Lang's last film, made on a pfennig budget in Germany, is less a sequel to
his earlier Dr Mabuse pictures than an attempt to recapture their
spirit. Thus, it's a bizarrely archaic thriller which deliberately
employs the codes of the silent serials on which Lang learned his craft.
A new Mabuse plots to restore the fascist order, while the film
constructs a deceptive technological world in which the human eye
fails to penetrate disguise and deception while electronic eyes carry
out omnipotent surveillance. The pulp fiction plot conceals
unexpected depths of tragedy and pain, and Lang's stylistic rigour
remains unrivalled in his last masterpiece, and most under-rated
film.
