User Reviews

This film's a thriller, a detective story, a ghost story; it has romantic and comic sub-plots, a striking array of sets, some of the first convincing special effects ever used, echoes of other films; and it is not hard to find in it political relevance to today. It's a lot to cram into two hours, and one has to work to follow every twist of the plot, but it is both a rewarding and entertaining experience.

The film draws on an exceptionally wide variety of cinematic styles. There are expressionist moments, and these are particularly striking, but they account for only two or three minutes out of a running time of 120. There are moments when one could almost be in a screwball comedy. And there are moments which come close to social realism – it would be interesting to know whether the patients at the mental hospital played themselves. The dominant mode, though, is an anticipation of film noir.

I would, though, counsel against investing too much historical hindsight in this film – yes, Fritz Lang did go into exile from the Nazis – but it is more the shadow of Weimar than the shadow of Hitler that hovers in the background here.

Not perfect; not an absolute masterpiece: but an occasionally stunning and always stimulating film, which deserves 9 out of 10.

Of all storytelling mediums, the one that perhaps has most in common with cinema is the comic book. Both tell stories primarily through pictures, both have a similar concept of the frame, and both become clumsy and uninteresting if they rely too much on words. But few films immersed themselves so completely in a comic book-style world as the German pictures of Fritz Lang.

What is especially comic-bookish about a picture like Testament of Dr Mabuse is not just its fast-paced adventure plot, but its timeless, placeless exaggeration of reality. Just like Batman's Gotham City, there are few if any references to real locations or people, and every character and organisation is a surreal caricature of a real-world counterpart. That's why Tim Burton's is the best Batman, because it properly recreates that over-the-top version of reality. This approach is also what makes pictures like this so compelling and accessible.

It's because of this approach that I feel this is a (slightly) superior picture to M. M was really the only one of Lang's German pictures that, plot-wise at least, seemed grounded in reality, and yet it is still populated those crazy character types. However , in the comic-book world of Dr Mabuse these figures fit right in. Otto Wernicke reprises his role as Inspector Karl "Fatty" Lohmann (hurrah!), and the character seems much more at home here.

This picture is not quite so tightly constructed as M, but Lang instead throws everything into creating a sense of unease. As with the first Dr Mabuse film (Der Spieler, shot by Lang in 1922), audience participation is crucial. Lang several times has Dr Baum speak his lines straight into the camera, making the character audience and the real-world audience share the same angle. In locations such as the "curtain room" he shows us all sides, so that we too feel trapped between those four walls. Since his silent days he has added a new string to his bow, in that he now uses the occasional camera movement to physically pull the audience into the film's world. Also consider the final moment in relation to this pattern of camera-as-audience shots.

The Testament of Dr Mabuse is a captivating, horror-tinged thriller, and the last great picture to be produced in Germany before things went tits up, politically. It seems to represent everything that made Weimar cinema perfect for Lang, and everything that made him a misfit in Hollywood – its surreal theatricality, its dominance of set-design over actors, its blending of genres. Like the comic book writer, Lang dealt in myths (both in and out of his films - the story of his meeting with Goebbels, for example, is almost certainly a fabrication). The Testament of Dr Mabuse is one of his greatest.

Lang's last film in Germany before he hurriedly left the country (the director claimed that he had lately been offered a key position in the Nazi-controlled film industry), The Testament Of Dr Mabuse (aka: Das Testament des Dr Mabuse) is best seen as a warning by a departing talent, as well as a continuation of many of the themes of the director's previous work. Dr Mabuse, The Gambler (1922) had been a great success, and his new film, his second made in sound, capitalises on the reputation both of the earlier film and the grand social malevolence of its central character. Mabuse is another of Lang's evil, all-controlling masterminds - he was to reappear again in the director's last film, The 1,000 Eyes Of Dr Mabuse (1960) - the representation of whose hypnotic presence and malign influence was to find disfavour with the followers of Hitler. The Nazis gained power during the post-production period of the film and, while recognising the great director's talent; Testament was promptly banned by Goebbels who found the political portrait implicit in Mabuse too close to home. In later years Lang was to suggest that the film was intended as a political parable, although this might have been exaggerated.

