Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler Parts 1 & 2 (Fritz Lang, 1922); Germany

Reviewed by Byron Potau.  Viewed on DVD.

Fritz Lang’s massive two part four and a half hour silent classic, Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, sets the template for criminal mastermind driven films to come. Master filmmaker Lang, working at such an early time in feature cinema, establishes many of the characteristics that would come to typify this subgenre.
 
Psychoanalyst, hypnotist, master criminal, master of disguise, and gambler, Dr. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) is a man of many talents all of which he employs in pursuit of thrills.  He has amassed a fortune, but it never seems to be the money he is after.  His thrill of gambling is with people’s lives.  He can literally possess a man with his eyes and make him do his will.  People are just a game to Dr. Mabuse.  It is this hubris that eventually will lead to his downfall.  Prosecutor Von Wenck (Bernhard Goetzke) investigates this mystery man, chasing one false identity of Mabuse’s which only leads to another.  Von Wenck, in all earnest, pursues relentlessly, but Mabuse is, all the time, only toying with this inferior man.

Lang creates a massive, larger than life character with a mise en scene richly detailed and orchestrated, bringing us into Mabuse’s underworld.  Mabuse’s schemes are well plotted, leading to a fun cat and mouse game with Von Wenck. Lang typically didn’t get the strongest performances from his actors even in his best silent work, but here both Klein-Rogge and Goetzke give excellent performances.

Kino, yet again, delivers a magnificent transfer of the film bringing Lang’s detail and lighting to its full potential.  This Restored Authorized Edition also adds an extra forty one minutes to the previous DVD release.  A virtual goldmine of film! 

One of several Lang masterpieces of the silent era, this, in an especially innovative year in cinema, is arguably the best film of 1922.