Dr. Mabuse the Gambler is actually two films in one--or, more precisely, one film in two feature-length parts totaling four-and-a-half hours and conceived to be watched on consecutive evenings. Its title character is a criminal mastermind with the power and the will to orchestrate complex capers, counterfeit national currencies, manipulate the stock market, and hypnotically bend anyone to play a role in his diabolical designs. The hand of Mabuse seems to reach everywhere--for the excellent reason that the Doctor himself, a master of disguise, turns out to be just about anywhere at just the moment his intervention will wreak havoc and wreck lives. (He's played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge, who would repeat the part ten years later in The Testament of Dr. Mabuse and also, in spirit if not in name, in Lang's dazzling 1928 film Spies; he was also the inventor Rotwang in Metropolis--as well as, offscreen, the former husband of Lang's screenwriter wife Thea von Harbou!)

The film's title in German is Doktor Mabuse der Spieler, and our supervillain is really less a gambler (all his games of chance are rigged) than a player: playing multiple roles, but even more importantly, playing with others' lives, playing with the very fabric of modern reality. The subtitles of the two parts are "A Picture of the Time" and "People of the Time"; the film is an artifact of the Weimar era when, as one character remarks, "We are bored and tired ... we need sensations of a very special kind to remain alive." Lang and his art directors, Otto Hunte and Karl Stahl-Urach, create a hallucinatory mise-en-scene in which the decor is at once stark and decadent, a playground for all manner of perverse spectacle and gamesmanship, a maze of corridors and doorways and streets where the modern and the gothic interlayer. This world ripe for Mabusian manipulation prefigured Hitler by a decade--and in one of his last declarations, the Doctor anticipates more contemporary visionaries of chaos: "I feel as a state within a state, with which I have always been at war." Fritz Lang continues to be a chillingly prophetic filmmaker. --Richard T. Jameson

Sergei Eisenstein was an admirer of Dr. Mabuse the Gambler, and supposedly he obtained a copy and studied its construction. I can only assume that the picture had a influence on other filmmakers around the world; it has a much more modern feel than any film I've seen from the early 20s. The pace is quick (at least in the first part), the cross-cutting between scenes is sophisticated, there is great attention to detail in the sets, and it rarely has the "stagy" feel that many silent films suffer from. If one had to point to one element that puts it ahead of its time, it would be its overall construction--the way the various shots and scenes are put together to create the story. Dr. Mabuse the Gambler creates a sense of both time and space; many things happen simultaneously in the movie-world, and the locales we see are not two-dimensional stage sets but rather three-dimensional spaces where we peer around corners and follow the characters from one room to the next. The only silent filmmaker I can think of who lavished so much attention on creating a credible world is Erich von Stroheim, though one could argue that that filmmaker should have taken a lesson from the economy of Lang's storytelling.

In addition to its status as a landmark film, Dr. Mabuse the Gambler is also truly entertaining, particularly the first part. There are car and train chases, riotous gambling dens, memorable bit characters, and some great special effects. The basic story of good versus evil is compelling. Dr. Mabuse is one of the screen's greatest villains, a shrewd megalomaniac who seems to be tormented and driven by his overpowering desires. Rudolf Klein-Rogge is truly fantastic in the part. Mabuse revels insanely at his conquests and explodes with fury when he is thwarted. However, though he is extreme, he is no cartoon supervillain or two-dimensional monster; he is a fallible character, not evil itself but rather human evil, and this is what makes him exciting.

The quality of the DVD is good to fair. I was thrilled with the clarity and felt that Image had done a superb job, but those who expect every title on DVD to be as crystal-clear as a movie that was released last year will be disappointed. This is not a perfectly restored copy; there are little imperfections in the film, from scratches to missing frames. There are even some very minor shots missing--for example, the very first shot of the seance scene shows the circle of hands from above, and this is missing from the DVD version. However, this is the most extreme case that I noted. In all cases the missing scraps do not affect the film as a whole; it is just that there are moments where you might think that Lang had a poor sense of continuity (and this is not the case!). Another oddity about the copy is that at least one of the shots differs slightly from that on a copy I have on videotape. There is a scene on the DVD where von Wenk is speaking to Carozza in the prison, and the shot shows all of the two characters. On the videotape I have, the shot is a close-up from a slightly different angle. I have had the same experience with another film, The Last Laugh. On two different videotapes the same shot differs slightly.

All this being said, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this DVD. One must take into account that the film is from 1922 and is not very well-known. It is not a beloved classic that someone is going to lavish a small fortune into restoring to perfection. Note too that this is a movie that was not previously available on any format, period. There was one mail-order company that offered a home-made version on video, but the quality was poor at best and unwatchable at worst. It was like trying to watch the movie through a bowl of soup.

Of particular note is that on the new DVD the film image has been shrunk so that it does not fill all of the available space of the television. This is because the aspect ratio of silent films was more square than the familiar 1:33 to 1 of the television set; sometimes leading to the tops of heads being cropped out when silents are transferred to video. This problem is solved on the DVD of Mabuse. And, of course, the DVD shows the movie at the correct speed. I totally disagree with the reviewer who said that it seemed speeded-up. Some of the chase scenes seem a little faster than normal speed, but I think that this was a device of Lang's rather than an imperfection of the DVD. There is also a commentary by a Mabuse scholar which, judging from the little I heard, is very well-informed.

As a side note, Fritz Lang's sequel to Mabuse, 1933's The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (the original German version is available only on video), is also very entertaining, and it features Lohmann, the detective from M! However, The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse from the sixties (Lang's last film, I believe) is unfortunately quite forgettable and I cannot recommend it.


