THE THOUSAND EYES OF DR. MABUSE (1960)

aka THE 1000 EYES OF DR. MABUSE

The powerful German crime lord Mabuse is supposed to have died years ago, but when police chief Kras gets a phone call from a mysterious blind psychic named Cornelius about crimes that fit Mabuse's methods, Kras wonders if Mabuse, or his otherworldly influence, is still around. Cornelius' vision of a man shot on the streets in broad daylight comes true when a journalist is killed with a steel needle shot from a gun into his head. The reporter was staying at the Hotel Luxor, as is American industrialist Henry Travers who is in Berlin to finalize a deal involving the construction of new atomic rockets. Several of the Mabuse-like crimes have involved the hotel, so the police stake the place out. Travers saves Marion Menil from a suicidal jump; she has an abusive club-footed husband and she and Travers (who, unknown to Marion, can see into her room via a secret two-way mirror) hit it off. We also meet Marion's psychiatrist, Dr. Jordan, and a jolly insurance agent, Hieronymous B. Mistelzweig. As these characters interact, we find that almost no one is what they present themselves to be. And though Mabuse is indeed dead, one of these characters has been carrying on in the evil doctor's place. He has rigged all the rooms in the hotel with surveillance cameras and is plotting to get ahold of Travers' rockets in order to lead a new world order. Spying, disguises, murder, and a possibly unsavory romance lead to an exciting climactic sequence which may or may not put an end to Mabuse’s crimes.

Dr. Mabuse was a character from two earlier Fritz Lang films (DR. MABUSE, THE GAMBLER  & THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE) and he came to be seen in pop culture as a mystical quasi-Hitler figure warning about Germany’s Nazi future. In this sequel (or reboot), several years after the war, vague Nazi ties remain—the hotel was built by the Nazis in 1944, and Mabuse's maniacal desire for power remains alive. Another link to the earlier films is the theme of watching and being watched (be suspicious of the man who claims to be blind). This is the last film that Fritz Lang made, and approaching this as a Mabuse film, I was a little disappointed. Its style is much closer to the krimi movies of the era (German crime movies that are often seen as kin to film noir) than to Lang's own expressionist style, and seen as a krimi, the movie works much better—though tribute is paid to the supernatural elements of the earlier films in a brief seance scene. The romance between Travers (Peter van Eyck) and Marion (Dawn Addams) never really takes off, and the two actors are overshadowed by the supporting cast. Gert Frobe, best known as the Bond villain Goldfinger a few years later, is appealing as the verging-on-bumbling police chief. Wolfgang Preiss is quite effective as the creepy psychic, Howard Vernon is a cold-blooded killer in service to the Mabuse figure, and Werner Peters is fun as Mistelzweig (what a great character name!). The movie drags a bit, sometimes feeling like a condensed serial (a Lang trait) but the last fifteen minutes pick up nicely. There were sequels to this in which Lang didn't participate, which I’ll be reviewing soon. If you want to avoid spoilers, don't look at the cast list on IMDb. I wasn't crazy about the English dub so see a subtitled German print if you can. Pictured top right is Preiss; at left, Frobe and Preiss. [Blu-ray]