Fritz Lang’s ‘The Testament of Dr Blofel… I mean, Mabuse’.
A former police-detective frantically telephones his old boss in desperate panic. He has discovered a vast criminal conspiracy but before he can say anymore the call ends with a hail of bullets. It seems as though dark forces are once again on the rise, but who is behind them? Dr Mabuse has been institutionalised for the past ten years, remaining catatonic apart from his incessant scribbling of his notes, his testament. Yet has Mabuse’s reach, somehow, found a way to extend beyond the walls of the asylum to, once again, threaten the entire world? But that… that… would mean Mabuse could be anywhere, everywhere. HELP!!!
Fritz Lang’s ‘The Testament of Dr Mabuse’ (1933) is excellent and an exciting detective/espionage story. It is also Lang’s second feature filmed using sound, a medium he resisted for a brief while which is odd because once the director finally embraced it he did so with real skill and flare. As with his previous ‘M’ (1931) there’s sonic innovation aplenty and ‘Testament’ begins with one such example as the audience is plunged into a world of screeching, grinding machinery and the effect is suitably disorientating and invigorating. Keep an eye, or ear, out too for how the ticking of an unseen devious, mechanical killing device cuts to the opening of a boiled egg. It’s sublime.
This is also a Fritz Lang movie where we can really feel the director has let go of the (his?) past with that glaring monocle piercing directly into the future. Gone are any traces of childhood fairytales or remnants of nostalgia; this is a film not just living excitedly in the present but predicting the future… almost more so than in ‘Metropolis’ (1927).
So here we find a huge amount of ground-work laid out for so many spy and detective movies that would follow, specifically James Bond. There are scenes where Mabuse (or is it?) instructs the various sections and departments of his organisation from behind a screen, his ominous voice intimidating his cowering men, that would be lifted directly for Blofeld. The parallels between ‘Testament’ and ‘Thunderball’ (1965) are striking with Mabuse at one point being updated on an extortion job by one of his minions just prior to Mabuse admonishing another for not doing his job — you’re just waiting for one of them to be electrocuted. Here is one of the birth-places of S.P.E.C.T.R.E.. Oh, and stand up and take a bow Christopher Nolan’s Joker too as Mabuse’s plan is to sow criminal chaos and anarchy across the world, a world he doesn’t so much seem to want to control as watch burn.
The film barrels along at a decent pace (comparatively speaking) and there’s a decent amount of light-hearted comedy (which works!) as well as a car-chase, some explosions, some daring escapes, a shoot-out and Otto Wernicke as Inspector Lohmann is great reprising the role he had in Lang’s previous ‘M’ (if you think the idea of sequels or a shared universe are relatively new ones then think again). Keep an eye out too for the return of Lang’s African and Oriental knick-knacks and their usual cameos.
The film, like most movies, has a few issues. Lang still has a habit of slightly sabotaging his own momentum, such as having his heroes needing to change a tire half-way through a high speed car-chase. Plus, it’s also pretty obvious who the bad guy is or, more precisely, whom Mabuse is “operating” and, not only that but it takes the police half the movie to figure out an obvious clue. But I guess the police aren’t as clever as the already informed audience, or is this just Lang stroking our egos for being clever little boys and girls?
Also, this is one of Lang’s few films with a weak female lead (there’s only two women in the entire film); she’s not given much to do and it’s a rather thankless role. Indeed, the romantic couple in this movie also raises an issue than can dwell in a few of Lang’s films — just who, exactly, is the lead character? Stuff who Mabuse is- who is this movie about? The Inspector? The Psychiatrist? Nope? The young couple? Our emotions want to say “yes” but they have basically no impact on the plot and are trapped for a large part of the film. Exciting, yes but they’re narratively useless.
Either way, ‘The Testament of Dr Mabuse’ is a fun, exciting and influential (it’s amazing how often that word comes up with Lang) film and demonstrated that Fritz Lang could work effectively with a limited budget. Indeed, it’s obvious Lang was into his S & M because these financial restrictions almost seem to bring out the best in him… even if he did bitch about it at the time.
