Review of The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) by Michael G — 30 Nov 2007

Legend has it Joseph Goebbels held a meeting with Fritz Lang to tell him 2 things: 1) That he was banning this movie, and 2) that the Nazi Party wanted to hire Lang as their propaganda filmmaker. Lang left Germany that night.

If that story is true then Nazis had a way of banning amazing works of art. The first 5 minutes of this movie prove its brilliance, as do the special effects and the final chase scene, which was actually pretty scary with the way the trees were lit.

But the scene where an insect-eyed Mabuse possesses Baum is one of the scariest things I've ever seen. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse started off slow (between that and the subtitles I was done in before the first 45 minutes before finally getting through the whole thing on a 3rd try) but I'll be damned if that last hour isn't worth it.