With the etching onto glass of a single word – “MABUSE” – Berlin reawakens into a nightmare. Fritz Lang’s electrifying Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse [The Testament of Dr. Mabuse] is the astonishing second instalment in the German master’s legendary Mabuse series, a film that puts image and sound into an hypnotic arrangement unlike anything seen or heard in the cinema before – or since.
It’s been eleven years since the downfall of arch-criminal and master-of-disguise Dr. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), now sequestered in an asylum under the watchful eye of one Professor Baum (Oskar Beregi). Mabuse exists in a state of “catatonic graphomania”, his only action the irrepressible scribbling of blueprints that would realise a seemingly theoretical “Empire of Crime”. But when a series of violent events courses through the city, police and populace alike start asking themselves with increasing panic: “Who is behind all this?!” The answer borders on the realm of the impossible…
Not only a follow-up to Lang’s earlier Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler. [Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler.], but also, with the presence of Otto Wernicke’s Police Commissioner Lohmann, a semi-sequel to Lang’s immortal masterpiece M, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse is itself considered by many to be Lang’s greatest achievement – a work of terrible and practically supernatural power that seems to have prophesied the implications of the Nazi scourge. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse for the very first time on Blu-ray, in a Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) edition.
SPECIAL FEATURES
DUAL FORMAT (BLU-RAY + DVD) EDITION
HD transfer of the film presented in its original aspect ratio, in 1080p on the Blu-ray
Newly translated optional English subtitles
Feature-length audio commentary by film scholar and Fritz Lang expert David Kalat
52-PAGE BOOKLET featuring writing by Lotte H. Eisner, Fritz Arno Wagner, Michel Chion, and substantial excerpts of vintage interviews with Fritz Lang about the film
