Review: Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse/The Return of Dr Mabuse 1961, the first "real" CCC Mabuse

 We all know him and we all love him: Dr. Mabuse, the ever-changing enigma, the master-mind behind every single conspiracy, the scientist, psychiatrist, hypnoticist. The man who controls armies, organized crime, and the propaganda machinery of the press. And what about if it was just one man selling cigarettes near a railway station?

The silent "Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler" was directed by Fritz Lang, who infused more politics into the pulp-novel written by Luxembourgish author Norbert Jacques. With the emergence of right-wing propaganda figures like Mussolini and Hitler, Lang even developed an updated version, together with his wife Thea von Harbou (Metropolis) and Norbert Jacques. Now, we have two Dr. Mabuses: the one in the first novel by Norbert Jacques (basically a Dr. of Psychiatrics who uses Hypnosis for his crimes in a Fantomas-rip-off) and the new one (a political figure using organized crime (methods)  to mind-control the whole world), now manifested in "Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse" in 1932. 

A spin-off novel by another author was then filmed in 1960 by Fritz Lang again, this time under the production of Artur Brauner, who had gained the exclusive rights to the Mabuse figure (V 1.0) from N. Jacques before his death and who needed Lang to cooperate to use the political elements established by him (V 2.0). 

"Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse" now proved successful (although not THAT successful) enough to spawn a sequel, but Lang was out of it. Nevertheless (as long as Lang lived), Brauner was not too free with what he could do with Mabuse. The following characteristics always had to be in place:

Organized crime, video surveillance, mind control/zombies, Mad Scientist, masks, Kommissar Lohmann - and yes -seedy bars too.

For the sequel, Brauner was given enough money by the PRISMA distributor (owned by Preben Philipsen who had founded CONSTANTIN) to hire some top-level talent. The finished movie was then distributed by Constantin, securing an A-level distribution.

First we have Ladislas Fodor, a very successful Hungarian stage and scriptwriter who had been an influential figure in Hollywood. Then we get the most financially successful director in Germany with Harald Reinl. And Artur Brauner is able to lure Lex Barker from Rome for his first German movie. We get Rudolf Fernau in one of his best performances and Daliah Lavy, starting her international career. And of course, Wolfgang Preiss, who now was THE face of Mabuse, inheriting the status from Rudolf Klein-Rogge. The whole movie was set up to charm MGM into distributing it in the USA, which did not work out.

Ok., Now, the movie:

Dr. Mabuse is now head of a forensic asylum in Berlin and has been able to imprison the famous chemist Sabrehm in there. That one had been working on a substance that will grant mind-control over anyone that had been injected with it. The Asylum already has spread its businesses into religious welfare organizations, and through a book, found with a strange murder victim, Kommissar Lohmann takes notice and puts the pieces together just in time for him to prevent Mabuse from seizing the Berlin power grid and - by this - control.

I made this sound easy. It is not. The original treatment by author Marc Brehm (Beatles: Help!) included 30 characters and had to be cut down drastically by Fodor. Directed in a different style, this is easily a companion piece to "Scream and Scream again", with lots of similar iconography. But Reinl is a no-nonsense director, whose style is much more practical. As opposed to other Krimi-directors I always find it hard to tell what exactly makes a Reinl-film indistinguishable from the rest. 

His films always work but are more artisan than art, if you get what I mean. And yes, you can always guess it's a Reinl film when the lead actress is found in exquisite bondage situations. This one is not different.

The whole affair is much more carefree entertainment than any Mabuse-movie prior to this and that is why I consider this the first "real" CCC Mabuse movie. Artur Brauner of CCC was never shy of putting out ludicrous stuff if it was cheap enough to make and high enough on profit and here, Mabuse enters the exploitation zone that German Krimis are known for. The original title tries to cash in on the very successful Jürgen Roland (Green Archer) TV-series "Stahlnetz"(=Net of Steel) that was the German equivalent to "Dragnet", so the correct translation would be "In the Dragnet of Dr. Mabuse". And here you already see the not-so-polictially-intellectual view that Artur Brauner had on these things.

It is easy to see that this was a successful movie. Acting is good, photography and direction are good and the plot moves along at a decent pace. This is all very confusing if you do not pay too much attention, but then, the set pieces make up for it. As Tim Lucas wrote, "An effective starter for the ... series".

The print from the German BD is a restored 4K scan done by the national film archive and the same one used in the upcoming EUREKA! Box set. It is immaculate, and it is a pure joy to see a movie this old in this shape.