Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Mischa Redfern I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Sanjeev Waters A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

ofpsmith Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler is a 4 hour long film, making this the longest film I've ever seen as of this writing. Dr. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) and his gang are planning to pull a huge heist in money using Mabuse's telepathic abilities. But Mabuse is up against state attorney Norbert Von Wenk (Bernhard Goetzke) who is investigating the strange happenings in Berlin. The story comes in two parts and it's a long one. Klein-Rogge does a great job as Mabuse who would later reprise his role in the next film, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. Mabuse's telepathic abilities as well as his abilities to take away someone else's will create a terrifying villain. This film is great. It's a long movie but if you find some extra time on your hands give it a watch.

Jackson Booth-Millard From director Fritz Lang (Metropolis), this silent film was featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and despite it being nearly five hours long I was determined to watch the whole thing. Basically an organisation of criminals led by mad professor Dr. Mabuse (Metropolis's Rudolf Klein-Rogge) are nearing the completion of a big scheme for the big big plan to take over the world, the crook will be able to make huge profits in the stock exchange stealing valuable information. Later the master criminal is also a master of disguise, and turns himself into a stage illusionist, hypnotist and mind reader (imagine an early Derren Brown), and along the way many people are murdered to get his own way. In cahoots with him, passing information about the plan to kill young millionaire Edgar Hull (Paul Richter), is the stage show's main attraction Cara Carozza (Aud Egede Nissen). Obviously the meaning behind the title is that Dr. Mabuse is also a keen gambler, and he tries to psychically manipulate Hull in a card game, which he loses. Soon police investigation into the mysterious crime spree begins, with Commissioner Staatsanwalt Von Welk (Bernhard Goetzke) leading the enquiries, with hardly any leads or accurate information at all, so he needs assistance and sources. In the end, after so many stories within the story, cons, crime and much more Dr. Mabuse is eventually caught in the end and arrested after suffering some kind of breakdown. Also starring Alfred Abel as Graf Told, Gertrude Welcker as Gräfin Dusy Told, Hans Adalbert Schlettow as Georg the Chauffeur and Georg John as Pesch. This is apparently a famous anti-totalitarianism allegory, I would have no idea what that means, I obviously found it too long and complicated at times, crossing to other things going on, and having to read all the dialogue, but there were certainly some memorable visuals, such as the stage show, and ghostly figures walking around, and when I could keep up it was an entertaining enough silent crime thriller. Very good!

