Dr Mabuse, The Gambler [Dr Mabuse, Der Spieler] ***** (1922, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Bernhard Goetzke, Aud Egede-Nissen, Gertrude Welcker) – Classic Movie Review 2988

Co-writer/director Fritz Lang’s 1922 German movie is a highly acclaimed and much admired classic of silent cinema. It stars Rudolf Klein-Rogge as the mad master arch-criminal Dr Mabuse, who plans to run Berlin and then rule the world with the help of disguises, hypnotism and blackmail. ‘There is no such thing as love, only passion!’ he says. ‘No luck, only the will to gain power!’

Dr Mabuse and his organisation of criminals are plotting a theft of information to make huge profits on the stock exchange. Mabuse goes in disguise to the Folies Bergères show, where dancer Cara Carozza (Aud Egede-Nissen) gives him info on his next victim, young millionaire Edgar Hull (Paul Richter). But the state attorney, Staatsanwalt von Wenck (Bernhard Goetzke), sets out to try to track Mabuse down and stop his crazy schemes.

Lang’s deservedly still famous and highly engaging silent-movie caper thriller is driven with loads of plot, melodramatic acting and Expressionist style visuals (courtesy cinematographer Carl Hoffman), and has a strong anti-fascist warning message foretelling the rise of Hitler and the Nazis. It also features Alfred Abel, Gertrude Welcker, Lil Dagover, Paul Richter, Hans Adalbert Schlettow, Georg John and Robert Forster-Larrinaga.

The screenplay by Lang and Thea von Harbou is taken from Norbert Jacques’s novel. It was originally in two parts: Der Grosse Spieler (154 minutes) and Inferno (114 minutes). The edited combined single film funs 231 minutes and 297 minutes  in the restored version. The original title is Dr Mabuse, der Spieler – Ein Bild der Zeit.

Sequels: The Testament of Dr Mabuse (1933) and The Thousand Eyes of Dr Mabuse.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2988

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