Mabuse, The Gambler
Things I knew about Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler (1922) going in:
1) Early movie by good old Fritz Lang, who did Metropolis and M and such
2) The Evil Dr. Mabuse is one of those chaps like Asterix the Gaul or Dan Dare that come up when people try to convince you that Europe has actual home-grown pop-culture icons (like, whatever, Thomson and Thompson).
3) The Evil Dr. M. is sometimes referred to as the world's first literary supervillain
Things I did not know going in:
1) The movie is four-and-a-half hours long
But, y'know, sometimes you suffer for your passions. I did want to talk about The E. Doc M. himself - "first literary supervillain" is an interesting title to justify, especially when his adventures didn't start until 1921. What about Raffles, Gentleman Thief, or Captain Nemo, or Lucifer? As it turns out, we're using definition 3b of "supervillain" here: "Criminal mastermind who also has superhuman powers". A definition that narrow is pretty much restricted to beetle-browed academics and Gorilla Grodd when he's drunk-dialing Lex Luthor, but I'd buy Mabuse as a founding example. He's a master of disguise, of course, because everyone was a master of disguise in the 20s. He laughes at the police; he holds all of Berlin in his vast, terrifying, five-person web of speakeasies, counterfeit money, and stock manipulation. And he has exploited the dreadful new science of "hypnotism" to make himself a high-level mind-controller. Now, you would think that telepathic mind control (TEDM can give someone he's just met detailed commands by glowering at them from across the room) would be fairly useful to a nefarious master criminal. As it turns out, TEDM is a sporting(?) sort, so he almost exclusively uses his vast powers to make people lose at cards. I mean, at a couple of particularly dangerous points in the movie he orders one of the heroes to go commit suicide, and they do, but other than that it's pretty much "You Will HIT! On SIXTEEN! What Could Go Wrong? Mwah-hah! MWAH-HAH-HA!!" Actually, come to think of it, that's like the opposite of being sporting, he's just using his superpowers to dick people over in one specific, incredibly trivial way. I don't get you, Evil Dr. Mabuse.
The movie has some moments, but it's altogether too long and ramshackle to recommend spending four hours of your life on. At times the pacing and episodic nature feel uncomfortably like something called "G-Men Vs. The Hypno-Crook!" that could be cut up and run before the newsreel. There are memorable bits - even early, Fritz Lang was an occasional master of the atmospheric shot. Telepathic commands flash jaggedly on screen in a way that manages to be more unsettling than ludicrous. Mabuse's femme fatale henchwoman takes the news that she's become a liability with heartbroken, heartbreaking quiet resignation. And every bit of the film is enveloped and driven by get-rich-quick 1921 Berlin, where the bad times are past, and the sharp and the business-savvy will float luxuriously above the world forever, guiding the public with invisible strings.
1) Early movie by good old Fritz Lang, who did Metropolis and M and such
2) The Evil Dr. Mabuse is one of those chaps like Asterix the Gaul or Dan Dare that come up when people try to convince you that Europe has actual home-grown pop-culture icons (like, whatever, Thomson and Thompson).
3) The Evil Dr. M. is sometimes referred to as the world's first literary supervillain
Things I did not know going in:
1) The movie is four-and-a-half hours long
But, y'know, sometimes you suffer for your passions. I did want to talk about The E. Doc M. himself - "first literary supervillain" is an interesting title to justify, especially when his adventures didn't start until 1921. What about Raffles, Gentleman Thief, or Captain Nemo, or Lucifer? As it turns out, we're using definition 3b of "supervillain" here: "Criminal mastermind who also has superhuman powers". A definition that narrow is pretty much restricted to beetle-browed academics and Gorilla Grodd when he's drunk-dialing Lex Luthor, but I'd buy Mabuse as a founding example. He's a master of disguise, of course, because everyone was a master of disguise in the 20s. He laughes at the police; he holds all of Berlin in his vast, terrifying, five-person web of speakeasies, counterfeit money, and stock manipulation. And he has exploited the dreadful new science of "hypnotism" to make himself a high-level mind-controller. Now, you would think that telepathic mind control (TEDM can give someone he's just met detailed commands by glowering at them from across the room) would be fairly useful to a nefarious master criminal. As it turns out, TEDM is a sporting(?) sort, so he almost exclusively uses his vast powers to make people lose at cards. I mean, at a couple of particularly dangerous points in the movie he orders one of the heroes to go commit suicide, and they do, but other than that it's pretty much "You Will HIT! On SIXTEEN! What Could Go Wrong? Mwah-hah! MWAH-HAH-HA!!" Actually, come to think of it, that's like the opposite of being sporting, he's just using his superpowers to dick people over in one specific, incredibly trivial way. I don't get you, Evil Dr. Mabuse.
The movie has some moments, but it's altogether too long and ramshackle to recommend spending four hours of your life on. At times the pacing and episodic nature feel uncomfortably like something called "G-Men Vs. The Hypno-Crook!" that could be cut up and run before the newsreel. There are memorable bits - even early, Fritz Lang was an occasional master of the atmospheric shot. Telepathic commands flash jaggedly on screen in a way that manages to be more unsettling than ludicrous. Mabuse's femme fatale henchwoman takes the news that she's become a liability with heartbroken, heartbreaking quiet resignation. And every bit of the film is enveloped and driven by get-rich-quick 1921 Berlin, where the bad times are past, and the sharp and the business-savvy will float luxuriously above the world forever, guiding the public with invisible strings.