As the present film opens, Inspector Lohmann (a splendidly grouchy Otto Wernicke) receives a message from a former criminal associate who has stumbled onto a massive criminal conspiracy. Before the details can be spelt out, the crook is hunted down and killed. Investigating his disappearance Lohmann discovers the name Mabuse scratched on a windowpane (a clue echoed in Lang's M, in which Lohmann also appears.) Mabuse is discovered in an asylum in the charge of Dr Baum (Oscar Beregi). The criminal genius, insane but with his remaining magnetic attraction intact, is feverishly writing detailed notes on prospective crimes. When Mabuse dies, a visiting Dr Kramm finds the brilliant criminal notes of Dr Mabuse on the floor, compares a news report of a jewellery robbery to what he is now reading and tells Baum that he is going to report it to the police. He is promptly killed by Mabuse's elite Section 2B hitmen on orders from the unseen leader - a scene set in traffic that found an echo over 30 years later in The Ipcress File (1965). Meanwhile a romance develops between Kent (Gustav Diessel), one of the henchmen of Mabuse's gang, still apparently controlled by remote control instructions, and the woman Lilly (Vera Liessem) who helped him when he was down and out. Mabuse's 'testament' thus lies in both the meticulously planned crimes, which make up his posthumous papers as well as his hypnotic and malign influence on those who are controlled by him.

Critics have compared the visual style of this film with those of others from the same period, notably Spione (aka: Spies, 1928), Lang's most recent comparable social thriller. Testament is far more cluttered, its visual confusion suggesting moral complexity as well as the closing in of threatening events - both as far as the characters are concerned and, as it unfortunately turned out, for German society in general. In M, evil was detected in the presence of a murderous outsider, one eventually brought to book by a benign conspiracy of the underworld. Here there is a web of criminal activity and corruption from which no one is entirely immune, and in which many are driven by a murderous compulsion to obey an evil power. At the same time, Lang is happy enough to introduce into this world of social corruption elements of thrills and suspense, which spring from a much simpler world of serials and adventure stories. The near documentary feel of a lot of the film is interspersed with explosions, floods, chases and close escapes. In this way the sombre, far reaching criminalities of Mabuse's schemes, rooted in current socio-political unrest are counter-pointed with time honoured pleasures brought by crime melodrama. Lang had a weakness for this sort of drama: The Spiders Part II: The Diamond Ship (1920) contains a somewhat similar but much shorter, scene, where the hero is also trapped in a water filling room from which he escapes. It has been noted just how much of the action of Testament plays out like a dream, and in this sense it anticipates the disorientating mood which would characterise much of noir cinema of a few years later - of which the newly Americanised Lang would be a major exponent. Certainly the arch criminal mastermind of Mabuse has something in common with such later characters as, say Mike Lagana in The Big Heat (1953) although such figures in Lang's American period are far less omniscient. Once Hitler was out of the way, Lang increasingly saw the manipulation of human life as the province of fate rather than men, a view that had made its first ongoing appearance as far back as Der Müde Tod (Destiny, 1923). In Testament, some indeed appear pre-doomed by a nemesis stalking them, although this is largely placed in the human realm. Events play out like an unstoppable nightmare - a feeling reinforced by Mabuse's somnambulistic appearance as he constructs evil from his bed, the presence of ghosts, the unreality of the mysterious drama which unfolds and such scenes as the weird opening, its surreal use of factory sound anticipating the dark sound-scapes of Eraserhead (1978). By the end of Lang's film there is a sense that all have been involved in some grand combine of evil, and that the disorder and social chaos it presages has only just been forestalled - not by justice, but madness.

Modern viewers coming to Lang's film will find much to enjoy, even if some of the incidental elements have necessarily become a little dated. The editing and camerawork are excellent, and Rudolf Klein-Rogge's piercingly intense Mabuse is a memorable creation. Lohmann and the supporting cast are memorable characters, although the romantic interest between Kent and Lilly looks a little faded after all these years. It's a film in which special effects go hand in hand with suspense and the staging is still impressive. Amongst the most memorable scenes are those are the end with the destruction of the chemical factory and the expressionistic car chase back to the asylum. Most importantly, while the morally debilitating effects of the post-war German depression as well as the impending rise of adulatory Nazism have now passed into history, Lang's dramatisation of cause and effect remains as electric as ever in one of the finest films of his early sound career.

