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Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Otto Wernicke, Gustav Diessl, Wera Liessem, Karl Meixner ... see more see more... , Theodor Loos , Gerhard Bienert , Camilla Spira , Josef Dahmen , Heinrich Gotho , Heinrich Gretler , Paul Henckels , Georg John , Theo Lingen , Karl Platen , Klaus Pohl , Paul Rehkopf , Mathias Franz Stein , Ludwig Stossel , Michael von Newlinsky , Rudolf Schündler , Oskar Hocker , Hadrian M. Netto , Bruno Ziener , Oscar Beregi Sr. , Paul Bernd , Henry Bless

Fritz Lang directed this sequel to his nearly four-hour Dr. Mabuse silent of 1922 (often shown in two parts, Dr. Mabuse: Der Spieler/The Gambler and Dr. Mabuse: King of Crime). The film opens with Det... read more read more...ective Hofmeister (Karl Meixner) spying on the activities of a criminal syndicate. Not realizing he has been seen, Hofmeister is attacked by the thugs and later turns up out of his mind. He is placed in the institution of Professor Baum (Oscar Beregi), who becomes increasingly obsessed with another patient -- the master criminal and hypnotist Dr. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge). Baum's assistant, Dr. Kramm (Theodor Loos), connects Mabuse's writings to a series of the syndicate's recent criminal activities, and is murdered for his knowledge by crime lord Hardy (Rudolf Schündler) who takes orders from a hidden Mabuse. Putting all these pieces together is chief investigator Lohmann (Otto Wernicke), whose story plays out simultaneously with that of ex-cop Thomas Kent (Gustav Diessl), a member of the gang who is torn between his need for money and his love for a young woman named Lilli (Wera Liessem). Various clues lead Lohmann to suspect Mabuse's involvement, but when he arrives at the asylum, Baum reveals that Mabuse has died. Meanwhile, Kent's decision to confess to the cops lands himself and Lilli in a room with a hidden bomb. Lohmann traps the gang in a moll's house, leading to a wild shootout. Kent and Lilli escape and race to Lohmann to tell him that Mabuse is behind the crimes. They all race back to the asylum where they discover that Mabuse has taken control of Baum, who sets a monstrous fire at a chemical factory. The mad doctor then leads Lohmann and Kent on a wild car chase back to the asylum where the mystery behind the Baum-Mabuse-Hofmeister connection takes a disturbing turn. ~ Patrick Legare, Rovi

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88% liked it

4,792 ratings

Critics

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11 critics

Unrated, 2 hr.

Directed by: Fritz Lang

Release Date: January 1, 1933

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DVD Release Date: May 18, 2004

Stats: 253 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (253)

  • flixsterman
    May 20, 2010
    flixsterman
    In spite of the efforts of men like Johannes Schultz and Gustave Le Bon, hypnosis was often viewed as something supernatural or other-worldly well into the mid-twentieth century. This was not lost on German director Fritz Lang who made full use of public misconception here in th... read moreis spin off of M. Though it's science is flawed, the rest of the film is well ahead of it's time.

    Lang's use of sound to tie scenes together (i.e. a ticking time-bomb becomes a man tapping on his breakfast egg) worked so well that similar effects are still being used today. The specter of Dr. Mabuse and his hypnotic mind control manifests itself in ghostly apparitions which Lang presents in transparent fashion, complete with makeup that is almost as effective and frightening today as it was in 1933.

    Don't expect this to be in the same league as Lang's landmark crime drama M, to compare the two would be unfair. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse is much more of a ghost story, a horror film, than it's predecessor but it is very much a classic in it's own right. Anchored in realism but delving far further into the macabre and the surreal.
  • danperry17
    March 8, 2009
    danperry17
    Fritz Lang always makes such an interesting study, and despite having not seen the rest of the series, I really enjoyed this film. Lang's oeuvre is a forerunner to many of the films - and genres themselves - that we've come to take for granted. This installment in the series is a... read more gangster film, effectively, except for the gang is more hell-bent on terrorist objectives than good old-fashioned cash-grabbing. Now add a haunting on top of the standard gangster fare, and make it all look like the first noir film you can imagine... you're basically there. Not the easiest to watch (as it's over 70 years old and the editing jumps around due simply to the restoration efforts made), but well worth it, once you're into it Lang's film proves exciting. And of particular note, there's one scene where an evil directive to the gang of terrorists is found to be coming from a recording... still quite topical, surprisingly...
  • groaningbitch
    March 25, 2008
    groaningbitch
    "the testament of dr. mabuse" is fritz lang's perverse thriller upon mental hypnotization as manipulative apparatus of evil saboteurs.

    dr. mabuse is a deranged assylum patient who scrabbles abstract manuscripts to puzzle his patriachist who descends as his surrogate puppet h... read moreeadleader of underground destructive activities. eventually evil is infectious in its ceaseless delivering.

    the scene of patriachist being possessed by dr. mabuse's evil spirit is macabrely spooky. mabuse with piercing sight and slanted sharp nose penetrates into the doctor's soul, and the envirnoment is hauntingly surrounded with the disfigured skulls of abnormal sinister men upon the shelf as specimen. one evil passes forward another as the vicious circle that is a metaphor of nazi's brain-rinsing control over the germany.