pontifikator Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (aka Dr Mabuse, der Spieler)This is a two-part film by Fritz Lang. The first part is called "Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, An Image of the Times," and the second is "Inferno, People of the Times." Together, the movie is over three and a half hours long. It is based on a novel written by Norbert Jacques, and the script for Lang's film was written by his wife Thea von Harbou (who had been married to one the film's stars, Rudolf Klein-Rogge). The film is difficult but interesting for a number of reasons.The gist of the plot is that Dr. Mabuse (played by Klein-Rogge) is the arch-fiend of all society, an evil genius who can rule the world by the force of his will. He has a gang of henchmen that he controls in various ways: violence, hypnotism, corruption, money. Mabuse is wealthy from various schemes: stock market fraud, counterfeiting, and gambling. Mabuse affects a series of disguises when he gambles. He wins by overpowering the minds of the fellows at his table and making them lose even when they have winning hands. As an arch- fiend, Dr. Mabuse is the god-father of all the James Bond movie villains. The will of Dr. Mabuse is an irresistible force.Our hero is State Attorney von Wenk, played with admirable restraint by Bernhard Goetzke. I'd put Goetzke in the same league as Sam Shepard in terms of looks and acting. Even though it's a silent movie we can tell von Wenk is laconic - there are lengthy scenes of him clenching his jaw as he ponders whatever he's pondering, the camera lingering on his handsome face. Von Wenk is made aware of numerous complaints of card-sharking at clubs and casinos, but it's always a different man (we know, of course, that it's Mabuse in disguise); von Wenk goes out to various gambling halls to ferret out his prey. And the game is afoot.Mabuse and von Wenk meet, both in disguise, and fail to recognize each other. One of the fascinating parts of the movie is that von Wenk has heard of Mabuse as a psychiatrist and actually recommends to one of Mabuse's dupes that the dupe see Dr. Mabuse for treatment; naturally, it ends badly. The bulk of the first part of the movie sets us up to see Mabuse as the arch-fiend with his hordes of dupes doing his bidding whether they know it or not, whether they want to or not. Mabuse runs by his watch, and the beginning shows him constantly checking it and taking his servants to task for not being timely. His stock market manipulations require timing, and he carries them off with aplomb as all around him panic. He's silent throughout the chaotic scenes except for two statements: "I'm buying," then "I'm selling."The film is set in 1922, when the Weimar Republic was at the height of inflation and the depths of morality. Lang gives us "An Image of the Times." Mabuse's speculations and criminal schemes fit into the milieu of the times in Germany. Mabuse has no morals, no scruples; his goal to to get whatever he wants when he wants it. From his point of view, there is only will. Mabuse has the will, and he will have his way.In the second part, we see the havoc wrought on the people Mabuse has, well, abused. Suicides, protracted prison terms, deaths, all at the will of Mabuse. The inferno is in the mind, and Mabuse burns people up, then discards them as the trash they are.I don't recommend this film for beginners in the experience of silent movies. It is very long, and the pacing is leisurely. Lang sets up long portraits of his actors and shows them moodily staring for long seconds. The script is not realistic, and the characters are not naturalistic. The acting sidles toward the stylized arm-thrown-across-the-brow to show anguish, but because nothing is natural in the movie, this style works here without being laughably histrionic. The sets verge toward German Expressionism, but maintain a certain reality that makes the apartments and rooms more believable as actual homes than, for example, the sets in "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari." "Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler" is a long series of long portraits of characters and settings. Lang establishes his characters by showing them in inaction.The movie can be seen as a portrayal of the corruption of the Weimar Republic. The years immediately preceding 1922 were fraught with violence in the streets as extremists battled each other for control of cities and states within the republic. The government had started printing money to repay huge debts, but there were no goods to sell to other countries to earn the marks. This led to hyperinflation; one of Mabuse's counterfeiting schemes was to print only US dollars, because other currencies devalued before he could dispose of the counterfeits.But this was also an era of unparalleled creativity, of which "Dr. Mabuse" is a prime example. The cabaret scene in Germany in the Twenties was unrivaled in its sexuality (the various treatments of "Cabaret" bear this out) but also unrivaled in its success as entertainment. The Bauhaus school of architecture and Expressionism in theatre, art, and cinema, are just two of the Weimar Republic's contributions to culture.Be that as it may, instead of the triumph of the will expected by Dr. Mabuse, we find him at the end insane. His attraction to Countess Told is worse the fatal -- Mabuse's will is impotent in the face of her refusal of him. Perhaps "Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler" foretells the rise of Hitler and his minions and dupes. Or perhaps the decadence and collapse of the Weimar Republic spawned arch villains willy nilly. Who can tell?

Polaris_DiB Dr. Mabuse has to be the best-written and most harrowing villain ever created in the 20th century, and it's pretty amazing that he came so early. Fritz Lang's four-hour action-adventure mystery silent film is anything but an epic, and also is so good it doesn't even feel epic. Instead, for once, a four hour movie has been created where every scene and every moment has character development and meaning.It's no wonder this film comes from post-war, pre-Nazi Germany. It's filled with anxiety and angst about the times... and indeed says, in many different places, "of the times." It is a work of public psychology that revels in the fear of hegemonic control, structures itself around what is perceived to be a downward spiral, and fills the screen with every reminder of the decay. Indeed, the villainous Dr. Mabuse does not only inhabit physically most of the screen time (are you sure he's not there? Look again), but his nefarious presence seems felt in even the most remote circumstance within the narrative.Dr. Mabuse is not the only character, however. This film is filled with such good character development I don't think anything matches it up until Seven Samurai. There's Mr. Hull, the playboy victim of Mabuse who manages, in his short time in the narrative, to develop extreme sympathy for him before he dies. There's Ms. Carozza, the woman who falls for Mabuse so hard that she manages to subvert her own love for him through her own piety to him. And there's my favorite character of all, the Duchess, who's quixotic and energetic presence not only lights up the screen with splendor but also captures the affections of the silent era's greatest villain.But you want to know something cool? Not only is this movie a veritable work of character-constructed art, it also has explosions, gun battles, intrigue, gambling, and sex! You can have your art and entertainment too! I can see why Fritz Lang returned to these characters over and over again. Not only are they fascinating in their own right, but they inhabit a world darkly appealing in its excesses and shadow play. This movie, despite its strong connection to "the times", is as much a work of consummate fantasy.--PolarisDiB