Dr. Mabuse the Gambler

Dr. Mabuse the Gambler
Directed by	Fritz Lang
Produced by	Erich Pommer
Written by	Fritz Lang Norbert Jacques Thea von Harbou
Starring	Rudolf Klein-Rogge Aud Egede-Nissen Gertrude Welcker Alfred Abel Bernhard Goetzke
Cinematography	Carl Hoffman
Release date(s)	Germany: 26 May 1922
Running time	270 mins.
Country	Germany
Language	German intertitles

Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (German: Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler) is the first film in the Dr. Mabuse series, about the character Doctor Mabuse who featured in the novels of Norbert Jacques. It was directed by Fritz Lang and released in 1922. The film is silent and filmed mostly 16 frames per second. It would be followed by The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) and The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960).

It is about four hours long and divided into two parts: Der große Spieler: Ein Bild der Zeit and Inferno: Ein Spiel um Menschen unserer Zeit. The title, Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler, is plurivalent. Der Spieler means the player in German, and can be translated as the gambler, the actor, or the puppeteer. Dr. Mabuse, who disguises, plays with emotions and tricks other people, is probably all of them in some sense.

Plot

Part I

Part I — The Great Gambler: An Image of the Age (Part I - Der große Spieler: Ein Bild der Zeit)

Dr. Mabuse is a criminal mastermind, a doctor in psychology and a master of disguise, armed with the powers of hypnosis and mind control, who oversees the counterfeiting and gambling rackets of the Berlin underworld. He visits gambling dens by night under various guises and aliases, using the power of suggestion to win at cards and finance his plans. Many are his henchmen; among them, Spoerri, his cocaine-addicted manservant; Georg, his chauffeur and sometime hitman; Petsch, an inept goon; Hawasch, who employs a gang of blind men in a counterfeiting operation; Fine, a woman who serves as a lookout; and Folies Bergère perfomer Cara Carozza, who has an unrequited crush on Mabuse.

As the film opens, Mabuse orchestrates the theft of a commercial treaty in order to create a panic in the stock market, which he exploits to gain huge profits. Millionaire Edgar Hull becomes Mabuse’s next victim; in the guise of "Hugo Balling", Mabuse gains access to Hull’s club and wins a small fortune at cards from the hypnotized Hull, who is made to play badly and gamble recklessly. Afterwards, Hull is unable to account for his behavior. State Attorney von Wenk takes an interest in his case, believing that whoever tricked Hull is the elusive “Great Unknown” who has previously victimized others in a similar manner. Von Wenk goes undercover to visit a gambling den, where he encounters a disguised Dr. Mabuse. Mabuse attempts to hypnotize von Wenk, who resists so strongly that Mabuse is left exhausted. Mabuse flees and von Wenk, quickly regaining his faculties, gives chase through the city, but the doctor evades capture. Boarding a cab driven by Georg, von Wenk is gassed and set adrift in a rowboat.

Dr. Mabuse realizes that Hull is assisting the State Attorney, and resolves to eliminate both men. La Carozza, who has been romancing Hull to secure information for Mabuse, lures Hull to an underground casino; when von Wenk calls in the police to raid the place, La Carozza and Hull exit through the back door, where Georg awaits. He kills Hull and escapes, but La Carozza is caught by the police and jailed. Von Wenk questions her for information about the "Great Unknown", but she refuses to speak. Von Wenk enlists the aid of Dusy Told (nicknamed the "Passive Lady", a countess with a penchant for frequenting casinos but never playing) to get the information from her. Locked up with La Carozza, Countess Told learns nothing of Mabuse's identity, but La Carozza’s lovelorn plight moves her to pity, and she tells von Wenk that she cannot continue to assist him.

Despite his henchmen’s suggestion, Dr. Mabuse refuses to extricate La Carozza from jail. He instead attends a séance where he meets Countess Told, who (while under his hypnotic power) invites him to her house. Once there, Mabuse, taken by the Countess’ beauty, decides to display his power by telepathically inducing her husband, Count Told, to cheat at a card game. His guests are outraged by the Count’s trickery, and the Countess faints. Dr. Mabuse uses the distraction to abduct her and imprison her in his lair.

Part II

Part II — Inferno: A Game for the People of our Age (Part II - Inferno: Ein Spiel um Menschen unserer Zeit)

A sick and disgraced Count Told seeks the help of Dr. Mabuse to treat him in his depression; Mabuse uses this chance to lock the Count in his manor and cut off any inquiries on the Countess’ whereabouts. The Count’s condition worsens and he is tormented by hallucinations.