    lang transcends the patriachist/inmate reversion into a mythical analogy of social criticism, and the case pf dr. mabuse would be one of early cinematic human-beast who pestles the world in his absolute demonology that is satan conquers all in the end, far more sinister than the anthony hopkins' "cannibal lecter".
  • kenstachnik
    January 20, 2008
    kenstachnik
    Great psychological crime drama from the master Fritz Lang
  • rubystevens
    December 4, 2007
    rubystevens
    cool early german crime thriller expressing the common theme of man's anxiety in the industrial age. very good special effects for 1933! mabuse reminds me of a bond villain
  • mjgildea
    November 30, 2007
    mjgildea
    Legend has it Joseph Goebbels held a meeting with Fritz Lang to tell him 2 things: 1) That he was banning this movie, and 2) that the Nazi Party wanted to hire Lang as their propaganda filmmaker. Lang left Germany that night. If that story is true then Nazis had a way of banning ... read moreamazing works of art. The first 5 minutes of this movie prove its brilliance, as do the special effects and the final chase scene, which was actually pretty scary with the way the trees were lit. But the scene where an insect-eyed Mabuse possesses Baum is one of the scariest things I've ever seen. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse started off slow (between that and the subtitles I was done in before the first 45 minutes before finally getting through the whole thing on a 3rd try) but I'll be damned if that last hour isn't worth it.
  • Doctor0Quinzel
    August 15, 2009
    Doctor0Quinzel
    There is a lot of neat stuff in here, the special effects of the ghost of Mabuse was just so cool, but in other parts the film dragged. All I wanted to do was to edits some scenes out, the unbearable long fire scene at the chemical plant, ,but especially the flashback scenes whic... read moreh I felt were unnecessary. Overall it was just okay.
  • smootysveen
    February 7, 2009
    smootysveen
    Fantastic, underrated Lang film.
  • liquidaardvark
    January 10, 2010
    liquidaardvark
    Lang waited longer than just about anyone to make the jump to sound, but when he made the jump it wasn't just background noise. Sound is one of the main characters.
  • catbox9
    May 19, 2009
    catbox9
    Fritz Lang's The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse) is the story of a police inspector's attempt to stop some criminals who are counterfeiting money and murdering people. The inspection gets kind of weird as the criminals seem to be ordered around by a guy nam... read moreed Dr. Mabuse who is in an insane asylum and will not speak or do much of anything. This film is actually the second film in a trilogy of films pertaining to Dr. Mabuse, but the other two films aren't particularly famous. I thought this was pretty interesting although the ending seemed kind of underwhelming.

    For an early sound film, this film is particularly noteworthy for its rather sophisticated use of sound. Like Lang's previous film, M the sound techniques used in this film are rather advanced. Both films make use of leitmotif, a recurring musical theme pertaining to a particular place, person, or idea. The film also uses sound that is misidentified by the audience (a pocketwatch spring unwinding, intended to simulate a telephone's ring; a gunshot masked by the sound of car horns; the ticking of a bomb changing to a spoon tapping on an eggshell). The film also had some pretty advanced special effects considering the time it was made.

    While this film is certainly pretty good, it does not live up to Lang's M which is a vastly superior film. This may be more enjoyable than Lang's Metropolis, but realistically it's not as good as that film either. This is definitely worth viewing, but this won't go down as one of cinema's masterpieces like the aforementioned films.

    81/100
    B-

View All The Testament Of Dr. Mabuse Reviews

Critic Reviews

Jay Antani
September 5, 2010
Jay Antani, Cinema Writer

[Lang's] ambitious command of the medium...keeps us rooted to our seats from start to finish. Full Review

Michael E. Grost
August 22, 2006
Michael E. Grost, Classic Film and Television

Richly inventive crime thriller Full Review

Mark Bourne
April 6, 2006
Mark Bourne, DVDJournal.com

So while lauded by the wine-swirling art-house set, Lang was a German master whose films -- and there are a lot of them -- also appeal to those of us who rarely use the phrase 'mise en scène' in c... Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson
July 3, 2004
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

This absolutely riveting crime film by Fritz Lang demonstrates the height of taut, suspenseful filmmaking. Full Review

Jurgen Fauth
June 6, 2004
Jurgen Fauth, About.com

Vivid images and tight storytelling. Full Review

Matt Brunson
May 24, 2004
Matt Brunson, Creative Loafing

The most notorious of the [Dr. Mabuse movies], simply because it was the film that helped trigger Lang's flight from Nazi Germany. Full Review

Aaron Lazenby
May 18, 2004
Aaron Lazenby, Filmcritic.com

Too bad it's not much fun to watch Full Review

Ken Hanke
June 15, 2003
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Not only the most modern-looking film of 1932, it still looks modern today. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
April 24, 2003
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Lang used Mabuse as a symbol for corruption and decadence in Germany's Weimar Republic. Full Review

March 26, 2009
Variety

Click to read the article Full Review

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