Search - Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler on DVD

THE GOOD DOCTOR....

Richard J. Oravitz | 10/18/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Quite possibly the greatest silent film of all time. It's right up there with Gance's NAPOLEON & Eisenstein's POTEMKIN. Better than anything Griffith ever did. Pulp fiction for the masses, yet an artistic masterpiece! Closer to Keaton than Chaplin. Not to be taken seriously, but should be taken seriously...I love this film & recommend it to all.

Certainly one of the TOP 25 GREATEST FILMS ever made."

Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler

John Farr | 06/18/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Winning the trust of wealthy businessmen he can manipulate to his own ends, mad mesmerist Dr. Mabuse (Klein-Rogge) employs his psychic abilities to lure millionaire Edgar Hull (Paul Richter) into a fateful card game, prising information he plans to use in order to corner trade on the stock market. But wily police commissioner Von Wrenk (Bernhard Goetzke) is on Mabuse's trail, and is planning to bring an end to the devious doctor's criminal operation.



Newly remastered by Kino video, this crisp DVD creates the electricity and atmosphere experienced by Berlin moviegoers in 1922. Lang's sinister thriller is a vivid, engaging tale of crime and evil (the German director's lifelong preoccupation from "M" to "The Big Heat") that plunges us into a seedy underworld of dingy cabarets and gambling houses in 1920s Berlin. Klein-Rogge is amazing as the malevolent master criminal, a calculating opponent seized with hubris and a penchant for clever disguises. Avoiding all the pitfalls of overly stagy silents, Lang brilliantly handles the (rather explosive) action and livens the pace, creating an atmospheric, fully realized world. Best viewed over two nights owing to its four-hour length, "Mabuse" is an eerily brilliant pinnacle of early cinema."

A major force in Germany 1922

Hiram Gomez Pardo | Valencia, Venezuela | 03/20/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The period after WW1 was for Germany featured by an unbridled vices, sharp depression in many orders, hopeless, desperation, deep despair, hysteria and cynicism. So Dr. Mabuse should be the prototype of his own time, a man who didn't' t believe in love but desire; a gambler, he bets, plays cards, roulette and lives and fates of people simply because there was not reason for not making it. "If God doesn't exist , everything is permitted" , in words of Dostoievsky. Mabuse represents the reincarnation of Faust in a decaying environment, where power is the reason for living and the perfect substitute for happiness. That's why the final is so admirably metaphorical when he escapes via the sewer tunnels.



Lang mirrored with accurate precision and dramatic realism the state of things in which Germany was involved would seem to materialize the foreseen visions of the Expressionism, artistically expressed just two years ago in "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari."



Powerful filmic achievement that simply overpowers all kind of sublime adjectives to describe this prominent landmark in the cinema.

"

German Expressionist Masterpiece

directions | Space Time Foam | 12/31/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Though pre-dating "Metropolis",Fritz Lang's absolute silent masterpiece and not quite as nightmarish as "Cabinet of Doctor Caligari" or "Nosferatu", "Dr. Mabuse-The Gambler" created a disturbing (and frightfully prophetic) and highly suspenseful masterwork about the criminal genius Dr. Mabuse who manipulates people's minds to carry out his misdeeds. Some of the shots such as where the screen moves to a close up of Doctor Mabuse and the rest of the screen is black were new for their time. On two discs because the film was divided into two parts at the time, my only complaint is the plodding piano score that is too similar to that used for other silent films. Melodramatic yes but "Dr. Mabuse" is less so than most American films of the time. And of course Fritz Lang after fleeing Nazi Germany would continue to churn out classics such as "The Ministry of Fear". Make sure you get this 2 disc version, as other versions are heavily inferior in that the film quality is lacking and they are missing crucial footage."