231 - The Last Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)

Ein Fritz Lang Film! And its a nightmarish psychological crime thriller that was banned by the Nazis no less!  It’s also, strangely, a kind of sequel to two different and previously unrelated Lang films: Mabuse the Gambler (1922) and M (1931).  In other words, this is a perfect place for us to start with this director.  A world-weary police inspector begins to investigate a series of murders traced back to an enigmatic criminal mastermind pulling the strings of a vast organization of professional criminals.  The only problem is that the kingpin in question is the near catatonic Dr. Mabuse who has been imprisoned in a psychiatric institution for the past decade.  Can the conspiracy be uncovered before interwar German society is thrown into chaos?!

If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Masaki Kobayashi’s Kwaidan (1964).