The film reads like a trainer for all the thrillers that came thereafter: The staring face reminiscent of 'Alien', the scary opening scene, which deserves to be better known, the tough but lovable cop, the haunted (literally) master criminal, the asylum, the heroine with an excuse to get her dress all wet and clingy, the Mae West look-alike, the spooky special effects, the explosions and the fires (real ones not your computer generated rubbish), the shoot out, the chase through the woods, the car chase, the high tech gadgets (using 78 vinyl!). There's even what looks like a placement add (Mercedes, during the car chase). Yes, all the thriller clichés are there but way back in 1933 they weren't clichés. Unfortunately some rather wooden acting by the heroine, Wera Liessem, who seems to be stuck in silent film mode, mars the film.

As for the political overtones, I'm not sure if these were deliberate. Lang's stories about himself were as fantastical as his films, especially the one about being offered the head of the Reich films.

Fritz Lang, the greatest of directors, finished this film and fled Germany as the Third Reich was raising it's ugly head. And what a film it is!!!! Although it may be too stylized for some, it speaks volumes of what was to come in noir film making. The story is a little over the top but that only adds to the appeal.

With only limited screen time, Rudolf Klein-Rogge is just magnificent. What a face!!! I became familiar with him as Rotwang in Metropolis and have tried to view any film in which he appears. Unhappily, his presence in this film is more felt than seen but still worth the effort. He reprises the Mabuse character from the earlier "Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler" which ended with him being incarcerated in an mental hospital. This film picks up where the other left off and the scenes in the hospital with Klein-Rogge are mesmerizing.

The opening scene as a fugitive is trapped beneath the factory gives the story a kick start as the pounding of the machinery drives him (and viewers) to distraction. No dialogue is necessary.

The love story is a little weak but does not detract from the overall film. There is also a scene which fascinates.....it involves the shooting of a character at a traffic light.....fantastic.

I would recommend this films to anyone unfamiliar with Herr Lang's work. You will become a lifelong fanatic!

Fritz Lang's last German film was was a warning shot over the bow regarding where the world was headed. He was right, and he was run out of Germany.

Everyone should be forced to watch this wonderful film. Not only is the film making incredible for the time - it is incredible period. And talk about suspenseful. I was glued to my seat and I never looked at my watch. A real testament these days, as I often find myself looking at my watch several times when watching recent Hollywood fare. Fritz Lang was brilliant!

One of Fritz Lang's most wellknown works, and a classic piece of German expressionism. A sequel to the silent film 'Dr. Mabuse, der spieler', archcriminal Mabuse has now been driven way beyond sanity and has spent the last eleven years in an asylum.

Our dear doctor spent the first few years in a catatonic state, totally unreachable. Then one day something akin to progress was made. The patient started to scribble down what seemed like gibberish on the walls. The patient was given paper to write on, and since then Mabuse has been writing nonstop, line after line, paper after paper. Acknowledged doctor Baum has ever since taken a great deal of interest both in his patient and in this "work" of his. If one momentarily could just step inside Mabuse's sick and twisted mind, then a cure might be possible...

And then it happens. Baum manages to decipher the text, and realizes that what he has in his hand might very well be a political essay of the same importance and power as Machiavelli's 'The Prince'. Throw mankind in the deepest abyss of despair, Mabuse says, using any means possible. Through random acts of violence, through organized terrorism, whatever will lead mankind to the brink of destruction. And then claim power.

Soon after this discovery strange crimes are being committed, and rumors of an organized criminal movement mobilizing underground are spread. It does not take long until Berlin is a city in terror.

This is where commissioner Lohmann comes in, doing his best to trace down the roots of the terrorist groups. Strangely enough, the evidence seems to point towards - the asylum and Dr. Mabuse!

The first half of this film is classic horror - through a visit to the asylum and a lecture by Baum we learn of Mabuse's work. And when we, together with Lohmann, is introduced to Mabuse (locked up in his cell) and meet his maddened gaze...well, it's a truly CHILLING moment!

We also learn of how a young man with good intentions through poverty is forced to seek work in organized crime. While trying to leave the group he realizes there is only one way out: death. Another claustrophobic and suspenseful moment in the movie.

