Search - The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Not For Children Movie Release: 1960 DVD Release: 07/18/2000 Format: DVD - Black and White,Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Edition: Restored/Remastered Audio Tracks: English, German Subtitles: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 39 mins Studio: Image Entertainment Members Wishing: 5 Genres: Crime, Crime Thriller, Master Criminal Films, Police Detective Film

Back in Germany for the first time since 1933, director Fritz Lang returned to the screen character that brought him enormous success in his pre-Hollywood years. The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse is not so much a sequel as an extension of Lang's early Dr. Mabuse (1922) and Testament of Dr. Mabuse. Set in 1960, the film begins with a series of unsolved murders in a Berlin hotel. The modus operandi of the murderer is the same as that of long-dead megalomaniac Dr. Mabuse. Police detective Gert Frobe and amateur sleuths Peter Van Eyck and Dawn Addams suspect that the killer is a man who believes that he is the reincarnation of Mabuse. Could the culprit be secretive insurance salesman Werner Peters, or blind seer Wolfgang Preiss? The title refers to the hotel's sophisticated TV surveillance system--dozens of roving cameras and TV monitors, inspired (claimed Lang) by a sophisticated bugging method used by the Nazis during World War II. The renewed popularity of the Dr. Mabuse character spawned five movie sequels, none of which were directed by Lang, who had washed his hands of the project. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gert Fröbe - Kriminalkommissar Kras

All Day Entertainment's DVD of Fritz Lang's 1960 film The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse is important not only because the film is engaging, fun, and displays that the great German director was still very much at the top of his field (though sadly it was his last film), but because the Mabuse films (at least the ones Lang actually directed) are among the great movie series of all time. Lang started the series off with Doktor Mabuse der Spieler (1922), then in 1933 he made the classic Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse, which got him in hot water with the newly in power Nazi regime. But even after Lang's fleeing of Germany for America, the eruption of WWII, and the deep freeze of the Cold War, the mysterious Dr. Mabuse was unable to rest fitfully. Lang eventually went back to Germany and resurrected his old cinematic nemesis. In doing so, he helped start a franchise. The DVD looks and sounds great, especially considering what All Day had to work with. For years this film has only been available in scratchy, washed out looking public domain tapes transferred from 16 mm film. Thankfully, the 35 mm print used for this disc is exceptional, except for the last five minutes or so when a substandard French print was utilized. Film historian and author of a book on the Mabuse series, David Kalat, talks about this at length in his commentary for the disc. He also gives an in-depth and fascinating overview of the Mabuse myth -- from the character's origins in the pulp novels, to his rebirth on the silver screen, and to Lang's ambivalence at having another round with the good doctor -- and offers up plenty of interesting behind-the-scenes anecdotes. The disc includes the original German-language soundtrack and the English dubbed track. An archive of stills and trailers for some of the other Mabuse films from the '60s are also included, as well as a great little 35-minute documentary about Lang called The Eyes of Fritz Lang. An interesting essay on the film from a 1973 issue of Film Comment also comes with the disc. All Day has also released The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1962) on DVD, which is a remake of Lang's original. Let's hope that the other Mabuse films will likewise see the light of day from this company. ~ Derek Hill, All Movie Guide