance of the film allows for that, indeed makes it work.I see this as a film that's not as serious as deemed by some, indeed even by its director. I do understand and by no means disregard the Nazi reading, but to merely reduce this wonderfully riotous film to a mere prophecy of the Nazi regime is, in the long run, something I find to be very harmful. Indeed, I again understand Lang's willingness to pinpoint his distaste for the Nazi party by exhuming evidence from his films, but that's something we really don't need to do, since "Mabuse" works so effortlessly on its own. You read all the historical bleakness into it you want, and at times it is strikingly shivering, but more than anything I cherish this film for being a cinematic triumph much in the free-spirited vein of Vigo and Yamanaka."Mabuse" has been released on Blu-ray (region B) by the Masters of Cinema series in a lovely steelbook, whose only shortcoming is that it doesn't include the French version of the film that, incidentally, is included on the Criterion Collection DVD.