Somewhere in the latter half of the movie things get a little out of hand. When the mystery with Mabuse's influence on the outside world finally has been solved, some of the incredible dark atmosphere is lost. Instead we get more of a traditional crime/suspense-kind of film, and the high amount of plots makes the film drag on just a little too long.

The eery atmosphere in the earlier parts of the movie, the fantastic expressionist style and many original and innovative moments makes this a 'must-see' for those with an interest for early German Cinema, or those looking for the roots to genres as horror and film noir. While the early parts of this movie is a definite masterpiece, the latter half feels somewhat flawed though.

7/10

Even today The Testament of Dr Mabuse is refreshingly original and at times startling to watch. Lang was truly one of the greats of cinema and along with Alfred Hitchcock basically invented the suspense film. This film is also the reason Lang left Germany, as it wasn't viewed kindly by the newly elected government.

One of the great directors of all time, Fritz Lang (M) made this film just before he escaped Nazi Germany. he was not to return until some 30 years later when he made his last film, which also featured Dr. Mabuse.

Of course, I enjoyed watching it in the original German, rather than some dubbed copy, and it made for a very interesting experience. Lang made what is probably one of the first crime films, and it foreshadowed the film noir that was to come in the next decade.

His Dr. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) was certainly sinister looking, and the criminals reminded me of the one I see in old Capone films.

The Police Inspector (Otto Wernicke) was the most interesting character as he tried to solve the crimes being committed.

The entire film was a visual pleasure with some interesting expressionistic work during a car chase at the end.

Well worth the time to watch.

Compared to most films in Hollywood in the 1930s, Fritz Lang's mystery thriller The Testament of Dr. Mabuse is years ahead of the game in terms of plot and camera techniques. There are some shots in this movie that would not be seen until Orson Welles' famous Citizen Kane, which forever changed the cinema. However, I think it's safe to say that Lang was doing the same thing in Germany at the time when Nazi rule was in the wake. In this complex and filling story, a veteran criminal with a brilliant mind has been in an insane asylum for ten years yet is writing memoirs that seem to predict crimes happening outside. The Inspector Lohmann attempts to solve this case, not knowing how strange and convoluted it really is. Despite the complexity of it, this film is rather easy to follow and boasts some great performances and use of sound. Considering this was only Lang's second film using sound, it is a wonder he did what he could with it. The movie opens with a noisy print shop and a man hiding behind a huge trunk. The loud and obnoxious noise of the printer continues all throughout the scene and shows what sound can really do to a film. All in all, Lang shows his pioneering ability to use the resources available in ways no one had thought of at the time. There are hints of German Expressionism here, but mostly just a well-told and engaging detective story that certainly will not age any time soon.

(This comment is on the fully restored Criterion edition.)

I see that my comments on the Mabuse films have been deleted. There was an IMDb era when any offended reader could exact revenge by successfully complaining of scores of comments. But I guess that's apt for the aura of this film, its history of being suppressed and its themes.

I find watching Lang movies to be frustrating. His most celebrated films: "Metropolis" and "M" don't resonate with me as they do with others. Even though they have effective scenes, they are effective not because they are cinematic, but because they are masterful stagecraft. After Lang went to Hollywood, claiming this to be anti-Hitler, his films turned mechanical.

It was only with this project that he hits my sweet spot, where his attentions are turned to all the elements of the cinematic art. This is whole, and innovative in every element. Others may find the many plots overloaded and in some cases turgid. But I think the density of story is essential to the elegant narrative tricks that this uses - all of them rooted in the film as film.

We have, possibly for the first time, non-linear narrative designed in a way to confuse the viewer so that we are inserted as detective, actively engaged in watching merely to make sense of what we see. The thing is envisioned as a whole with many reflections, many cycles, many connections between scenes and jumping among scenes. Images, sounds, ideas, characters contrast with and merge with each other. Its a tight fabric with so many junctions we can navigate as we wish, or as we have skills.

Yes, there are ordinary pleasures, too: amazing effects shots, one of the best chase scenes ever filmed, some very fine use of grime. But they re merely incidental to the way that this symphony is constructed and executed. This is one of the few films in my experience that gets bigger the more you learn about its provenance: the infidelities between the filmmaker and his screenwriter wife; the business with Hilter, much obfuscated by later Lang claims and the notion that he would do so. The original novel, The previous and subsequent Lang Mabuse films and their failings, indeed the breakage of his career. The many incarnations of this film on its way to us.

