The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Directed by Fritz Lang • 1933 • Germany
Starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Otto Wernicke, Oskar Beregi, Sr.
Locked away in an asylum for a decade and teetering between life and death, the criminal mastermind Doctor Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) has scribbled his last will and testament: a manifesto establishing a future empire of crime. When the document’s nefarious writings start leading to terrifying parallels in reality, it’s up to Berlin’s star detective, Inspector Lohmann (Otto Wernicke, reprising his role from M) to connect the most fragmented, maddening clues in a case unlike any other. A sequel to his enormously successful silent film DR. MABUSE: THE GAMBLER, Fritz Lang’s THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE reunites the director with the character that had effectively launched his career. Lang put slogans and ideas expounded by the Nazis into the mouth of a madman, warning his audience of an imminent menace, which was soon to become a reality. Nazi Minister of Information Joseph Goebbels saw the film as an instruction manual for terrorist action against the government and banned it for “endangering public order and security.” A landmark of mystery and suspense for countless espionage and noir thrillers to come, this is the complete, uncut original director’s version in a stunning new transfer.
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The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Directed by Fritz Lang • 1933 • Germany
Starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Otto Wernicke, Oskar Beregi, Sr.Locked away in an asylum for a decade and teetering between life and death, the criminal mastermind Doctor Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) has scribbled his last will and testament: a manifesto esta...
Extras
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THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE Commentary
Recorded in 2003, this commentary features David Kalat, author of “The Strange Case of Dr. Mabuse” available from McFarland & Company.
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For Example Fritz Lang
The following interview with filmmaker Fritz Lang is excerpted from FOR EXAMPLE FRITZ LANG (ZUM BEISPIEL FRITZ LANG). It was shot in 1964 for German television and was directed by famed documentarian Erwin Leiser (MEIN KAMPF, 1960).
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Mabuse in Mind
Veteran German screen actor Rudolf Schündler was seventy-eight and practically blind when documentary filmmaker Thomas Honickel shot MABUSE IN MIND (MABUSE IM GEDÄCHTNIS) in 1984. Since playing gang member Hardy in Fritz Lang’s THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE in 1933, Schündler appeared in more than ...
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Michael Farin on THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE
In the following 2004 interview, film historian Hans Günther Pflaum talks to German Mabuse expert Michael Farin, shedding light on a rather unknown literary figure, Mabuse inventor Norbert Jacques. Farin is coeditor of a three-volume reprint of Jacques’ original Mabuse novels and stories, as well...
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The Three Faces of Dr. Mabuse
In this 2004 piece, film scholar David Kalat compares the differences between scenes from the 1933 German release of DAS TESTAMENT DES DR. MABUSE; LE TESTAMENT DU DR. MABUSE, the French version which director Fritz Lang filmed simultaneously; and THE CRIMES OF DR. MABUSE, the edited and dubbed Am...
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Fritz Lang on Anti-Nazi Filmmaking
In this late-1950s interview from the Gideon Bachmann audio archive, director Fritz Lang discusses how fleeing Nazi Germany impacted his filmmaking process.
