Mabuse Madness Continued

 

What Horror Film Approached Such Unnerving Imagery as This?

Thriller-Chiller-Diller: The Testament of Dr. Mabuse

Fritz Lang liked length and so let his German edition of this run past two hours, muchness his style almost from a start directing. The first Mabuse in 1922 took two feature parts to weave its story, Last Testament improving upon it for pace and thrills. Mabuse was cunning enough to seem supernatural, being everywhere and always ahead of opposition. Germanic hearts claimed him as their own and supported his efforts through much of the century, originator Lang pressed back to service and finishing his directorial career weaving yet more of Mabuse (imagine James Bond taking on this super-villain … had Lang directed, which he could have in the sixties … who’d put chips on 007?). Lang’s Testament being first of the series with sound continued aural revolution that was Lang’s M --- no director worldwide matched his skill with the new medium. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse acquits as horror if we accept the character as both crime lord and eventual spirit to cause further mayhem. Putting Mabuse in an asylum assures he’ll drive the staff crazy, then make slaves of the lot. Primary treating physician becomes Mabuse for purpose of continuing crimes; what with visions he sees, it’s sure Mabuse will never really die, nor would fan following want him to. Could US pop culture generate villainy to inspire such following? Testament has enough set-pieces to fill a dozen classic thrillers, an opening ten minutes to leave any creator wanting. “Kommissar” Lohmann is back on the job from M. We could wish there was a Lohmann series with all directed by Fritz Lang, but maybe it’s enough knowing actor Otto Wernicke had a reasonable working lifetime (d. 1965, busy for most of his stay).

Prospects were not so bright for German actors through the twenties and into the thirties, lots falling down wrong end of history wells or dying in Reich overtake efforts. Weirdness the stuff of Mabuse was unique to Lang, stopped cars in traffic where occupant of one quietly assassinates driver in another, a room that must be flooded in order to quell an explosion (it doesn’t, but at least victims survive). Could Americans dream up such stuff? It figures that Lang got jobs wherever he touched down, France and later the US. One look at what he’d done and hirers would know they got a sure bet. Pity that through his American career, Lang had to work in the shadow of perceived-similar Alfred Hitchcock, merchandisers putting them in a same pigeonhole for selling purpose, too few realizing how different the two actually were. A French version of The Testament of Dr. Mabuse was filmed, also by Lang but for most part with different actors (we miss Lohmann). Distributor Seymour Nebenzal would years later send out an American version cut to seven reels, him having been producer to begin with in Germany and, as with M, having rights to make whatever mischief he chose with both properties (Nebenzal remade M to Lang’s fury). The director came to view his former producer as an enemy. Watch the English-dubbed Testament if you can locate it, or better, just sample clips on You Tube, those being much as most will sit through. English dubbing works havoc on Mabuse narrative and performances, never mind heaviest of editing. No denying Mabuse could have used trims from a start, though the more I watch, the more necessary all of footage seems. What Masters of Cinema offers on Blu-Ray is amazing when we consider how easily elements could have been obliterated during the war.

Inherent qualities survive even outrages committed since 1933 when The Testament of Dr. Mabuse was banned in Germany. Look how we tolerated varied versions, let alone atrocious dubs, visited upon Mabuse for all those years before a proper restoration was had. This under Suspicious of Subtitles heading: Why do we trust them? After all, they tended to be one man’s interpretation of imports, his reading of what was said in a foreign language and his notion of how same should be translated for our consumption. Film historian Herman G. Weinberg supplied subtitles for films representing almost a dozen different countries. That’s an awful lot of cultures to master. I can’t think of anyone more qualified than Weinberg, but was this an unreasonably Herculean task to assign him? Surely it helped that Weinberg was pals with not just Lang, but Sternberg, Stroheim, you name the directing colossus. I know a writer-historian who took a class at City College in New York taught by Herman Weinberg. Just imagine that. Shortest route to a good grade was parroting opinions Weinberg expressed on whatever tests or essays he assigned. Well after all … who’d dream of contradicting Herman G. Weinberg? I’m not sure who subtitled The Testament of Dr. Mabuse as proper restorations were past Weinberg’s time, but principal remains the same. Per current custom for me was watching The Testament of Dr. Mabuse several times to nail down narrative, then going textless from there on (training wheels again). I prefer reading faces rather than printed scrawls that do nothing other than distract … they certainly do not enhance my viewing experience. Experience has taught that those faces do more than OK job at putting narrative across.

Even vague knowledge of story details is enough where visuals are as arresting as Fritz Lang creates them. Best of early German talkies make the transition easy, like with The Blue Angel (Sternberg as adept with what we see, importance less in what we hear). A printed program I came across and use as illustration here would suggest at least some bookings for the original, but history says no Deutsch booking occurred till 1951. Lang told a perhaps tall tale of being offered charge of the whole German film industry by Goebbels himself, this after the Minister of Propoganda half-apologized for censoring, in whole, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (seems he didn’t like the ending). Lang listened politely then caught an express for Paris, by skin of teeth he’d swear, leaving all of assets behind, a nail-biter of an account you’d think was a Lang movie rather than real life. Let’s just say his veracity has been questioned, and on plenty matters besides this (Lang loved to mislead), but so what? The man was a supreme fantasist who made his career spinning wild improbables. There’s even speculation that Lang offed a cuckolded husband who arrived home early and forgot to knock. Fritz was no boy scout. I would not want to be the kid that stole his marbles. Just remember that Lang trod hardest pavement. And how he treated women, as in consider Lotte Eisner, slavishly devoted and outstanding chronicler of the Lang career. Beside her, doormats during a mudslide had it easier. I suspect Fritz sort of identified with Dr. Mabuse, or figured his own reality beat the super schemer’s fiction. We are all little pussies beside Lang. I just wish someone could put his own astounding life on screens.