Доктор Мабус өсиеті

1933 film by Fritz Lang
the 1933 Fritz Lang film

Norbert Jacques wrote the original Dr. Mabuse books in the style of other popular thrillers in Europe at the time, such as Nick Carter, Fantomas, and Fu Manchu. Jacques expanded the traits of these books to include critiques on Weimar Germany. In 1930, Jacques was approached by a film producer to develop a story for a new Dr. Mabuse film with a female villain. This caused Jacques to start writing a new novel called Mabuse's Colony. In the novel, a character named Frau Kristine obtains a copy of Mabuse's testament which outlines plans for a future world of terrorism and crime that she uses. The film was released in tandem with Jacques's book. Jacques' contributions are not mentioned in the film. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse is a direct sequel to Dr. Mabuse the Gambler and is related to the film M which features the Inspector Lohmann character.

Many members of the cast and crew had worked with Lang on his earlier films. Rudolf Klein Rogge returned to play Dr. Mabuse as he did in Dr. Mabuse the Gambler. Klein Rogge acted in Lang's earlier films including Destiny, Die Nibelungen, Metropolis and Spies. Otto Wernicke reprises his role as Inspector Lohmann from Lang's M. Klaus Pohl plays Lohmann's assistant Müller. Pohl acted in Lang's Woman in the Moon and in an uncredited role in M.

Lang filmed The Testament of Dr. Mabuse at the end of 1932 and the beginning of 1933, desiring to have the film viewed worldwide. In his film, where gun play, fires, or explosions are needed, Lang often used real weapons. In the opening scene, during a power outage, a stunt actor did the gun play. Cinematographer Fritz Arno Wagner stated that he spent most of the production in a state of panic due to the way Lang would endanger his crew. The French version, titled Le Testament du docteur Mabuse, was edited by Lothar Wolff in France while the film was still in production.

For the film, Lang commissioned a composer for the first time. Hans Erdmann created the opening theme and the music played during Professor Baum's madness. The soundtrack in the film is deceptive. The French language version was distributed through Europe. At the Hungarian premiere of the German language print in 1933, Variety wrote that the film " certainly shows the influence of American mystery pictures. The story is very long winded and even an ingenious director like Fritz Lang could not prevent its being rather slow moving in places." Bosley Crowther wrote a negative review in The New York Times on the film's 1943 release, stating that "it is a good, old film, well played and beautifully directed – but a battered antique, none the less." On the 1973 re release, the same newspaper wrote a positive review of the film, stating that it "yields a sensational torrent of images that almost make the early nineteen seventies seem tame" and "while this "Mabuse" lacks most of the surrealistic effects and the dazzling hallucinations that gave its predecessor such magic, it's rich in the images and the shocks at which Lang excelled." Some years later, Siegfried Kracauer, writing in From Caligari to Hitler, accuses the film of "repetitious shock effects [which] tend to neutralize each other, [resulting in] monotony rather than an increase in suspense." He deems the film to be inferior to Lang's 1931 film M. Nevertheless, he goes on the describe several sequences in the film which illustrate Lang's "uncanny genius for evoking terror out of the simplest things". He also finds fault with the lack of any strong positive character the audience can identify with, since the police captain who destroys the criminal organization is a colorless bureaucratic official whose "victory lacks moral significance". If any in the film's audience was aware of any allegorical connection between the criminals and the Nazis, there is no one for them to turn to as an alternative to the Nazis. Kracauer writes: "As so often with Lang, the law triumphs and the lawless glitters. This anti Nazi film betrays the power of Nazi spirit over minds insufficiently equipped to counter its peculiar fascination." Modern critical reception of the film has been generally positive. Channel 4 gave the film a four stars out of five rating describing the film as a "sensational crime drama" and "some of the dialogue is clunky, much of the acting is alien to modern audiences The final sequence involving the destruction of a huge chemical works and a car chase through eerily lit woods, round hairpin bends and over a closing level crossing is one of the triumphs of early cinema." TV Guide gave the film a five out of five star rating terming it "a haunting, suspenseful sequel". Critic Leonard Maltin gave the film three and a half stars out of four and compared it to Dr. Mabuse The Gambler stating that it is "less stylized but no less entertaining". The online film database AllMovie rated the film four stars out five, stating that by "mixing several genres including cop drama, mystery, and horror, Lang created a rare hybrid picture full of striking characters and images."

After the film's initial release, producer Seymour Nebenzal used scenes from the car chase in The Testament of Dr. Mabuse for his own production of Le roi des Champs Élysées (1934) featuring Buster Keaton. Producer Artur Brauner cited the Dr. Mabuse films as the reason he went into the film industry, noting that he left his parents out in the middle of the night and returned after seeing what he described as "the most exciting film I've ever seen". Brauner later bought the rights to the Dr. Mabuse films and hired Fritz Lang to film a sequel titled The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse. The film was released in 1960 and was Lang's final film as a director. Brauner produced several other Mabuse films after the release of The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse. Director Claude Chabrol identified The Testament of Dr. Mabuse as his primary inspiration to become a filmmaker. Chabrol made his own Mabuse inspired film that was released in 1990 titled Dr. M. Director Christopher Nolan has stated: "I think I made Jonah (Nolan's brother) watch Fritz Lang’s Dr. Mabuse prior to writing the Joker".

A Region 1 DVD of The Testament of Dr. Mabuse was released by The Criterion Collection on May 18, 2004. This DVD release consists of two discs and contains both the German language and French language versions of the film. Film critic Dave Kehr wrote the German print is "the definite version". The German print of the film on the DVD is missing small parts of the film and runs at 121 minutes.