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| Which one of these characters is the evil Dr. Mabuse? |
Well, not quite chaos. Guiding every peak in the stock market, every hole card at the poker table and every exchange of money is the mysterious Dr. Mabuse. He is a master of disguise. He is a hypnotist. He is a counterfeiter. He is a criminal mastermind with his finger in every pie and an insatiable appetite for more. He is Lex Luthor with no Superman in sight.
After staging a train robbery in a complicated scheme to profit from financial markets, Mabuse sets his sights on a much easier mark: the young Edgar Hull. With the help of his accomplice Cara Carozza, Hull is soon under Mabuse's thrall and giving his money away through a card game. However, swindling Hull puts the relentless State Attorney von Wenk on the criminal's trail.
Von Wenk meets Countess Told, a rich married woman who frequents the gambling dens for the sense of danger, but never plays. The two conspire to discover the mysterious forces pulling the levers of German society. But who will survive this literal battle of minds?
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| Mabuse plays a mind game with his opponent |
The cinematography here is dark and beautiful. The rooms that the upper crust inhabit are huge, lavish and decadent. The streets are always foreboding, always feeling like the shadows will swallow characters whole. I love the world of the movie. Every doorway may lead to a backroom criminal enterprise or a well-appointed underground casino.
Casting in the silents does not get enough notice, but Dr. Mabuse is just perfectly filled out. Every actor and actress has an entire history written across their face. Even minor characters that fill out Mabuse's crew are distinct in appearance and characterization. Characters who appear for less than five minutes of the movie get the full attention of the writer, giving the movie a terrific sense of heightened reality.
SPOILERS AHEAD! The plot is dense and does slow at times, but only for moments. I was shocked at Hull's death. It felt like he was being established as a lead who would help take down Mabuse. When he was gunned down in the street, I really began to wonder how Mabuse would be taken out.
A couple of specific moments are worth calling out. The opening sequence is breathtaking. Unlike almost every other silent, there is no setup. No characters sitting around living their lives so title cards can tell us who they are. We are thrown right into the action. There's no spoon-feeding. Characters are unveiled through action, exactly as it should be.
The interaction between Carozza and Countess Told in the jail cell was perfect. Told acts like she's been arrested in an attempt to get Carozza to reveal Mabuse as the criminal mastermind. Carozza seesthrough the ploy and mocks the police and the countess. Told sees her own potential future and realizes the life of danger is not for her.
I also loved the moments with Mabuse counseling Count Told. He fractures the man's already fragile psyche. Told is soon tormented by visions of himself (with some impressive-for-their-time special effects).
The end of this movie features a great piece of misdirection by Mabuse almost sending von Wenk to his death, a gun battle in the streets and a crazed Mabuse visited by the ghosts of his victims. All of the scenes have impressive effects and are beautifully shot. The way the ghosts melt into view in front of Mabuse is atmospheric and tense.
As a viewer, I appreciate ambition in a filmmaker, but I really take note when skill equals ambition. Here, Lang sets out to center a story around a villain over a four hour run time and hits almost every beat. I could spend another four hours with these characters. I'm rooting for Mabuse to escape in the end. This may be my favorite silent movie yet.
***** out of *****
Photos from SBCC Film Reviews and Films de France
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