Die unsichtbaren Krallen des Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Mabuse, the nefarious supercriminal who regularly confounds the authorities with his ill-conceived and far-fetched world domination schemes, is ready to do battle once more with the forces of good. This time he's after a invisibility gizmo invented by a disfigured scientist seeking to hide his ugliness. One time Tarzan, Lex Barker, plays Mabuse's nemesis--FBI Agent Joe Como. The scientist likes to hang out at a theater where he can spy on the actress of his dreams. Apparently, he thought that by making himself invisible she wouldn't be frightened of him. Evidently, it never occurred to him that moving things around and touching her while he's invisible might frighten her. Is this guy a loser or what?

Eventually, Mabuse gets his evil hands on the device and creates a small army of transparent thugs. The plan is for them to wreak havoc and plunge the world into chaos. It's up to Joe Como and his band of incompetent German cops to thwart the scheme.

The writing for this film is incredibly bad. For example, since when did the FBI's jurisdiction extend to Germany? How did Mabuse know about the invisible man's obsession for the actress? In fact, how did Mabuse know there was an invisibility gadget? I also don't know how the scientist knew that Mabuse knew. Since the scientist was invisible why didn't he use that advantage to locate Mabuse and thwart his plans? Or better yet, since he allegedly cared so much for the actress why didn't he just make another device for her? She could then become invisible if Mabuse's goons threatened her? In my opinion, Dr. Mabuse isn't half as crazy as the folks who produced this turkey.

The evil Dr. Mabuse is after a scientists invisiblity formula to create an invisible army in order to take over the world. Thankfully a top FBI agent is on his trail. This film has good serial type thrills and is fun to watch if one is willing to suspend disbelief. Its great to see Lex Barker in a role other than Tarzan for a change. However, the poor English dubbing make his performance hard to judge.

This is still a perfectly watchable Dr. Mabuse entry but unfortunately it's mainly the story this time that prevents this movie from being amongst the best in the long series of Dr. Mabuse movies, that started in 1922 with Fritz Lang's "Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler - Ein Bild der Zeit" and ended in 1972 with Jesus Franco's "Dr. M schlägt zu" (unless you also count the unofficial 1990 entry "Dr. M".).

Wolfgang Preiss reprises his role as Dr. Mabuse for the third time and the character Joe Como and the actor portraying him, Lex Barker, from the previous Dr. Mabuse-entry "Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse" return in this movie again. It's a much needed presence since there isn't much that's connecting this movie with the previous entries. Perhaps it has to do with the lack of the presence of Dr. Mabuse in this movie and the absence of Gert Fröbe that this movie isn't as good as the previous entries.

It also is quite confusing again that actors from previous Dr. Mabuse return in this movie but in totally different roles.

The story just isn't much good or special this time, which is the main reason why this movie is unfortunately not as good as any of the other previously released Dr. Mabuse movies. There is no real criminal master-plan by Dr. Mabuse this time, at least nothing too solid or believable. The first part of the movie is just about an invisible man who spies and scares a girl. Oh that crook! This is not what in essence the original Dr. Mabuse were all about. I also don't think that Fritz Lang would had been too happy with this movie. Yes, of course the movie does get better as it progresses though.

The series sort of choose its own path during the '60's and it turned more into a funky typical '60's crime production. Sort of more like the James Bond movies, so to speak. Nothing wrong with this approach of course but you can wonder of it was the right approach for Dr. Mabuse movies, that in its earliest entries were still full with surrealism and were actually more horror movies then crime-mysteries.

There also is a lack of mystery and thriller elements this time. At times it even feels like the movie is more like a comedy. Like always, it's kept a mystery throughout the movie who is Dr. Mabuse, even though he is being portrayed again by the same actor who played him 2 times before. Quite silly of course.

Nothing too bad, just not as good when being compared to any of the previous Dr. Mabuse movies.

6/10

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This is the fourth in the 1960 west German Dr Mabuse series.While it is above average for the series it does mean that it is a cut above most other thrillers of the time.

A young actress (Karin Dor as Liane)in a Grand Guigonol/circus troupe seems to be haunted by a ghost.A government operative is investigating the troupe and meets his end via a killer clown.The FBI sends in Joe Como(Lex Barker from the 2nd in the series,The Return of Dr Mabuse).Joe and Liane cross paths.

Liane's former boyfriend had created an invisibilty gadget.But he presumably was killed in a car accident.Dr Mabuse and his gang think that Liane knows the whereabouts of the invisibilty device.The boyfriend is in fact not dead but horribly mangled due to the crash.He is using the gadget to stay near his love.

Mabuse & Joe Como both attempt to wrest the gadget from the boyfriend.But it looks like Mabuse may have the upper hand and chaos will reign supreme.An invisible gang of super criminals would be hard to beat.

In the series of Mabuse thrillers this one grades out at #5 of the 6 but way above the stinker Death Ray Of Dr Mabuse.It would be nice to see this film get the dvd treatment.

This movie really marked the decline in the fabled Dr. Mabuse series, at least for me. I think it was the inclusion of the invisibility schtick...Dr. Mabuse works much better with realism and realistic devices (his multitude of video and audio pick-ups, his mind control drugs, etc.) than fanciful items out of science fiction.

This film also suffered for not having Gert Frobe in the picture as Commissioner Lohmann to counterpoint Lex Barker's suave FBI agent (who this time does not even attempt to confuse us as to which side of the law he is on).

Still, there is a lot of good action in this film, and the cinematography is excellent as well. Definitely worth a look.