The first of Lang's three Dr Mabuse films is undoubtedly of much
sociological interest, with his master criminal personifying the
fear and unrest sweeping a defeated Germany. But the pulp fiction
plotting, complete with cartoon gadgets and flamboyant melodrama,
seems curiously ramshackle, and the film's four hours are slow going
indeed. The atmosphere of 1920s decadence and hysteria (all art deco
sets and shadowy streets) is terrific, and the logic of the climax, as
Mabuse descends into madness from guilt for his crimes, is implacable.
But while Lang's genius is intermittently apparent, the economy of his
best sound films is nowhere to be seen.
