Review of The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) by Mathieu H — 19 Sep 2009
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse is able to hold its own against all of the thrillers that have been released subsequently. Lang uses stark, gritty, industrial and ghostly images to accentuate the incomprehensible evil of Mabuse and his schemes.
The scenes where we see the spirit of Mabuse are quite spooky. Otto Wernicke is quite good as the gruff cop who goes up against Mabuse. The parallels of Mabuse (who has been in an insane asylum putting his rantings to paper and plotting the rise of his empire of crime) and his bureaucratic organization (Division 2B is in charge of assassinations) to the Nazis are pretty eerie.
Fritz Lang says they were intentional, but you can never trust Lang's accounts of his motives. At the end the film is weighed down by the thriller conventions (e.g. the idiotic villain who informs the heroes they have three hours to live) but were all thrillers as creative and atmospheric as this one.
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This review of The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) was written by Mathieu H on 19 Sep 2009.
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse has generally received very positive reviews.
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