Doctor Mabuse

For other uses, see Mabuse.

Doctor Mabuse is a fictional character created by Norbert Jacques in the novel Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler and made famous by the three movies director Fritz Lang made about the character; see Dr. Mabuse the Gambler. Although the character was designed deliberately to mimic pulp magazine villains, such as Dr. Fu Manchu, Doctor Nikola, Fantômas, or Svengali, the latter of which was a direct inspiration, Jacques' goals were commercial success and to make political comments, in much the same way that the silent movie The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) had done just a few years previously.

Description

Dr. Mabuse is a master of disguise and telepathic hypnosis. Mabuse rarely commits his crimes in person, instead operating primarily through a network of agents implementing schemes he has planned for them. Mabuse's agents range from career criminals working for him, to innocents blackmailed or hypnotized into cooperation, to dupes manipulated so successfully they do not realize that they are doing exactly what Mabuse planned for them to do.

Mabuse's identity often changes; one "Dr. Mabuse" may be defeated and sent to an asylum, jail or grave, only for a new "Dr. Mabuse" to later appear, as depicted in The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. The replacement invariably has the same methods, the same powers of hypnosis and the same criminal genius. There are even suggestions in some instalments of the series, that the "real" Mabuse is some sort of spirit that possesses a series of hosts.

History

He first appeared in the 1921 novel Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler ("Dr. Mabuse The Gambler") by Norbert Jacques. The novel benefitted from unprecedented publicity and quickly became a best-seller. Lang, already an accomplished director, worked with his wife Thea von Harbou on a revision of the novel to bring it to the screen, where it also became a great success. The film Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (1922), with a playing time of more than four hours, was released in two sections: Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, an Image of the Times and Inferno, People of the Times.

After the great successes of the novel and the movie, it was almost a decade before anything more was done with the character. Jacques had been working on a sequel to the novel, named Mabuse's Colony, in which Mabuse has died and a group of his devotees are starting an island colony, based on the principles described by Mabuse's manifesto. However, the novel was unfinished. After conversations with Lang and von Harbou, Jacques agreed to discontinue the novel and the sequel instead became the 1933 movie Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse, in which the Mabuse of 1920 (still played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge) is an inmate in an insane asylum but has for some time been obsessively writing meticulous plans for crime and terrorism—plans that are being performed by a gang of criminals outside the asylum, who receive their orders from a person who has identified himself to them only as Dr. Mabuse.

Filmography

• Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (1922), directed by Fritz Lang.
  • English title: Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler.
• Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933), directed by Fritz Lang.
  • English title: The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
  • A French-language version was filmed at the same time, on the same sets, but with a mainly different cast.
  • The Crimes of Dr. Mabuse is a truncated, reorganized and redubbed adaptation of The Testament of Dr. Mabuse made primarily for U. S. audiences.
• Die Tausend Augen des Dr. Mabuse (1960), directed by Fritz Lang, produced by Artur Brauner.
  • English title: The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse.
• Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse (1961), directed by Harald Reinl, produced by Artur Brauner.
  • English title: The Return of Dr. Mabuse (literally; In the Steel-Web of Dr. Mabuse).
• de (1962), directed by Harald Reinl, produced by Artur Brauner.
  • English title: The Invisible Dr. Mabuse (literally: The Invisible Claws of Dr. Mabuse).
• de (1962), directed by Werner Klingler, produced by Artur Brauner, a remake of the 1933 movie.
  • English title: The Testament of Dr. Mabuse.
• Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse (1963), directed by Paul May, produced by Artur Brauner.
  • English title: Dr. Mabuse vs. Scotland Yard (literally: Scotland Yard hunts Dr. Mabuse).
• de (1964), directed by Hugo Fregonese, produced by Artur Brauner.
  • English title: The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse (literally: The Death-Rays of Dr. Mabuse).
• de (1971), directed by Jess Franco.
  • English title: The Vengeance of Dr. Mabuse.
• Docteur M (1990), directed by Claude Chabrol.
  • English title: Club Extinction.

A new independent film, Doctor Mabuse, written and directed by Ansel Faraj, had its world premiere on April 27, 2013, at the Coronado Village Theater in San Diego, California. The film stars Jerry Lacy as Dr. Mabuse, with his Dark Shadows co-stars Kathryn Leigh Scott as Madame Von Harbau, Lara Parker as Madame Carrozza, Nathan Wilson as Inspector Carl Lohemann, and Linden Chiles as Inspector Von Wenk. The film is an original story inspired by the character of Mabuse. On November 1st, 2012, the first teaser trailer for the film was released online. On May 9, 2015 - the film was released to watch on YouTube, free of charge.

Doctor Mabuse: Etiopomar, again written, directed and produced by Ansel Faraj with Jerry Lacy, Nathan Wilson, Linden Chiles, Lara Parker and Kathryn Leigh Scott reprising their roles, is currently available in video-demand format on Vimeo.

Literature

• Kalat, David, The strange case of Dr. Mabuse: a study of the twelve movies and five novels, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2001, ISBN 0786423374.

External links

• Doctor Mabuse (2013) official site
• Doctor Mabuse (2013) on IMDB