Having finished his somewhat chequered Hollywood phase on a high with the gripping 'Beyond a Reasonable Doubt', Fritz Lang returned to his homeland at the request of producer Arthur Brauner to direct a remake of two films of Joe May from 1919, both of which turned out to be conspicuous by their insignificance. Brauner had purchased the rights to the 'Mabuse' name from the estate of novelist Norbert Jacques and although Lang wisely declined to remake his 1933 masterpiece 'Das Testament der Dr. Mabuse' he agreed to transpose Jacques' master criminal to modern times.
Despite this director's expertise in terms of lighting and camerawork and a cast of entertaining personalities to keep us watching, this is a comic-book thriller which although not quite as bad as its reputation would suggest, is simply too weak and ludicrous to be considered anything but minor Lang.
There are however two features that are of interest, one of which is suggested by the bullet developed by the American army which leaves no trace as well as the discovery that the Nazis had built luxurious hotels in Berlin so that they could listen in to visiting diplomats. In the post-war Berlin of Lang's film this has naturally been extended to TV cameras and two-way mirrors. It is this type of mirror which provides, for this viewer at any rate, the film's highlight: A sexually charged scene in which Peter van Eyck is transfixed by lust as he spies on Dawn Addams applying lipstick in her undies.
Whatever its shortcomings Lang's swansong is still in a different league to subsequent Mabuse films by various directors which basically belong to the 'krimi' crap that cluttered up German cinema of the Sixties.
Despite this director's expertise in terms of lighting and camerawork and a cast of entertaining personalities to keep us watching, this is a comic-book thriller which although not quite as bad as its reputation would suggest, is simply too weak and ludicrous to be considered anything but minor Lang.
There are however two features that are of interest, one of which is suggested by the bullet developed by the American army which leaves no trace as well as the discovery that the Nazis had built luxurious hotels in Berlin so that they could listen in to visiting diplomats. In the post-war Berlin of Lang's film this has naturally been extended to TV cameras and two-way mirrors. It is this type of mirror which provides, for this viewer at any rate, the film's highlight: A sexually charged scene in which Peter van Eyck is transfixed by lust as he spies on Dawn Addams applying lipstick in her undies.
Whatever its shortcomings Lang's swansong is still in a different league to subsequent Mabuse films by various directors which basically belong to the 'krimi' crap that cluttered up German cinema of the Sixties.