THE THOUSAND EYES OF DR. MABUSE [Die 1000 Auguen des Dr. Mabuse] (Masters of Cinema) Blu-ray

Of the twelve Dr. Mabuse movies, Fritz Lane made three. This was his last movie of his career. (He died not long after it's completion.) Of all the Mabuse movies this is by far the best. If you understand the mind of Fritz Lang and his hatred of the Natzis you will appricate the location. The Hotel Luxor is a hotel built by the Natzs with hidden cameras and recording devices to house foreign dignitaries in Berlin. Mabusa is dead but he is channeled through...well I won't spoil the mystery you have to buy it to find out.

Fritz Lang for ever

For the great Fritz Lang of Vienna, Austria this movie might be his worst. However, it is still very cool. Peter van Eyck is a gem. See anything with him in it anyway. This film is weird and wonderful in that it never stops being weird for a moment. Peter Cornelius, a blind fortuneteller is a charter one can get into if you dig old comic books.

Fritz Lang comes full circle: MABUSE made his name nearly forty years earlier with the silent serial DR. MABUSE, DER SPIELER (1922), and here Mabuse closes out his directorial career, in his home country Germany. Made on a shoestring budget with pretty obviously cardboard-quality sets, this is nonetheless nearly up to the level of the director's finest work, the fatalism and paranoia, the distrust of government and big business every bit as potent if not more so in the era of TV and jet aircraft as it was in the years before Hitler came to power. The plot is so complex and takes so many quick turns that, less than 2 weeks after seeing it, I'm already at a loss to readily describe it. Suffice it to say that a TV reporter dies in his car in traffic; at first, no foul play is suspected but soon it's found that he has a needle embedded in his brain, fired from some experimental weapon. Meanwhile a young woman connected with the anchorman tries to commit suicide -- she is saved by an American businessman, who soon becomes embroiled in the intrigue which in addition to an SF weapon involves 1-way mirrors, cameras watching nearly everyone's every move, a seer/magician and exploding telephones. Really, describing the plot would ruin much of the fun. Gert Frobe is really excellent as the police inspector in charge of the case; like a great many Americans I know him only as "Goldfinger" but he shows great ability here as a world-weary but still committed, intelligent and canny cop. The rest of the cast is solid, the crisp B/W photography and music all work to establish a claustrophobic, dangerous atmosphere....the VHS tape I watched was of surprisingly high quality. Not quite as engaging or exciting as the first two in the series, but still a more than fitting end to one of the greatest directorial careers in cinema. Strongly deserving of a quality American DVD release, but in the meantime this VHS is OK if you can get it used or cheap; or, if you have a multiregion DVD player (and why wouldn't you?) you can spring for the Masters of Cinema "Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse" set available in the UK.

Not as good as the earlier German masterpieces, Dr. Mabuse der Speiler and the Testament of Dr. Mabuse. This version was more expensive to buy in the German with English subtitles. I had bought the English dubbed version first, and it was terrible, the voices loud and jarring. However, getting the German version didn't do much to make it better. I believe not having Thea von Harbou as part of the production may have been part of the problem. (note Lang always seems to have taken full credit for his films but von Harbou was I believe his muse in the early days and her contribution has often been overlooked. But having read more of Lang's biography it is clear that his style of running things did not jibe with Hollywood and his eyesight was failing badly from his glaucoma and a botched surgery, so he was prevented from being able to do as much as he might have otherwise. But no matter, the story falls kind of flat, even with the references to the earlier films such as shooting the victim on a busy street in an almost exact configuration of the earlier works. I definitely recommend the first two as well as Metropolis wholeheartedly.

The Mabuse films by Fritz Lang are not just "cop-and-thieves" thrillers: of course they are quite enjoyable as a thriller-suspence crime movies, but for those with the eyes to see, Mabuse is really a metaphore of power and its functions in a modern society. Already in 1922, when Lang made the first Mabuse films (DOCTOR MABUSE in two parts; a new restored DVD of this film is now in preparation), he foresaw not only the rise of Hitler and the Nazis, but also a society under control (or hypnosis) by the medias and informations sirculating on them. Lang's last entry to the series, THE 1000 EYES OF DR.MABUSE, is a nightmarish alegory of the post-war modern society. The Luxor Hotel where the story mainly takes place is a buiding made by the Nazis and has a secret camera system ovserving every single thing that happens in it. The idea that we are all observed by those who are in power has now, as you see around yourself, became our own reality. Many contemporary filmmakers, such as Wim Wenders with his END OF THE VIOLENCE, try to portray the same idea, but none of them are as efficient as Lang, inspite of the low budget Lang was allowed to spend, and the classic cliche framework (involving a psychic clairvoyant and an American millionaire hero). It's a masterpiece, in the sense that it is really an oeuvre of the master. The new digital transfer from original 35mm elements is almost flawless and displays Langs lucid vision of the world in a stunning manner. In the bonus featurettes, people who knew Lang in his last years talks about him, and is also quite interesting. One problem, though: the featurette tells us the name of those people but most of them we don't know who they are. I am also looking forward for the release of THE TESTAMENT OF DR.MABUSE (the 1932 original) on a DVD that looks as good as this one.