The way it overtly is written to influence, containing a story about writing that influences. The way it deceives on the screen, containing a story about deception behind a "screen."

The sex, as it penetrates the whole thing without ever being shown. The fact that although you can see it as having historical significance, you can still after 75 years see it as a modern, immediately effective experience from a man that for one year actually mattered. Still does.

Ted's Evaluation -- 4 of 3: Every cineliterate person should experience this.

Fritz Lang brings in the visual artistry he developed in his silent movies. The first Dr Mabuse movie (the Gambler) was a series of portrait of that evil genius. He would direct crimes like Fritz Lang directs his movies. He is successful and as we get closer to that astounding character we see him want even more than all the money his crimes can draw. That is love. And that's the hinge factor. With the end of his crime empire the genius has become a lunatic with a fixed stare.

So Dr. Mabuse has been in a lunatic asylum for 10 years and everybody forgot him as they thought there would be nothing to fear any more. It is where The Testament of Dr Mabuse starts. The very beginning is like a silent movie: Lang uses an old factory as the haunt of criminals (the Gambler's haunt was already fantastic). The only sound comes from the oppressing machines. An ambiance you felt with the workers of Metropolis. That is only the beginning of a masterful suspense overture.

Hence Lang goes through different story lines, one too much maybe but everything revolves around the lunatic asylum. On the other hand the story may lack the overwhelming presence of Rudolf Kleine-Rogge in the Gambler. Anyway I think Lang understood he could not rely on the pictures as much as what he did with silent movies. The converging stories reach a fantastic climax and to get there much of the visual quality gets you in the movie, either wanting to know more or fearing what may come out.

Goebbels feared what may come out. The movie about a crime master writing crime recipes in his cell may have been too close to the story of Hitler writing Mein Kampf while in jail. A vision strengthened by the criminal's last words. Called by Goebbels to be explained the reasons why the movie would not be released, Fritz Lang listened the propaganda minister -a great fan of Metropolis- putting his name forward for the head of the Reich cinema department. Lang objected his mother was jewish. "WE will decide who's jewish and who's not!" answered Goebbels. The same evening Lang had gathered all the cash he could and took the train to Paris.

Haha, yes!! Throw everything else away, this movie is the real deal! Horror, suspense, crime, drama, political commentary, etc. It's basically every damn film that has ever existed, but much better than all of those! Now, it's not QUITE as good as "M!" the Fritz Lang movie done right before this. But it's up there.

The fact that this is a Criterion release should be convincing in of itself that you watch this (although Criterion mysteriously releases garbage like "Armageddon" ?!). Not to mention, Lang simultaneously filmed the same film with French actors. What a crazy ambitious dude!

There are a wide range of messages in this baby. The Fuhrer didn't want you to see it, thus you should see it. Mandatory viewing.

Fritz Lang wrote/directed a series of movies in the 20's & 30's based on the arch criminal Dr Mabuse.Mabuse was a genius who turned to crime & anarchy.

This film finds Mabuse in an asylum.He is constantly writing down criminal plots.On the "outside" a criminal organization is following these plans to a "T".But how are they getting the plans?Is Mabuse really mad or is he faking it?Who is his accomplice?

The plot ideas are many.Different attacks on the Germany economy via forged bank notes, the destruction of a chemical factory to flood Berlin with poison gas,a gang member trying to escape the clutches of Mabuse and the possession of a doctor by the spirit of Dr Mabuse.

In the early 60's there was a revival of the Dr Mabuse series.Each one took a plot idea from this movie and made a film.The forgery plot was in The Invisible Dr Mabuse.The chemical factory was changed to a nuclear facilty in Return Of Dr Mabuse.The possession theme was used in the 1962 Testament Of Dr Mabuse.

While this doesn't make Testament a bad film it tends to cram too much into it.There are some wonderful visuals such as the auto chase through a very spooky wooded drive.The underbelly of the criminal gang is sordidly captured.The depressed German economy leads men astray into Mabuse's gang.