For And Against   June 18, 2004
 29 out of 30 found this review helpful

As of June 2004 you need to wait and think before you buy this DVD. In it's favour it has a fantastic commentary by David Kalat. Against it, it's not a complete version. It WAS the most complete available, but now a region 2 release by Eureka contains the whole film, complete and restored.


Fritz Lang's TRUE Silent Masterpiece.   July 22, 2006
 24 out of 24 found this review helpful

Yes METROPOLIS is the movie that everybody knows and while it is a highly influential work of world cinema, for my money Fritz Lang's true masterpiece is DR. MABUSE, THE GAMBLER especially when seen in this new authorized edition from Kino which runs 270 minutes. That's 57 minutes longer than the previous Image release which was the standard bearer up until now. There is so much I could say about this release but I will do my best to try and be concise. All of the elements that make Fritz Lang's movies what they are are on display here. The set design is truly astonishing not only for how it looks but for how it complements the action that is going on in front of it. The cinematography by Carl Hoffmann is fabulous especially when seen in a proper restoration like the one here. The editing is first rate as it highlights the dramatic action and the characters throughout the film. The characters are also fascinating to watch and there are so many of them. In many ways DR MABUSE plays like a silent version of Quentin Tarrentino's PULP FICTION (the source material IS pulp fiction) which leads me to what for me is the real strength of the picture and that is the screenplay by Thea von Harbou. The principal themes of guilt, intimidation and redemption which occur throught Lang's work are fully displayed here for the first time. Although they are often pointed out as the biggest weakness in his pictures I think just the opposite. Von Harbou's screenplays are grounded in silent film storytelling which makes them appear simplistic but like a fairy tale or other allegorical work there is a lot more when you look below the surface. It is rather telling after Lang left her and Germany that the principal themes of her scenarios crop up again and again in his work from LILIOM to SCARLET STREET to HOUSE BY THE RIVER. Rounding out the film are the vivid performances of Rudolf Klein-Rogge (Harbou's ex-husband and Rotwang in METROPOLIS) as Dr Mabuse, Bernhard Goetzke (DESTINY) as von Wenk, Alfred Abel (METROPOLIS) as Count Told and especially Norwegian actress Aud Egede Nissen as the ill-fated Cara Carozza who is the heart and soul of the story. One unintended effect by Lang is that the film is now an incredible time capsule of 1920's Berlin and what the world of CABARET must have been like. Rounding out this double DVD set are background documentaries on the making and meaning of DR. MABUSE including a marvelous part with composer Aljoscha Zimmerman and how he created his new background score which is absolutely perfect. Any lover of movies silent or sound should have this release as an example of a top director at the peak of his powers and as a prime example of how a restoration of a classic film should be done.


Superb film, some reservations about the DVD   September 1, 2001
 10 out of 12 found this review helpful

There is no need to repeat that this is a superb film. It is, for me, the best silent film currently available on DVD. And the quality of the picture is very good. It is not, however, perfect, and I will admit to being a bit disappointed. No doubt there are no longer any 'perfect' prints of Dr Mabuse in existence, but I was disappointed that the print quality was not a little better. It is nowhere near as good as 1000 Eyes of Dr Mabuse as far as print quality goes (of course, its an older film, but it is also more important and did receive a theatrical release in the 60s). Moreover, although the package promises that it is shown at the 'correct speed' I think it was too fast. It definitely has that speeded up 'silent movie' look that you get when you project a silent film at sound film speeds. I would have slowed it down by a couple more frames per second. Nonetheless, do not hesitate to buy this DVD -- perhaps one day there will be a better one but this is WELL worth the cost.

The commentary is terrific.


Incomplete, lousy score: great film   January 2, 2005
 10 out of 11 found this review helpful

I have loved this film since I saw it on a big screen in film school. As a collector and afficionado of both silent and sound film noir, to me, Dr. Mabuse has no equal. Not only was it made in 1922 by the great Fritz Lang from a novel by Norbert Jacques; not only did it presage Hitler's rise and subsequent fall, but it was prescient about the future in a way that Metropolis, another famous Lang film, was not. This was the truth about Germany in the 1920's and Mabuse film scholar(hard to believe there is such a thing, but there you go),David Kalat enhances this two disc set with his insightful, though occasionaly over-analytical, commentary.

My problem with the Image Entertainment DVD is this: the version I saw in film school had a much different and more cohesive score by Konrad Elfers that features one of the most haunting, yet uplifting themes in all silent film music history. Why this score was not used by Image baffles the mind. The new score, while in surround sound, does nothng to highlight the jazz age in the Weimar Republic as does Elfer's magnificent composition. My first VHS copy of the film has this score on part 1 and regardless of the enhanced quality of the image on the DVD, the film is slower and more confusing with the new music and definitely not as much fun to watch. My new DVD also breaks up alot (my other discs do not) so there may be a problem with the DVD itself.

Otherwise, this is still one of Fritz Lang's greatest silent films and the DVD does have Kalat's great commentary which, though a bit stuffy, tells you more about the origins of Dr. Mabuse and the making of the film than you'll ever find out without doing a ton of research. It's interesting to hear that there is another, more complete version available in Europe: too bad we in America are at the mercy of the Region 1 and 2 debacle. Why can't the whole world used the same standard for DVD's so we could all get the benefit of the global marketplace and see the best possible version of the film instead of wasting almost $40 on one we may have to replace next week, if not next year?