PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

2freensel I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse" or "The Return of Dr. Mabuse" is a German movie from 55 years ago that continues the story of the famous Dr. Mabuse that was already a crowd pleaser several decades earlier during the silent film era. It mixes once again the usual formula of making a movie about a criminal mastermind and include some film-noir and horror references. Plus there is of course always a beautiful female. The film is like all/most of the others in black-and-white. Unfortunately, the story is usually underwhelming. looking at how Sean Connery's James Bond was born at the same time in the United States, it becomes painfully obvious how inferior German cinema was around that time. The crimes as a whole are fairly uninteresting and the writing is not really inspired. The only thing that kept this from being a total disappointment for me is probably the fact that Gert Fröbe was on board and I am quite a fan. The title is pretty nice too, but nothing in the film lives up to it. Also you can occasionally see references to all the German Edgar Wallace crime films, so if you like these, then you may even enjoy this Mabuse movie. I don't like them either. My favorite scene in here was maybe when the guy sits in the shadows and the cop shoots him before we find out he was just a puppet on Mabuse's strings. But there weren't many more good scenes like this. Certainly not enough, even for a film that is fairly short at 85 minutes. I don't recommend the watch. Thumbs down.

Vigilante-407 This was another good entry in the Dr. Mabuse series, and a good German mystery movie in general. Gert Frobe is excellent as Lohmann, and Lex Barker is a welcome addition with his character, who keeps us on our toes by never really letting us know his true allegiances until late in the film. Once again though, a lot of traps and salient plot points are recycled from some of the previous Mabuse movies. The addition of the "Chicago Syndicate" element looks to have been added to make the movie more reachable to US audiences, but the film does manage to keep the unique verve that most German cinema had back in the fifties and sixties.

dottorepaulo One of the better Mabuse-films of post-war West-Germany. Of course, none of these films came even close to the famous Mabuse original from the 20-ies. Dr. Mabuse is a mad scientist who uses his power to control and manipulate other minds. He is difficult to track and has the unpleasant feature of killing someone or lancing a coup in the most unexpected places and times. Usually, he uses devices as electronic mind-manipulators or hypnosis and has a gang of criminals at his disposal who carry out his orders and usually don't even know that their leader is the feared Mabuse. In the Dr.-Mabuse-sequels he was killed or hunted down several times but only to escape with mad genius and to appear another time. What makes this film interesting is the style and the scenic decoration with which the dark emotion and the mysteriousness are displayed that Dr. Mabuse implies. Supporting the mysterious atmosphere is that the film is made in black-and-white and the use of light has more effect on the atmosphere, although it is sometimes to theatralic. Some creepy details are remarkable for example masks or busts standing in a psychiatrist's office that contribute to the morbide background. Mabuse should be perceived like an unstoppable ghost - a task that has been very well accomplished. It has some kind of psycho-atmosphere - you can trust no one (maybe Mabuse has just manipulated your girlfriend's mind or a bling beggar is killing you on the street). The actors of this film are fairly unimpressive especially the unbearable Lex Barker who doesn't fit in this movie at all. The sole exception is the grummy Gert Froebe who plays the commissar once again and (for native-germans) can work with his saxonian dialect as well as putting his large body in police-like behaviour that is fun for anyone to watch as he is the only serious actor in this movie. Measured with international standards this film is a mediocre and unimpressive work and certainly not remarkable. But for german cinema it has a traditional connection with the Edgar-Wallace-movies that appeared at the same time. The Doktor-Mabuse-films use the same methods to create mystery, crime and psychological fear. Almost all of them are made in black-and-white and share the same pool of german actors that emerged in the 50-ies and 60-ies. This film is more interesting for someone who likes these pseudo-thrillers (as me) as for someone who wants to watch a serious movie. This film distinguishes itself as it is one of the more serious of the Mabuse-series with the plot being more conclusive and the solution of the case being more believable. And Gert Froebe's acting is noteworthy as it enriches this more or less pale movie.

amikus2000 Own laws are valid for criminal-genious Dr. Mabuse ( Wolfgang Preiss ). Inspector Gert Fröbe is being helped or disturbed by Lex Barker. The team, director H. Reinl and Lex Barker continued their work at Winnetou. The Westgerman-criminal-era started in the late 1950ies up to 1970. Famous were the many Wallace-criminals, but Dr. Mabuse is more unique with great Preiss and contains action and disport.