Mabuse series

(In French, On Cable TV, August 2020) The only thing more amazing about Dr. Mabuse getting a second sequel nearly forty years after the first film is that the same director, the legendary Fritz Lang, was around to helm it. Updating the Mabuse mythos to the Cold War era (all the while following the previous two films), The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse is a satisfying follow-up: Mabuse seems more credible than in his silent film debut, and the action does end up updating the car chase of the second instalment to then-contemporary standards. I found it surprisingly interesting, and a further link between the original Mabuse and the supervillain archetype that became more popular in films during the 1960s. I don’t completely like it (some of the plotting is just ridiculous) and it can’t hope to touch the original in terms of historical importance, but The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse is probably the easiest one to watch these days. That it happened to be Lang’s final film rather puts a full-circle bow on his career.

(On Cable TV, August 2019) I’m not going to dismiss The Testament of Dr. Mabuse entirely, because there’s quite a bit of interesting material here from writer-director Fritz Lang. Unfortunately, you do have to wade through more than two hours of deadly pacing issues and silliness in order to get there. The pacing is, alas, an artifact of its time—By 1933, the German film industry hadn’t universally let go of silent movie conventions, including the concision allowed by spoken dialogue. There’s a lot of repetitiveness to this second Mabuse story, going over the same plot points in excruciating detail. It leads to a somewhat underwhelming ending, blowing its biggest explosions about fifteen minutes before the end and leaving us with an underwhelming climax. There’s also an intrusive use of the supernatural (even as a suggestion) in a story whose point is to remain grounded in some kind of reality. The film does anticipate a slew of schlocky horror sequels in giving Mabuse an enthusiastic adept fit to power a sequel, but otherwise keeps with the spirit of the original. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the film is the way it portrays 1930s Germany struggling to keep up with a super-criminal dedicated to chaos. There are also some interesting visuals along the way, as befit a filmmaker of Lang’s stature. Still, it’s a bit of a slog to get through The Testament of Dr. Mabuse and I’m not sure I’d recommend it to anyone but 1930s completists.