DR MABUSE - Part 1: THE GAMBLER
(1922). Around
Berlin at the time Lang made the two parts of DR MABUSE, there were ghoulish
posters depicting a woman partnered with a dancing skeleton bearing the
caption: ‘Berlin, you’re dancing with Death’. Lang was not yet a political
person until he made METROPOLIS, enjoying a security in his life and work in
the early 1920s; however he was not oblivious to the darker side of human
experience and the discontent that fostered the rise of Nazism. He was
fascinated by criminality and spent time accompanying the police on crime scene
visits, research that inevitably bled into his work.
DR MABUSE,
(composed of a first film in two parts followed by a later sequel in 1933 THE TESTAMENT
OF DR MABUSE and the 1960 THE 1000 EYES IF DR MABUSE) details the life of a splendidly rapacious master criminal/master
of disguise who also possesses a supernatural gift for mesmerism that makes
Rasputin look like he’s barely trying. Such is Mabuse’s power that he can
induce mind control and even physical illness in his victims from across the
room even with their back turned. In this way, Rudolf Klein-Rogge’s fierce performance
recalls Michael Ironside’s Revok in the Cronenberg classic SCANNERS.
Klein-Rogge would go on famously to portray the scientist Rotwang in METROPOLIS
and was also in DESTINY, as was Bernhard Goetzke who played a memorably
haunting Death and here is Mabuse’s nemesis, determined to catch him almost at
his own peril.
Mabuse is a
gambler who uses his disguise ability to enter gambling dens and with his hypnotic
power persuades opponents to throw away perfectly good hands to give him
victory. He is something of a Berlin kingpin as he also has a lucrative
counterfeiting side racket and doesn’t restrict himself to mere cards. In the
opening, he steals a business contract in order to cause chaos and a run on
shares at the stock market to his benefit. Goetzke is State Prosecutor Von Wenk
who goes after Mabuse. First, he shows the strength of character to resist
Mabuse’s disguised card-player mesmerism but winds up gassed in a taxi-cab
whilst pursuing his man and wakes up robbed and adrift in a rowing boat.
Von Wenk
then tries to use the charms of the ladies yet finds that the villain’s suggestive
potency renders women heavily under his spell and resistant to betraying him. The
dancer Cara Carozza (Aud Egede-Nissen) clams up and his attempt at using
Countess Told (Gertrude Welcker) to wheedle the story out of her in jail is
foiled when she is touched by how strong the Svengali-like hold of Mabuse is
upon Carozza.
DR MABUSE - Part 2: INFERNO (1922). In the second part, Mabuse and Von
Wenk battle again with each other, Mabuse sending a henchman to bomb Von Wenk’s
office disguised as an electrician. The master criminal focuses his unearthly talent
on inducing the Countess’s husband to kill himself with a razor-blade whilst
treating him as a psychoanalyst. (Mabuse is nothing if not a hyphenate of predatory
talents). Lang provides us with an exciting climax where at a stage show Mabuse
re-hypnotises Von Wenk, successfully placing him fully under the influence he
couldn’t manage before. As Weltemann, the magical mentalist, thematically
Klein-Rogge is reminiscent of Dr Caligari, tapping into our subconscious to
brainwash willing subjects – echoing another strand of Expressionism. Unbeknownst
to the transfixed audience, he secretly compels Von Wenk to drive his car off a
cliff. Von Wenk’s friends sense something is wrong and mercifully he is rescued from auto-destruction. Finally,
Mabuse is cornered and it is here that the undead souls of his victims come to
haunt him superbly, ordering him with relish to “Take over the bank. Mabuse”. When Von Wenk arrives, all that is
left of his awesome arch-enemy is a tousle-haired, shattered old man, his mind
unravelled by the supernatural revenge bestowed upon him.
DR MABUSE is an enjoyable crime thriller with macabre
elements, and Lang even finds time to tease his fellow Expressonists with an exchange
in a club where one of Mabuse’s chums asks him what he Thinks of the movement. “Expressionism is a pastime” he replies
playfully, though Klein-Rogge’s forceful performance shows the stark simplicity
and power of Expressionism throughout.
Behind the scenes, the actor found that his wife Thea Von
Harbou was spirited away herself from him by the charms of his director. It
didn’t seem to affect their working relationship overly much as Klein-Rogge and
Lang continued to work together. METROPOLIS would be a masterpiece for them
both…
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