Il testamento del dottor Mabuse

The 3rd Dr. Mabuse with the team Wolfgang Preiss + Gert Fröbe is added here with C. Reigner. Meanwhile the 'Dr. Mabuse' had become well known in other continents, too. I think this movie is more finicky and tricky, than the others, but still tentious and good. So I recommend it.

This is the 1962 remake of Fritz Lang's 1933 Testament Of Dr Mabuse.Dr Mabuse (Wolfgang Priess) has been locked away in an asylum for the insane for some time now.Well, since the end of Invisible Dr Mabuse anyway.

The movie opens with a series of clockwork precision crimes.An armored car full of gold is heisted;the diamond exchange is robbed;a train carrying paper for the government to use to print money is hijacked.All of these crimes point to a very dangerous organization under the leadership of one man.But who is that man?

Many clues including tips from a former corrupt police officer lead Inspector Lohman(Gert Frobe) to suspect Dr Mabuse.Lohman visits the asylum run by Dr Pohland(Walter Rilla) where Mabuse is being held.No one but the doctor has contact with Mabuse.All Mabuse does is write frantically 24 hours a day.

Soon we find out that Mabuse has been hypnotizing Dr Pohland to carry out these crimes for him.Things get wild and wooly when Dr Pohland/Mabuse subjects Inspector Lohmann to shock treatments.Will Mabuse bring the country to its knees?

This film is a lot better than critics will have you believe.I feel it ranks just behind 1000 Eyes Of Dr Mabuse and Scotland Yard Vs Dr Mabuse.My viewing pleasure was enhanced by watching a widescreen dubbed dvd version along with the commentary track as well.

This movie is not bad but it's a too simple entry in the Dr. Mabuse movie franchise.

It's part of the long running Dr. Mabuse franchise and a remake of the 1933 movie with the same title, directed by Fritz Lang. It's a bit weird that they decided to do a remake this time, as if they ran out of original ideas of its own. But then again, can you really call this a remake? It changed quite a lot, including the characters. It doesn't have an awful lot to do plot-wise with the 1933 movie and only a few sequences are similar. It also almost exactly copies the car chase in the finale of the movie but it of course can't beat the brilliant original.

The movie is not really mysterious since it show Dr. Mabuse and his intentions pretty early on in the movie. In the original version it was still kept a mystery for long that Dr. Mabuse was still alive and that he still was just as much in control as always. This movie chooses a far more simplified approach of things.

The movie is instead now often more silly than really tense or mysterious. It has some certain clumsiness's and silliness's in it, which makes the movie feel far more outdated than its 1962 year of production would normally suggest it is. And even though it's not a slow or boring movie, it just isn't a very exciting one either really.

At least a real positive thing was that Gert Fröbe returned again in his role as Kriminalkommissar Lohmann. The same role he had played before in "Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse". And what he great actor he was! Also Wolfgang Preiss reprises his role of Dr. Mabuse once more, for the fourth time already. Luckily his role in this movie is much larger again and he is better than ever before in this movie.

It's OK to watch, if you also liked the previous Dr. Mabuse movies.

6/10

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While TESTAMENT is preferable to the rather weak THOUSAND EYES OF DOCTOR MABUSE, you'd still be better off looking for the silent Mabuse films -- DOCTOR MABUSE, THE GAMBLER, for example. It just isn't the same without Fritz Lang, though Lang is not at his best after 1960, in my opinion (apart from his INDIAN TOMB two-parter, a stylish classic and direct influence on INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM). Klingler tries, but he's just not up to the Master's standards.

This movie is so silly, you've got to love it. The way the actors keep a straight face to the nonsense their up to is absolutely delightful.

There are countless great scenes to witness. My favorite one: When Inspector Lohmann studies Mabuses "secret" plans he's informed that a bank has been robbed. Immediately he pulls out the master-plan out of a heap of shabby looking pages. The "plan" is shown briefly. Do yourself a favor and push the stop-button there. You'll see some badly drawn figures, a few stars and the words "unternehmen stadbank" (operation city-bank?). That's the plan of a mastermind of crime! Watch the scene when informer "Locke" is chased by his gang. It's a very bad copy of the chase-scene in the beginning of the original version. It's good proof how good Fritz Lang actually was.