In Collection
#790
Seen It:
Yes
Crime, Foreign, Horror
Germany / German
Leon Askin |
Flocke |
Oscar Beregi Sr. |
Prof. Dr. Baum |
Senta Berger |
Nelly |
Ze'ev Berlinsky |
Gulliver |
Paul Bernd |
Erpresser / Blackmailer |
Gerhard Bienert |
Juwelen-Anna |
Henry Bless |
Bulle |
Gustav Diessl |
Kent |
Rolf Eden |
Eddie |
Heinrich Gotho |
Muller |
Henry Pleß |
Bulle |
Paul Henckels |
Lithograph / Litographer |
Oskar Höcker |
Bredow |
Georg John |
Baums Diener / Baum's Servant |
Rudolf Klein-Rogge |
Dr. Mabuse |
Adolf E. Licho |
Dr. Hauser |
Theo Lingen |
Karetzky |
Josef Dahmen |
|
Heinrich Gretler |
|
Otto Wernicke |
|
Director |
Fritz Lang; Werner Klingler |
Producer |
Fritz Lang; Seymour Nebenzal |
Writer |
Fritz Lang; Thea von Harbou; Norbert Jacques |
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse is Fritz Lang's sequel to his flamboyant
Dr. Mabuse two-part epic of the 1920s, this time adding subtle use of sound to the creepy effects developed for the earlier film. Once a Moriarty-like mastermind, the haggard Dr M (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) has become an autistic asylum inmate who scrawls plans for daring crimes in his cell and exerts an unhealthy influence on his psychiatrist. Inspector Lohmann (Otto Wernicke), the jolly policeman from Lang's
M, is puzzled by a series of daring crimes that bear the Mabuse signature, and a gang of thugs take instructions from a shadowy figure who claims after the doctor's death to be Mabuse reborn and is staging a reign of crime apparently designed to bring about the ruin of all law-abiding society.
Though it works best as a textbook thriller, some commentators, including Lang, suggested that the pulp plot was intended to allegorize the evil influence of the Nazi party, with a crime boss who rants like Hitler. The many impressive set-pieces still work, too: the pursuit of a spy through a grinding print-works, an assassination at a traffic light, hero and heroine trapped in a room with a bomb cutting a water main to flood their way to freedom, the persecution of the asylum head by a phantom of his patient, and a last-reel night-time chase. --Kim Newman
Distributor |
Criterion |
Edition |
Criterion |
Barcode |
037429187227 |
Region |
Region 1 |
Release Date |
18/05/2004 |
Packaging |
Custom Case |
Screen Ratio |
Fullscreen (4:3) |
Subtitles |
English |
Audio Tracks |
Dolby Digital Mono [English]
Dolby Digital Mono [German]
Mono [German] |
Layers |
Single Side, Dual Layer |
No. of Disks/Tapes |
2 |
Disc 1: |
|
Disc One Audio Commentary by David Kalat, author of The Strange Case of Dr. Mabuse Disc Two Excerpts from For Example Fritz Lang (Zum Beispiel Fritz Lang), a 1964 interview with Lang, directed by famed German documentarian Erwin Leiser (Mein Kampf) Mabuse in Mind (Mabuse im Gedachtnis), a 1984 film by Thomas Honickel featuring an interview with actor Rudolf Schundler Comparison between the 1933 German version, the French version, and The Crimes of Dr. Mabuse, the edited and dubbed American version of the film Interview with German Mabuse expert Michael Farin about writer Norbert Jacques, creator of the Mabuse character Rare Production design drawings by art director Emil Hasler (M, The Blue Angel) Collection of Memorabilia, press books, stills, and posters. Complete French language version of the film, Le Testament du Mr. Mabuse, filmed simultaneously by Lang with French actors. Plus: a new essay by Tom Gunning, author of The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity |
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