Meanwhile, La Carozza is moved to a woman’s prison and again interrogated by von Wenk. Fearing betrayal, Mabuse sanctions La Carozza’s death. Georg smuggles poison to her cell, which she ingests out of loyalty to Mabuse. Another of Mabuse’s henchmen, Pesch, bombs von Wenk's office while posing as an electrician, but von Wenk is unharmed and Pesch is detained. Mabuse – again fearing betrayal – arranges for Petsch to be killed by a sniper while being transported in a police wagon.

Intent on leaving town, Mabuse asks the captive Countess’s hand. Her refusal angers him, and Mabuse vows that he will kill the Count. He visits him and, through his powers of suggestion, directs him to commit suicide. The Count, convinced by Mabuse that his wife has abandoned him, dies in shame. Later, as von Wenk investigates his death, he questions Dr. Mabuse as the Count’s psychoanalyst. Dr. Mabuse speculates that the Count had fallen under the control of a hostile will, and asks von Wenk if he is familiar with the experiments of one “Sandor Weltemann”, who will be performing a public demonstration of telepathy and mass hypnosis at a local theater.

Von Wenk and his men attend Weltemann’s show. Weltemann is none other than Mabuse in disguise, and his magic show provides him an opportunity to hypnotize von Wenk, who falls into a trance just as he realizes Mabuse’s identity. Mabuse's secret command to von Wenk is to leave the auditorium, get in his car, and drive off a cliff, but von Wenk’s men intercede just in time to save his life. Coming to his senses, von Wenk orders a siege on Dr. Mabuse’s house.

Dr. Mabuse and his men take a final stand guarding their hideout and a gunfight with the police ensues. Hawasch and Fine are killed, Spoerri and Georg are taken into custody, and the Countess is rescued. Dr. Mabuse flees the scene through an underground passage that leads to Hawasch’s counterfeiting workshop, where Mabuse becomes trapped, as the doors cannot be opened from the inside. He is confronted by the ghosts of his victims and various demonic illusions.

Spoerri, under interrogation and deprived of cocaine, reveals Mabuse’s location. Von Wenk and the police break into the hideout and arrest Dr. Mabuse, who has gone insane. The film ends as he is taken away by von Wenk into the night.

In Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, known also as The Last Will of Dr. Mabuse) it is revealed that Mabuse is, in fact, confined to an insane asylum.

Cast

• Rudolf Klein-Rogge – Dr. Mabuse
• Aud Egede-Nissen – Cara Carozza
• Gertrude Welcker – Gräfin Dusy Told
• Alfred Abel – Graf Told / Richard Fleury (US version)
• Bernhard Goetzke – Chief-Inspector Norbert von Wenk / Chief-Inspector De Witt (US version)
• Paul Richter – Edgar Hull
• Robert Forster-Larrinaga – Spoerri
• Hans Adalbert Schlettow – Georg, the Chauffeur
• Georg John – Pesch
• Charles Puffy – Hawasch
• Grete Berger – Fine, a servant
• Julius Falkenstein – Karsten
• Lydia Potechina – Die Russin / Russian woman
• Julius E. Herrmann – Emil Schramm
• Julietta Brandt (uncredited)
• Max Adalbert (uncredited)
• Anita Berber (uncredited)
• Paul Biensfeldt (uncredited)
• Gustav Botz (uncredited)
• Lil Dagover (uncredited)

Production notes

Based on Norbert Jacques' novel of the same name, Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler was adapted to the screen by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou. Although the novel was a best-seller at the time, Jacques was convinced by Lang and von Harbou to discontinue his plans for a literary series in exchange for a movie sequel to the hit 1922 film. The three went on to conceive Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933), also starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge as Mabuse. Lang's final film, Die tausend Augen des Dr. Mabuse (1960), picked up the character once more and rounded up the trilogy. Wolfgang Preiss took over the title role since Klein-Rogge had died in 1955. The movie was produced by Arthur Brauner, who would go on to produce five more movies centering on the character of Dr. Mabuse (whom Preiss portrayed in four more movies), including a 1962 remake of Lang's 1933 film.

There are many versions of Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler. The original German version, with a running time of about four hours, was later restored to 271 minutes by the Murnau Foundation. The final, restored version lasts 297 minutes. Generally, the movie was cut down and re-edited when originally shown. The USA video version lasts a little under four hours. At the time of its release, Soviet editors also re-cut the Dr. Mabuse films into one shorter film. The lead editor in charge of the cuts was Sergei Eisenstein.

External links

• Dr. Mabuse the Gambler at the Internet Movie Database
• Dr. Mabuse the Gambler is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• Dr. Mabuse the Gambler at AllRovi