# Testament des Dr. Mabuse, Das (1933)

### reviewed by
Dennis Schwartz

TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE, THE (Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse) (director/writer: Fritz Lang; screenwriter: Thea von Harbou/from a Norbert Jacques novel; cinematographer: Fritz Arno Wagner; cast: Rudolf Klein-Rogge (Dr. Mabuse), Otto Wernicke (Commissioner Karl Lohmann), Gustav Diessl (Kent), Oscar Beregi, Sr. (Prof. Doctor Baum), Vera Liessem (Lili), Karl Meixner (Hofmeister), Camilla Spira (Anna), Theodor Loos (Dr. Kramm), Rudolf Schuendler (Hardy), Klaus Pohl (Muller); Runtime: 120; Nero/Janus Films; 1933-Ger.)

    Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

The sequel of Fritz Lang's popular silent movie made a decade earlier, on the criminally insane gambler, Dr. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), adapted from the novel by Norbert Jacques. In this film, Mabuse has escaped incarceration by being placed in a mental institution and is placed under the charge of the asylum's director, Dr. Baum (Oscar Beregi, Sr.). The doctor has built his reputation by studying the mad criminal genius and his use of hypnosis, as he gives lectures about him at the university. But Mabuse uses his hypnotic powers to control the director without him being aware of it and thereby continues his mad scheme to rule the world.

Lang used Mabuse as a symbol at first for corruption and decadence in Germany's Weimar Republic and in this film the parallel is drawn to the menace of Nazism, as Mabuse utters Nazi messages of hate from the asylum prison, much like Hitler did when imprisoned, brainwashing a band of criminals to carry out his plans of mass destruction. Here, Mabuse gets thugs to blow up chemical plants, rob banks, and commit acts of brutality. Goebbels recognized what Lang was doing and made the director change the last reel, while offering him a position as head of the film industry in Nazi Germany (supposedly to make propaganda films for the Nazis). Lang opted to leave in a hurry overnight, going to Paris and soon to Hollywood. His screenwriter wife, Thea von Harbou, chose to join the Nazi party and remain in Germany.

Inspector Lohman (Otto Wernicke), the very popular and respected lawman, who is comfortably overweight and loves to smoke cigars, is drawn into the case when he receives a call from Hofmeister (Karl Meixner), a policeman dismissed for taking a bribe, who tells him that he found a gang of bank forgers. But, while on the phone, Hofmeister disappears before he could mention names and places, but not before he scratches the name Mabuse on the window pane. This is the same Lohman from Lang's 1932 M, who chased Peter Lorre down.

The film was well-crafted, perfectly photographed in B&W, as it maintained a breezy pace and threw into the story some comedy and romance. The comedy came at the expense of Lohman, as he loses his hat during a car chase, feels disgruntled that he receives an emergency call that makes him late for the opera, and is befuddled as he scratches himself wondering why Dr. Kramm (Loos) was killed in heavy traffic. The romance takes place between one of Mabuse's henchmen, Kent (Gustav Diessl), who fell for Lily (Vera Liessem), as she lent him money when he got out of prison after serving over four years for murdering his sweetheart and his best friend. He tried to get an honest job but couldn't and now tells her he is a thief. She talks him out of staying in the criminal ring, but the two are taken by force to the secret criminal headquarters and are locked in a room and told they will die in three hours for his refusal to follow an order to rob a bank and replace the stolen money with forgeries. They are not told how they will die until they hear a loud ticking sound.

The chief mastermind, who no one sees, orders his henchmen around by using a record player and placing it in a room no one can enter. When Mabuse dies, a visiting Dr. Kramm finds the brilliant criminal testament of Dr. Mabuse on the floor and compares a news report of a jewelry robbery to what he is now reading and tells Baum that he is going to report it to the police, but is killed by Mabuse's elite Section 2B hitmen on orders from the unseen leader.

Mabuse, though now dead, nevertheless has hypnotized Baum so that he now thinks he's Mabuse and the criminal ring continues undeterred. There are even ghosts seen walking around (they represent the dead from the previous war who seek violent vengeance for what happened to them and their country). The whole feel of the movie is that it's brilliant hokum. Aside from its serious political message, this was a slapstick comedy, and a mystery story much influenced by those American serials, which were very popular at the time. It is definetly worth seeing.

    REVIEWED ON 2/19/2001     GRADE: B

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

    http://www.sover.net/~ozus

    ozus@sover.net

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