Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1932) from Criterion!

http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=231

Heart-attack city! I've been waiting twenty years for a great print of this!

If you liked "M", you'll love this film! Inspector Lohmann is in both of them; between the two films, I'd say the inspector earned his retirement from the Berlin police force.

 

Good call, Tim! I saw this on TCM late one night several years ago and it left a vivid impression! I ordered this a couple of months back after learning that Criterion was going to do one of their turn-key remastering jobs on it. BTW, I'd also recommend the Image release of The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang's final film, from 1960) as it acts as and excellent follow-up to Testament, 28 years later. Note: The first of Lang's Dr. Mabuse films, Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (i.e., also available from Image), while okay, seems a little slowly paced to me even for a silent and undoubtably is more dated than either of the sequels, but it's still entertaining and worth at least a cursory viewing.


Cat

 

"The first of Lang's Dr. Mabuse films, Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (i.e., also available from Image), while okay, seems a little slowly paced to me..."

Me, too - the set design looked cool, BUT....

 

I ordered "The Testament of Mabuse" from DeepDiscountDVD.com (28 bucks), looking forward to it's arrival.

"Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (DVD)" is slow paced, but I really enjoyed the (very enthusiastic) audio commentary by some film geek who wrote a Mabuse book. Being filled in on the political and economical climate of the era that the film was made in (circa 1924) enhanced my enjoyment of it. It also helped that we were trapped inside by a snow storm, and that was the only unwatched movie we had, so we were very patient with it (all 229 minutes of it). I had seen a severely edited version twenty or so years earlier, and the story finally made sense to me.

 

"we were trapped inside by a snow storm, and that was the only unwatched movie we had, so we were very patient with it (all 229 minutes of it)."

Boy, I LOVE days like that!

 

I got my "Testament..." the other day. Very crisp and clear print, you can see the grimy-ness of the sets. A few scenes are from lesser quality prints, but they were needed for completeness, as only a few minutes are missing now. Previous VHS versions were 30-40 minutes shorter. The sound is very good, and amazing when you consider how early in the sound era this was made. There's a second disc, with the french version, made with french actors. Not so hot looking. Also, a short interview with Fritz in the early '60's, and a interview with one of the Mabuse gangsters in '84. The audio commentary is by the same mabuse-loving dude who did "Dr. Mabuse the Gambler."

I was shocked by how good this DVD looks; I've only watched a couple of Criterion discs, and one ("Sullivan's Travels") was better looking than the other ("The Lady Eve").

 

I'm hoping to find this DVD today. Keep an eye out for another version of "M" from Criterion in the next year. Their current DVD looks fantastic, but they say they've found an even better print. And Inspector Lohmann is in both films!

 

If you have a universal player (i.e., one that can play PAL Region 2 format) you can get the restored "M" on the Eureka label from Bensons World (bensonsworld.co.uk) right now; according to a lengthy review I've read this Eureka release absolutely KILLS the current Criterion offering. Since I own a universal player that does a good job of scaling PAL discs I did purchase a copy of the Eureka label's Murnau Group restored "M" and have to agree that it IS excellent, but admittedly I haven't personally compared it with the current Criterion release.


Cat

 

I'm pretty sure Criterion's going to be revisiting M later this year. The current disc is OOP, and they're said to be working from the same restored elements as the Eureka disc.
Oh, and I love Mabuse, it's a really wild ride for a film of its age. The second (?) scene where the barrel comes flying onscreen out of nowhere hooked me!

 

I just finished the disc, and I am in Germanic Heaven! Something really interesting happened - in the old print, Inspector Lohmann looks like he's scratching the window with his ring, planting evidence that the victim was scratching "Mabuse" on the glass. I could never figure out why he was planting evidence, or how he already knew Mabuse was involved.

The new print is so clear that I saw that the letters were already scratched on the glass, and I saw that Lohmann wasn't wearing a ring! He was just backing up to the window to test his theory on the scratches that were already there.

The second disc is full of great stuff, too - including the french version with a different cast. And the short piece comparing all three versions was way cool.

I hope Criterion does more with this period of cinema. "Pandora's Box" would be excellent!