According to the legend surrounding the film, Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou set out to make a document or documentary of the times. Lang told Lotte Eisner that the original cut of the film contained a prolog that showed the Spartacus League uprising during the German revolution of 1918, the murder of Walther Rathenau, the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch and other violent episodes from the times. The prolog has vanished from the film and Eisner surmised that it might have been cut in the 1920s — when people didn’t want to be reminded of their troubles — or later by the East German archive that controlled the film — that wished to excise the Spartacus material.
Contemporaneous reviews make no mention of the prolog and it is quite possibly another figment of Lang’s memory although the current version does open oddly. The film was an instant success for Lang and coming right after “Der müde Tod,” Fritz Lang was the leading light of German cinema. (There is a similar opening to the one Lang describes in “Dr Mabuse” in the opening to Lang’s “Spione.”)
Das Tagebuch wrote, “No vice of our time is forgotten [. . .] It is a mirror of the age, not specially uplifting, not ennobling in its effect. Yet it is genuinely felt, visually powerful in Fritz Lang’s direction.” Die Welt noted that, “This film is a document of our time, an excellent portrait of high society with its gambling passion and dancing madness, its hysteria and decadence, its expressionism and occultism.” The Roland von Berlin wrote, “At last a film that has something to say to us that represents the present, daringly shot, contemporary history relentlessly shot. [. . .] It is marvelous how in [Fritz Lang’s] hands architecture and photography have achieved a force of expressiveness hitherto unheard of.”
Divided into two parts (“Der große Spieler: Ein Bild der Zeit” and “Inferno: Ein Spiel um Menschen unserer Zeit”), the film runs over four hours and chronicles the criminal activities of Dr Mabuse – who shares some qualities with Dr Caligari – and the relentless pursuer of Mabuse, Chief-Inspector Norbert von Wenk. Siegfried Kracauer in From Caligari to Hitler observes that “Wenk himself is scarcely more than a smart representation of the law, a kind of legal gangster, with the police functioning as his gang. [. . . ] Wenk is morally so indifferent that his triumph lacks significance. To be sure, Mabuse is wrecked; but socially depravity continues, and other Mabuses may follow.” And therein is the key to Fritz Lang’s German films that utterly lack not only redemption, but even lack resolution. While Mabuse or Hans Beckert (from “M”) or Haghi (from “Spione”) may be stopped, whatever created them is still part of the social order and it’s only a matter of time before some other monster or criminal mastermind takes their place.
For me, “Dr Mabuse Der Spieler” is Fritz Lang’s definitive film. It has the spirit of the sensation films and a visual grit reminiscent of “Vier um die Frau” wrapped around a story that not only still fascinates but seems to keep the spirit of its time alive. The term “Der Spieler” has several meanings including gambler, actor or puppeteer and the film as well is more faceted than Lang’s other dramas. There are several consistent aspects to Lang’s films and the first is that Lang doesn’t take sides – as with the Lover and Death in “Der Müde Tode” – and there are no conventional heroes – even in “Die Nibelungen” there aren’t any characters one wants to emulate.
Watching the Kino DVD the other day I realized that the soundtracks stuck on silent films rarely add anything more than an imposed quaintness that in this particular case misrepresents the film. The prevailing notion seems to be that modern audiences need every empty audio space filled with a tinkling piano or a crescendo of strings to accompany the action of a silent film as if to recreate the original viewing experience. That may make the experience of, say, one of the Spider films more enjoyable since that is a film stuck in the past. What “Dr Mabuse, Der Spieler” needs is the addition of ambient sounds and themes that set a mood and then dissipate. Lang captured more than his time in this film and many of the societal ills depicted in the film made in 1922 are still found in the daily news of today.
What makes this Dr Mabuse film a classic is that the film isn’t bound to any particular message and it doesn’t offer any excuses for the participants. Carl Hoffman — who also shot FW Murnau’s “Faust” and Lang's “Die Nibelungen” — incorporates film styles that were then in vogue and whether it’s a reference or a sly wink to the audience really doesn’t make a difference in how it plays in the here and now. “Expressionism,” says Dr Mabuse, “is a game, but, nowadays, in life everything is just a game.” That line is delivered in the nightclub decked out in expressionistic motifs and it isn’t Lang being an expressionist as much as he is documenting the times and having a bit of fun with it.
In Germany, in the 1920s, Fritz Lang called the shots on every film he made starting with “Der müde Tod” and his only limits were budgetary. Lang was a hands-on director from the beginning demanding and sometimes helping to create special effects and the look and feel of his films. He was also the defacto film editor. Two visitors to the set of “Dr Mabuse Der Spieler” were the then unknown Alfred Hitchcock — who McGilligan wrote would “shamelessly borrow” from Fritz Lang— and Sergei Eisenstein, who managed only the briefest of chats with Lang. According to Sergei Yutkevich — via Eisner — Eisenstein edited “Dr Mabuse Der Spieler” into smaller parts in an attempt to rearrange the film only to end up back where he started. Or so the story goes.
Produced by Erich Pommer for Uco-Film GmbH. Directed by Fritz Lang.
Written by Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou based upon a novel by Norbert Jacques.
Starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Aud Egede-Nissen, Gertrude Welcker, Alfred Abel, and Bernhard Goetzke. Cinematography by Carl Hoffman. Running time: 270 mins.