The print I saw was the subtitled German language film.The subtitles were poorly done and a lot of the conversations weren't subtitled enough.An enjoyable film but a minor classic at best.

This is the last part of the mad criminal Dr. Mabuse's story by Fritz Lang. Made in 1933 in the eve of nazi seizure of power in Germany it reflects a lot of the madness that would soon dominate the country. It's not strange to this the fact that the scenario was written by Thea von Harbou then wife of Lang. Von Harbou was pro-nazi. But Lang was not so and he escaped from Germany thus shunning the invitation of Dr. Goebbels to become the movie herald of the regime a role later played by Leni Riefensthal. In this movie which still follows a lot of the expressionist aesthetics that inspired previous German silent movies (Pabst, Murnau), the story develops itself in good rhythm always catching your attention in successive scenes very well structured and acted. Of course you must never forget that the technical means then available were not those at disposal of any director nowadays. Anyway the movie is technically quite efficient according to its aims. Like Hitler Mabuse wanted to dominate the world by the terror generated by his crimes. Of course the movie was never exhibited in Germany during the Nazi era. Dr. Goebbels forbade it.

It's funny, this is the third-time I have written a review of this film, and I have no-intention of giving-up yet! After reading a few of the BFI's texts (in-particular, "If...."), there was nothing in my text that violated any of the guidelines of IMDb! Without focusing on IMDb too-much, I have to admit the other time was Amazon.com, which should be of no surprise to anyone. So, I'll sum-it-up: if you have ever wondered if there is something wrong with modern-civilization--you are correct, and Fritz Lang's "Testament of Dr. Mabuse" will confirm many of these deep-seated fears on the abuse of power, and the deceptions inherent in all-forms of media. Some historical and thematic background illuminates the "Mabuse" mythos more clearly...

Postmoderist writers like Bataille have pointed-out that we are constantly-assailed by "constructs" or phantoms: is the Osama Bin-Laden we "know" anything close to the real one? Our so-called "leaders"? Of course not. Is a "marketplace" economy, or "globalization" exactly what they are presented as? Was the Gulf War what we were presented-with? Of course not, and so-on. Lang was certainly ahead-of-his-time in making all of the Mabuse films, pointing-out the problems we are all faced-with in our present-modernity.

Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou, and Norbert Jacques had many models from their own era: numerous war-profiteers, Sidney Reilly, the super-spy, as well as the international arms-trafficker, Basil Zaharoff ("the Greek,"one of Reilly's main-mentors), not the simple-analogy of rising National Socialism. And yet, one can find some implied Platonic-thought in these themes of a "false-reality," since when is Mabuse ever "Mabuse"--the very-thing itself, or a fake? Lang's films are like artichokes and onions--there's always a new-layer one never suspected.

In "Testament of Dr. Mabuse," we are assaulted with the same themes. Mabuse may reside in a Sanitarium, but his ideas are free-floating, alive. Whether he--or the true-terrorists--are alive-or-dead is immaterial, both literally and figuratively. Their ideas infect those who are already ripe for control, such as the Director of the Sanitarium he resides in! He and Mabuse are the same, sowers of the chaos-within. In the end...there is no end to the will-to-power, something off-putting to some who are used-to the "good" winning. In Lang's films, everyone is deeply-flawed, just like real-life.

A must-see, try the Criterion edition which is nearly flawless!! More than just a thriller. Lang's approach is pure-noir before it was even a film-term. His use of composition has been copied again-and-again, because it is so effective in this film;power-relationships abound in each tableau. Some have called this one of the last German Expressionist films, but it really only has elements in a certain scene you will spot immediately. Also: the film is finally available in the original aspect-ratio of 1:19-1, with a pristine-transfer from the negatives and the best extant-materials. This is the real video revolution! Directors need to draw on Lang's legacy more, as we might have better films to watch.

Fritz Lang's last film he made with his wife Thea von Harbou and in Germany before he fled after a meeting with Joseph Goebbels where the chief propagandist of the Nazi Party offered to make him legally Aryan (Lang's mother was Jewish, though he was raised Catholic), The Testament of Dr. Mabuse is a follow up to both the earlier Dr. Mabuse film as well as M. It's another crime film in Lang's body of work, another solid thriller to end his time in his native country before he said goodbye to it for decades. The film is a portrait of a nation on the verge of being consumed by chaos and terrorism, obvious fears of a half-Jewish man who was seeing everything he knew either flee or disintegrate. It provides a sharply poignant subtext to the affair.

