Fritz Lang puts on a show, with an assortment of confusing, but entertaining situations. The auteur in his earlier years, combining a complex rollercoaster of a story with different odd situations, revolving around a mysterious man named Dr. Mabuse, who is a master at mind control. He operates, with an assortment of disguises, as he easily manipulates his prey, most notably, gamblers.
Lang takes a popular character from literature of the time and turns him into a box-office hit. Made in Germany, this film was initially released a month apart in two chapters, in what could be called, the 1922 version of a 2-Part TV mini-series. A precursor to something that wouldn't happen until the 1970s. But, subsequent releases, shortly after, around the world, combined the two parts into what it looks like today. A four and a half hour spectacle of silent film proportions. Another groundbreaking achievement made in the roaring 20s.
But, this meticulous look at the life of a evil madman is confusing sometimes. Lang presents maybe too much information, which hinders the film. The lengthy look at this story gets slammed to a halt when the plot is force fed to you through notes, letters and title cards instead of just taking you to these situations too. It's not just the runtime of the full film. If you take the two parts, which by the way, each part is made up of four or five other little parts, each half of the film is still 2:15 each, in length. A lot to take in. I'm assuming if it was a box office hit in 1922 and that may be because of repeat viewings by people, who enjoyed it, but felt they missed something, like me. I watched it twice.
But, that is really all that was amiss here. The technical, structure and effects are very good for the early 1920s. Lang's use of mood, lighting, contrast is perfect. Also, give credit to the actors, makeup and costumes. They all look convincing in their mysterious ways. I always say, when it comes to basic filmmaking techniques, like editing, lighting and basic story-telling, I am going to be more critical on newer movies than old ones, but by this time in the timeline, Film was about 25 years old. So editing and effects are more archaic and still in, somewhat of, an infancy. So, when you see the scene, near the beginning of the film, that takes place on the train, don't be upset that the man is staring out a window that has a white screen pulled over it. My guess, is they wanted to matt footage of what is happening outside and they must have run into a technical issue. That is why they went with just the white window screen and a curtain on the sides instead.
The restoration that is available was able to fix a lot of the missing titles and fix many things that needed repair for the DVD release. The music accompaniment that was used is dead on prefect and it really sounds like they tried hard to mimic what was desired for the initial 1922 release. If you can search out this version, the most recent restoration that you can find, the full four and a half hour version, do so.
7.5 (C+ MyGrade) = 7 IMDB.
Lang takes a popular character from literature of the time and turns him into a box-office hit. Made in Germany, this film was initially released a month apart in two chapters, in what could be called, the 1922 version of a 2-Part TV mini-series. A precursor to something that wouldn't happen until the 1970s. But, subsequent releases, shortly after, around the world, combined the two parts into what it looks like today. A four and a half hour spectacle of silent film proportions. Another groundbreaking achievement made in the roaring 20s.
But, this meticulous look at the life of a evil madman is confusing sometimes. Lang presents maybe too much information, which hinders the film. The lengthy look at this story gets slammed to a halt when the plot is force fed to you through notes, letters and title cards instead of just taking you to these situations too. It's not just the runtime of the full film. If you take the two parts, which by the way, each part is made up of four or five other little parts, each half of the film is still 2:15 each, in length. A lot to take in. I'm assuming if it was a box office hit in 1922 and that may be because of repeat viewings by people, who enjoyed it, but felt they missed something, like me. I watched it twice.
But, that is really all that was amiss here. The technical, structure and effects are very good for the early 1920s. Lang's use of mood, lighting, contrast is perfect. Also, give credit to the actors, makeup and costumes. They all look convincing in their mysterious ways. I always say, when it comes to basic filmmaking techniques, like editing, lighting and basic story-telling, I am going to be more critical on newer movies than old ones, but by this time in the timeline, Film was about 25 years old. So editing and effects are more archaic and still in, somewhat of, an infancy. So, when you see the scene, near the beginning of the film, that takes place on the train, don't be upset that the man is staring out a window that has a white screen pulled over it. My guess, is they wanted to matt footage of what is happening outside and they must have run into a technical issue. That is why they went with just the white window screen and a curtain on the sides instead.
The restoration that is available was able to fix a lot of the missing titles and fix many things that needed repair for the DVD release. The music accompaniment that was used is dead on prefect and it really sounds like they tried hard to mimic what was desired for the initial 1922 release. If you can search out this version, the most recent restoration that you can find, the full four and a half hour version, do so.
7.5 (C+ MyGrade) = 7 IMDB.