My Top 9 Favorite Films I Watched in 2022 (First Time)
Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (1922) | dir. Fritz Lang
Die Nibelungen (1924) dir. Fritz Lang
The Wicker Man (1973) | dir. Robin Hardy
Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933) | dir. Fritz Lang
Metropolis (1927) | dir. Fritz Lang
Der Müde Tod (1921) | dir. Fritz Lang
Zur Chronik von Grieshuus (1925) | dir. Arthur von Gerlach
The Phantom of the Opera (1925) | dir. Rupert Julian
Count Dracula (1977) | dir. Philip Saville
A majority of what I watched in 2022 were Weimar-era German silent films, notably those by Fritz Lang. I enjoyed a great number of the movies he did in the 1920′s, especially his epics Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler and Die Nibelungen. Also, I came to enjoy the work of actor Rudolf Klein-Rogge after first seeing him as Rotwang in Metropolis. My most favorite role of his is Dr. Mabuse, which I feel is his greatest.
All of these are truly excellent films and would definitely recommend.
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Rudolf Klein-Rogge in The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang, 1933)
Cast: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Otto Wernicke, Karl Meixner, Oscar Berege Sr., Theodor Loos, Gustav Diessl, Wera Liessem, Rudolf Schündler, Jim Gérald, Oskar Höcker, Theo Lingen. Screenplay: Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou. Cinematography: Károly Vass, Fritz Arno Wagner. Art direction: Emil Hasler, Karl Vollbrecht. Film editing: Conrad von Molo, Lothar Wolff. Music: Hans Erdmann.
Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922) hardly needed a sequel, but the director makes it worth our while by adding sound to the concoction. Take, for example, the segue from the tick ... tick ... tick of the timer on a bomb to the chip ... chip ... chip of someone removing the shell from a soft-boiled egg. It's a witty touch that not only eases tension with laughter, but also demonstrates the prevalence of the sinister in everyday life. Hitchcock, it is often noted, learned a great deal from Lang. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) is more of a felt presence than a visible one in this version, confined as he is to an insane asylum where he supposedly dies, only to haunt not only the inmate Hofmeister (Karl Meixner) but also, and especially, the head of the asylum, Prof. Baum (Oscar Beregi Sr.), who is compelled to carry out Mabuse's plans for world domination. As in the 1922 film, there is a doughty policeman, Commissioner Lohmann (Otto Wernicke), who is determined to foil Mabuse's nefarious plans. Wernicke, whose character Lang brought over from M ( 1931), is not as hunky as the earlier film's von Wenk (Bernhard Goetze), so Lang and screenwriter Thea von Harbou add to the mix a young leading man, Gustav Diessl, who plays Thomas Kent, an ex-con who escapes from Mabuse's snares to aid Lohmann in trapping Baum in his efforts to fulfill Mabuse's plot. It's extremely effective suspense hokum, not raised quite to the level of art the way the 1922 film was, but still a cut above the genre. As is usually noted, this was Lang's last film in Germany. It was suppressed by the Nazis, ostensibly because it suggested that the state could be overthrown by a group of people working together, but perhaps also because of its suggestion that world domination might not be such a good thing.
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Today marks the 90th anniversary of one of Fritz Lang’s most memorable films, 1933′s The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, written as a warning about the incoming Nazi regime. Lang fled the country shortly after making it.
As an added bonus, here’s the heavily edited English dub, “The Crimes of Dr. Mabuse”
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The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse, 1933)
- Spanish photoplay book from 1934.
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Cereal Killer of 1896 makes a appearance as a ghost
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The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)
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