After the success of Fritz Lang's The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960), Central Cinema Company (CCC Film) commissioned several sequels. Wolfgang Preiss returned as the sinister doctor, alongside Gert Frobe as his police nemesis. But producer Artur Brauner replaced Fritz Lang with a succession of bland journeymen; needless to say, quality thereafter dropped.Brauner is a respected producer who helped revive West Germany's postwar film industry. Alongside serious historical films (including Der 20 Juli, starring Wolfgang Preiss as Claus Von Stauffenberg), he initiated popular franchises like the Winnetou series and gave early starts to Dario Argento and Russ Meyer. Brauner sincerely admired Lang's Mabuse films, but he was also a shrewd businessman who needed hits. Sometimes quality lost out to bankability.
Unsurprisingly then, Brauner's Mabuses are mostly low-rent kitsch. Novelist Norbert Jacques's political commentary has completely vanished, alongside Lang's style. The films' jazzy scores, campy humor and outre gadgets obviously resemble James Bond, whose cinematic debut came two years after Eyes. They also anticipate Angela and Luciana Giussani's Diabolik comics, which began the same year and later received their own movie. Sixties audiences loved amoral antiheroes, even with slapdash direction and shoddy plotting.
These Mabuse films show that even genre movies require competent filmmakers. Lang's Mabuses are admittedly silly on a narrative level. But they're elevated to art through stylish direction, smart writing and effective casting. In contrast, the CCC Mabuses are factory-produced products, everyone involved coasting for a paycheck. It's like Christopher Nolan's Batman flicks leading to Batman and Robin, rather than vice versa.
The Return of Dr. Mabuse (1961, Harald Reinl)
In fairness, The Return of Dr. Mabuse is pretty decent. Director Harald Reinl embraces the implausible without delving into full-on camp, and the result's entertaining if slight.Inspector Lohmann's vacation plans are interrupted by a prostitute's murder. Lohmann discovers that Mabuse's now going international, establishing ties with a Chicago crime syndicate and buying rare drugs. Lohmann works with FBI Agent Joe Como (Lex Barker), who probably isn't what he appears. Together, the two lawmen uncover the mad doctor's latest scheme. Using narcotics and hypnosis, Mabuse turns prisoners into zombies in hopes of sabotaging nuclear plants.
Reinl pays respectful homage to Lang, replicating both his expressive photography and eye for the weird. Return features a blind beggar out of M, a wooden-legged villain, backstreet assassinations and brooding shadows. This grants Return gravitas, but Reinl makes the show his own. The set pieces are a mixed bag, though we've fun scenes like Lohmann's fight with a hulking henchman and a big-scale finale. If the plot's overly reliant on red herrings (who is Joe Como and why should we care?), at least Mabuse's atomic antics are a tangible threat.
Wolfgang Preiss provides no complaints; his Teutonic petulance matches Mabuse perfectly. Gert Frobe becomes Inspector Lohmann, the original Mabuse's nemesis. Grouchy but likeable, Frobe's so good here we regret his later typecasting as villains. Werner Peters plays a different character than in Eyes. Daliah Lavi (Lord Jim) is a snitty journalist; Lex Barker, a token American who changes identities every other scene.
Return's undoubtedly a B Movie, from its clunky storytelling to cartoon silliness (death by flamethrower!) and tin-eared dialog. One character grimly intones “God gives us nuts, but He doesn’t crack them for us" as if imparting the Secrets of the Fortune Cookie Universe. But Reinl's competence makes Return a respectable addition to Mabuse's legacy.
The Invisible Dr. Mabuse (1962, Harald Reinl)
Reinl loses his goodwill in this second installment. Invisible swaps Return's modest respectability for unleavened goofiness. An FBI agent is murdered after stumbling across Operation X, a mysterious astronomical project using cosmic dust to render invisibility. This leads Agent Joe Como to a strange conspiracy involving unscrupulous scientists and a troop of theater performers (a pale echo, perhaps, of M's beggar's union). Three guesses who's behind everything. Also there are clowns, as sure a sign of a bad movie as ever existed.Invisible suffers from Gert Frobe's absence, with Lex Barker returning instead. Barker drops the "shady loyalties" act, focusing on a single frequency of dullness. Though in fairness, he wrestles invisible men as well as anyone. Series veteran Werner Peters goes from comic relief to an actual clown. Karin Dor (Topaz) plays an actress mixed up in Mabuse's schemes. Mabuse's unwitting ally, the disfigured Professor Erasmus (Rudolf Fernau), uses his mind-boggling power to peep at Ms. Dor. Typical movie scientist.
The gulf between Return's earnest charms and Invisible's cheesiness can be measured in Reinl's lazy direction. He drops any pretenses to style: even colorful elements like the operetta and a medieval hotel are undercut by uninspired blocking. The series' nifty assassinations are traded for banal murders; the most inventive killing involves a hit-and-run crash. And somehow the dialogue's grown even worse: "He had red hair and a mustache - and one wisdom tooth. It wasn't much use to him." Saves on dental bills, at least. At this point, CCC Films should have quit while behind.
The Terror of Dr. Mabuse (1962, Werner Klingler)
The Terror of Dr. Mabuse directly remakes The Testament of Dr. Mabuse - a comparison which hardly works to its benefit. Again Dr. Mabuse's scribbling in a padded cell, his instructions carried out by shadowy henchmen. Inspector Lohmann investigates, little suspecting that Mabuse's caretaker Professor Baum is the culprit. Walter Rilla's Baum is a positive addition; he's more conflicted than Oscar Beregi's batty original.Director Werner Klingler slavishly re-stages Lang's movie, which only stresses the shortcomings. Testament's chilling centerpiece, with Mabuse's ghost confronting a horrified Professor Baum, becomes a rote hypnotic encounter. Lohmann's informer (Leon Asken) again scratches Mabuse's name on glass. But in Terror Lohmann already suspects Mabuse, so why bother? Testament's conflicted criminal Kent becomes a disillusioned boxer (Helmut Schmid); Senta Berger (Major Dundee) plays his flavorless love interest.
Then again, Terror's "original" elements aren't exactly inspiring. There's heavy emphasis on flippant humor: Lohmann's goofball sidekick (Harald Juhnke) spouts inane theories about Atlantis, while Mabuse's henchman (Charles Regnier) politely gives bus fare to robbery victims. If the characters can't take things seriously why should we? Terror has two serviceable set pieces: an exciting bank shootout and a decent "house of mirrors" scene. After another climactic car chase the movie abruptly ends, leaving Lohmann scratching his head. We know how he feels.
The remaining Mabuse movies are afterthoughts. Scotland Yard Vs. Dr. Mabuse (1963) relocates to London, with boring Peter Van Eyck replacing Frobe. After surviving certain death in each previous film, Mabuse returns as a ghost. What. And the execrable Dr. Mabuse's Death Ray Mirror (1964) is Mabuse in name only; Preiss only appears via recycled footage. By now even non-discriminating Europeans moved on to spy movies and Spaghetti Westerns, some of which weren't completely terrible.
Someday soon, I'll make time to rewatch and review Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922). Our Mabuse marathon was fun, but I need a good movie to cleanse my palate.
