MUBI

Fitting that Fritz Land returned to his most famous, or infamous character, Dr.Mabuse to end his filmmaking career. The Mabuse character can be described as an allegory for many things, including, but not limited to, Big Government, Naziism, Corrupt Capitalistic Society and so on. The beauty of this film is in its cheesy, post-world war two feel. Rebuilt Berlin, Peter Van Eyck, who, in my opinion had two great roles: Bimba, in Clouzot’s wages of Fear and Hans-Dieter Mundt in Martin Ritt’s The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, here he is back to his old boring, stiff acting style. One would have thought that Lang, who was infamous for working his actors to death, would have gotten a better performance out of him.
The reason to watch, and hopefully enjoy this film is the history of Mabuse. Mind-Control, gadgets, the 60’s etc. This stuff is the predecessor of the James Bond films, albeit with a much lower budget, but if you let yourself imagine where this film will take us in a few years, it has its appeal and rightfully deserves a place in your DVD collection. BTW Gert Fröbe, whom fans will recognize as the future Goldfinger, is brilliant.