Die 1000 Augen sind ein Filmklassiker! Sehr gut gemacht und durchweg sehr spannend. Auch vom Thema erstaunlich aktuell. Besonders die Schauspieler Gerd Fröbe und Peter von Eyck brillieren in ihren Rollen. Besonders schön; Es wird ständig viel geraucht und getrunken. Pfeife und Zigarren. Es waren wunderbare Zeiten damals! Auch die Verfolgungsfahrten zum Schluss sind spannend und aufregend gemacht, bei wenigem Verkehr damals. Alles in allem sehr sehenswert und zeitlos! Thomas M. aus HH

Disappointing

Berlin, 1960. Au moment où l'inspecteur Kras (Gert Fröbe) est averti par le Dr Cornelius (Wolfgang Preiss), un médium aveugle, qu'un assassinat va se produire, un tueur (Howard Vernon) abat un homme alors que leurs voitures se trouvent côte à côte à l'arrêt sur une grande artère de la ville. Une aiguille d'acier est extraite du cerveau du cadavre. L'arme du crime s'avère être un prototype de l'armée américaine. Le procédé n'est pas sans rappeler celui utilisé autrefois par le Dr Mabuse, de sinistre mémoire... "Le diabolique Dr Mabuse" est le dernier film de Fritz Lang. Le célèbre réalisateur revient sur un des personnages-clés de sa filmographie, Mabuse, homme protéiforme, véritable incarnation du mal, déjà mis en scène en 1922 dans "Dr Mabuse, le joueur" et en 1933 dans "Le testament du Dr Mabuse", film réalisé peu avant son exil américain. L'objectif de ce Mabuse des années 60: semer le chaos en s'emparant des secrets de l'Américain Travers (Peter van Eyck), riche industriel du nucléaire. Le lieu du crime: l'hôtel Louxor édifié par les nazis, truffé de caméras, de micros et de miroirs sans tain. D'où le titre allemand - "Die tausend Augen des Dr Mabuse" - bien plus explicite que sa transcription française, un titre sous lequel Lang dénonce les dangers des technologies modernes (et notamment du nucléaire), le voyeurisme et les modes de surveillance, évocation de pratiques perpétrées sous le IIIe Reich mais aussi à l'époque de la Guerre froide (n'oublions pas que l'action se situe à Berlin, lieu emblématique de cette période). "Le diabolique Dr Mabuse" est un film résolument moderne, dynamique et bien interprété. En bonus, signalons notamment l'analyse d'Olivier Père et l'interview de Howard Vernon qu'une indéfectible amitié liait au Maître depuis le tournage de ce film. A recommander.

Le Dr Mabuse revient dans le monde du crime en 1960 sous la direction de Fritz Lang. Ce sera la troisième et dernière incursion du célèbre super-criminel présenté par le cinéaste allemand. Un retour aux source pour ce réalisateur et pour le plaisir des amateurs de suspense avec une touche de fantastique. Une histoire qui ne sera peut-être plus aux goûts du public d'aujourd'hui, friands de films d'actions aux effets spéciaux numériques avec acteurs sur fond vert. J'ai regardé ce blu-ray (film seulement) sur mon lecteur PANASONIC zone A. Mais si vous avez un lecteur SONY, il y a de fortes chances que la lecture ne soit refusée. Les bonus ne sont lisibles sur aucun des deux lecteurs A que j'ai testé. Concernant le film, la qualité image est formidable...ainsi que la piste audio originale ou son doublage en français. Du beau travail de l'éditeur français ESC.

After 20 years in Hollywood, Fritz Lang returned to his native Germany and resurrected an old protagonist to be the subject of his final film, master criminal Dr. Mabuse. Set within a hotel where the guests are viewed via tv monitors in every room, the story centers upon diverse characters including guests (Peter Van Eyck, Dawn Addams), police inspector (Gert Fröbe), blind clairvoyant (Wolfgang Preiss) and insurance salesman (Werner Peters), but not all are what they seem and one of them could be the manipulative Mabuse. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t live up to the imaginative standards set by its two predecessors (“Gambler” and “Testament”), with a mediocre screenplay and wooden performances, especially from the two leads, adding up to a disappointing mystery thriller. There’s a choice of English (poorly dubbed) and German (with subtitles) languages, with the accompanying 40 page booklet providing a brief insight into Fritz Lang’s career and the Mabuse trilogy. Sadly, a disappointing finale for Fritz Lang on home territory.