It's been ten years since Dr. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) went insane on the verge of capture, and his psychiatrist, Professor Baum (Oscar Beregi) has become obviously obsessed with the mad genius. He explains to a class of students how, over time, Mabuse has gone from completely catatonic to automatically writing endlessly page after page of coherent, logical, and dastardly plans of crimes, crimes that seem to be happening as discovered by Baum's associate Dr. Kramm (Theodor Loos). At the same time, police Inspector Lohmann (Otto Wernicke), who was the main police investigator in M, is looking for a former and disgraced policeman, Hofmeister (Karl Meixner), who is trying to make amends for his dismissal by looking into a counterfeiting ring. Hofmeister disappears in the middle of a phone conversation, and Lohmann starts investigating.

The criminal conspiracy that Hofmeister is on the verge of uncovering is being operated in the same way that Mabuse operated his own conspiracy a decade before, but Mabuse is in a mental institution, unable to communicate with anyone outside of his cell. It's...obvious what's going on, but the movie treats it like something of a mystery. It keeps an aura around the identity of the boss, hidden behind a curtain in a special, locked room of criminal headquarters, like the wizard in The Wizard of Oz. However, it's not Mabuse, it's Baum. That reality is somewhat mundane, but the film gives the explanation another level that's creepy and interesting.

Baum is getting possessed by Mabuse, and it happens when Baum sees the spirit of Mabuse in his office, complete with unnatural, huge eyes, who takes control of Baum's body. That's the literal explanation, but there's a subtext of ideological infestation that's more terrifying, that the film doesn't explore this in any sort of depth. It prefers the more literal criminal story.

That story is carried by one of Baum's underlings, Thomas Kent (Gustav Diessl) who entered the gang as an engineer on the counterfeiting team some months back and has also developed a relationship with the cute girl in the unemployment office, Lilli (Wera Leissem). Thomas is in conflict with his sense of self-preservation that keeps him in the gang and his desire to life a peaceful, crime-free life with Lilli. This stuff is fine, but it's more purely melodrama in a film that's not really designed for it. The film around it is more hard-edged. That narrative conflict I find a bit frustrating.

The investigation turns on a murder that closes in on Mabuse's plans all working in tandem to create chaos. While watching the first Dr. Mabuse, I was struck at the similarity between the titular character's outlook on life, the embrace of anarchy, and Christopher Nolan's take on the Joker in The Dark Knight. Well, reading up on this film, I was not terribly surprised to see that Nolan had used The Testament of Dr. Mabuse as a direct inspirational tool for his brother's script. It makes sense. Mabuse himself has, essentially, just one scene of dialogue, as a ghost, and it's wildly compelling where he details his embrace of the vision of a world reigned by crime.

The confluence of storylines, including an escape from a room that involves flooding it before an explosion, is quality thriller stuff as characters come together to find the real power behind the curtain.

I enjoyed the film, probably more than the first film, but I feel a conflict within the storytelling that I can't quite get past. Very coincidentally, I'm currently reading the Joseph McBride book Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge, and I'm on the part where he describes Wilder's time at Ufa at the same period that Lang was making his final German films (the two fled Germany at about the same time, Wilder straight to America and Lang went first to France before heading to America). McBride describes the kind of films that audiences and the studios were trying to make, and they were light films. Operettas and melodramas designed to distract the people from their economic plights and push their own personal concerns in favor of needs of the state. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse does none of these things. It's far more pessimistic about the state of affairs in Germany at the time, and its ending, while leading to the good guys winning over Mabuse's spirit, is not uplifting in any way shape or form. Mabuse essentially enters hibernation, ready to strike again later. If you consider Mabuse a metaphor for Nazi-ideology, like the Nazis pretty obvious did since the film was very quickly banned (not seen in Germany until 1961), then it's a warning against the state of Germany in 1933, not trying to lull the populace back to sleep.

That's a very interesting subtext to the film which I do appreciate, but I still stumble a bit around Thomas' storyline and the preference of thriller mechanics over a tighter focus on how Mabuse influences Baum.