The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse

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Taylor L Feels oddly reminiscent of a modern Christopher Nolan thriller with its many crossed wires, sometimes substituting complexity for a good story. Fritz Lang's final outing as a director brought him back to Germany and to the character that made him famous, the malevolent, mysterious Dr. Mabuse. Lang's earlier, more experimental Mabuse films (including the four-and-a-half-hour silent epic Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler) were pioneering works that helped to establish some of the style that would evolve into the noir, using a central character that was uniquely chaotic and diabolical for the period, to the point where some later critics thought that he might be Lang's analogy for the power brokers that ruthlessly cut up Germany in the confusion of the Weimar Republic, including the Nazis. In contrast, 1,000 Eyes seems to show more of Lang's commercial side that he picked up in his decades in Hollywood; the story is a competent but far less atmospheric thriller that shows Mabuse almost like a B-movie monster or one of James Bond's lesser Spectre antagonists (the focus on gadgets and espionage certainly encourage the latter comparison). A bit too complex for its own good, but plenty entertaining, especially if you're a fan of hidden doors. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 12/07/23 Full Review Audience Member Fritz Lang would make three films featuring the Dr. Mabuse character. The second one, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), filmed in Germany, is a brilliant and prophetic work in which the parallels between Dr. Mabuse and Adolf Hitler are quite obvious. Hitler liked Lang's films and according to Lang, Joseph Goebbels, who banned The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, nevertheless offered him a position as the head of German film studio UFA.  Lang, part Jewish, left Germany that very evening. In America Lang was successful as a filmmaker though he wasn't well liked by actors, particularly Henry Fonda, who resented his autocratic behavior. By 1960, Lang, then 70, was unable to find work in Hollywood and agreed to travel to Germany to remake The Indian Tomb, a film he had developed in the 20's but didn't get a chance to direct. When that was finished, producer Artur Brauner suggested a remake of Testament of Dr. Mabuse but Lang persuaded him to let him make a new installment of the series. There was to be a production with English actors as well but financial support was withdrawn when Lang refused to agree to working with a co-director. Thus we only have the German version which unfortunately was dubbed for US and UK release. I might have enjoyed this film a little more if it had been in German with English subtitles but it still suffers from an incoherent plot and dialogue that sounds as though it was written by high school students. The last fifteen minutes manages to be somewhat exciting though full of improbabilities but the final scene is as sappy as they come. Yet the film was successful and led to a series of new Mabuse films though none were directed by Lang who was by then nearly blind. He died in Los Angeles in 1976. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Audience Member Fritz Lang's penultimate film is not one of his classics, but it sure is a lot of fun. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member A great german return for the third and final act of Langs Dr. Mabuse trilogy. Nearly thrity years after the seconds chapter and nearly fourthy after the first part, its as exciting as the others. The story are building through the whole film and every piece falls into order at the intense and thrilling end. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member So, that's how a Fritz Lang Bond movie would have looked like... After being utterly amazed by the 4.5 hour Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, I decided to check out the other parts of the "series" (at least the ones that Lang directed). Coincidentally, the Viennale film festival features a Fritz Lang tribute this year and so I could watch them both on the big screen. Because of scheduling issues I had to watch the last entry - Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse - before 1933's Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse. Anyways, this is an entertaining little flick with strong American influence (Lang did this after his time in Hollywood - it's his last ever directing job btw) and surprisingly little finesse and artfulness. Not that it's not a good film or way better than most other similar movies but this is purely entertainment cinema for the masses. With the tricks he learned in his Hollywood Noirs, Lang made the last Dr. Mabuse a combination of film noir, his own distinctive style, typical Dr. Mabuse themes (surveillance, bogus supernaturalism,...) and a certain flair reminiscent of the upcoming spy films of the 60s. More than once I was reminded of the early Bond films - the silly shootings, the quirky gadgets and the dated über-technology features (and of course the presence of Gert Fröbe). Only the strong male hero was missing and there wasn't a menacing villain either but at least a poor female whose only purpose is to fall in love with a man she actually should fight. I liked it, and it's fairly good entertainment but way more superficial than I expected. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Audience Member Lang continues his partnership with Artur Brauner, revisiting the criminal mastermind that played such a big role in his German career, comes out with a sometimes confusing, stilted, but typically Langian spy thriller worthy enough to stand as the last gasp of an aging, blinding, master. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse

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