Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse

This film has had more titles than some folks have shorts.No matter what the title we do have a nifty follow up to the classic 1000 Eyes Of Dr Mabuse.

A man is murdered on a train which brings in Inspector Lohmann.In a rather gruesome scene a woman representing the Chicago Mafia is roasted alive by a flame thrower in a truck.This brings in Joe Como,FBI agent.Or is he really Nick Scapio from the Chicago mob?

Dr Mabuse wants to make a deal with the Chicago gangsters for some undisclosed reason.He has a chemical which makes a person a slave to the will of Dr Mabuse.Mabuse intends to take over and destroy a nuclear power plant in the city as a show of good faith.Cleverly using prisoners from the local prison Mabuse intends to create mass havoc & terror.

This film is never dull and will keep you guessing right until the end.It also has one of the more paranoid endings in the Dr Mabuse series.If you can find it enjoy it!

Enjoyable German crime thriller stars Gert "Goldfinger" Frobe as police commissioner Lohmann, faced with a series of crimes perpetrated by convicts. These convicts have been turned into obedient slaves by the nefarious, mysterious mastermind Dr. Mabuse, and are able to escape prison and return there once their deeds are done. Giving Lohmann an assist is American FBI agent Joe Como (Lex Barker); also involved is a sexy female reporter, Maria Sabrehm (the delectable Daliah Lavi).

Capably directed by Harald Reinl ("The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism"), this is good, zesty entertainment that gets by due to effective lighting schemes, a swift pace, and a snappy script. The movie rarely stops moving, presumably to keep us focused on the story and prevent us from thinking about it too much. It's a delight to see heavyset, jovial Frobe as a hero, and Barker (just one of many Tarzan performers over the years) is solid as a character about whom you're never quite sure; whose side is he really on? Lavi is appealing while also functioning as major eye candy. The strong supporting cast includes Fausto Tozzi as the sleazy looking Warden Wolf, Werner Peters as his associate Bohmler, Wolfgang Preiss as the slippery Mabuse, Rudolf Forster as a disgraced chemist, Rudolf Fernau as a priest, and Joachim Mock as Detective Voss.

Sometimes startlingly violent (one victim is turned into a human torch), but pretty stylish throughout, "The Return of Dr. Mabuse" is just plain fun for any lover of this film series.

Seven out of 10.

Own laws are valid for criminal-genious Dr. Mabuse ( Wolfgang Preiss ). Inspector Gert Fröbe is being helped or disturbed by Lex Barker. The team, director H. Reinl and Lex Barker continued their work at Winnetou. The Westgerman-criminal-era started in the late 1950ies up to 1970. Famous were the many Wallace-criminals, but Dr. Mabuse is more unique with great Preiss and contains action and disport.

As I generally greatly detest sequels, reboots and the like, especially of great filmic franchises created and led by outstanding filmmakers (ie., the Mabuse character and Fritz Lang) I initially had quite guarded reservations about seeing Reinl's version here. But it had significant strengths that made me quickly realize my fears were undeserved and that I, in fact, was in for a treat. The pace is whipcrack, the plot is intense and in Commissioner Lohmann, the villainous 'Goldfinger' (an excellent Gert Fröbe) pulls off a gritty cross between an Ed Asner and a Popeye Doyle-era Gene Hackman. I love how one of the ways Mabuse resorts to do away with pests pays homage to Lang's 'The Testament of Dr. Mabuse' from three decades prior. It certainly made me wary of churches, one-legged men and even laundry workers, for crying out loud, and part of the fear the film brings across is because in the back of our minds, we know this is precisely how the Nazis operated, studying fluoride as a mind-control agent. If there is any negative I got from the film, the Berlin police department (good ol' Lohmann notwithstanding) seemed the most unintelligent and incompetent sleuthing force this side of Inspector Clouseau. Definitely recommended for fans of thrillers and spy films.

The previous Dr. Mabuse movies were mostly mystery thrillers but this movie is more of a crime thriller, also with some certain '60's funkiness added to it all. The movie is more starting to head into the 'James Bond' sort of direction with this entry, also by having some silly gadgets in it, used to murder people with. It also all means that the story is less believable and even a bit silly, compared to the previous Dr. Mabuse entries. In the movie it's also kept a mystery for long who Dr. Mabuse is and he's mostly featured in shadows and underneath masking clothes, though if you've seen the previous "Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse", which got released only just one year before this movie, you already know who Dr. Mabuse is and how he looks like, so it just seems a bit silly all and in some ways this movie is just basically more of the same, compared to the previous Dr. Mabuse entries, especially the last one "Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse". There unfortunately also are some unnecessary plot lines and characters. Or differently put; some characters and plot lines we just don't care about!

All of the action and especially the editing of it all looks by todays standards terribly outdated and clumsy. But who can really blame them. Action movies and action-style was basically still non-existent in 1961. Then again, the movie also isn't too action filled. The movie at least doesn't lay its emphasis on it and rather relies on its script and the thriller and mystery elements in it.

The overall style and atmosphere is great. It has a sort of dark, mysterious atmosphere, that is being enhanced by the fact that the movie was shot in black & white. Perhaps the only true thing that all of the Dr. Mabuse movies have in common (with the exception of "Dr. M schlägt zu" that was shot in color). Because lets face it, the Dr. Mabuse movies from the '20's, '30's and '60's are all quite different in style, approach and overall execution of it all, simply because of the different time periods the movies got made in. Also the character of Dr. Mabuse changed and the Mabuse in this movie does not operate the same as the one from the '20's and '30's. But that's OK all. It sort of gives each Dr. Mabuse movie its own identity and also makes sure that all of the movies are still filled with surprises. The character of Dr. Mabuse himself also doesn't get any weaker because of it.

The presence of the character of Dr. Mabuse of course really uplifts the movies and makes the movie much better than just any other average thriller from the same period. It's a great villainous, classic crime character, with lots of power over people.

Gert Fröbe is not as great in this movie as he was in "Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse" and it's of course also a bit weird and confusing that he this time plays a totally different character as he did in the previous entry "Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse" (same goes for some other actors within this movie, such as for instance Werner Peters). But of course that doesn't take away that he still gives away one fine performance. Wolfgang Preiss reprises his role from the previous Dr. Mabuse movie again and does a good job at it, though I was his role was bigger.

Not that great when compared to the previous 3 Dr. Mabuse movies but on its own this is simply a good and certainly enjoyable early crime thriller.

7/10

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