90th Anniversary of The Testament of Dr. Mabuse

On April 21, 1933, the premiere of Fritz Lang's film «Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (The Testament of Dr. Mabuse)» took place simultaneously in Budapest and Paris.

The literary character "Doctor Mabuse", a kind of "genius of villainy", was invented by the writer Norbert Jacques, who was born in Luxembourg in 1880 and received German citizenship in 1922. In 1921, Norbert Jacques published his novel "Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler)", the title character of which is a criminal genius with hypnotic abilities and a man with a thousand faces, a psychoanalyst by profession, a genius who commits crimes with his energy and genius. In 1922, Fritz Lang made a film adaptation of this novel, which was very popular with viewers both in Germany and abroad. This film brought Fritz Lang international recognition.

The success of "Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler" prompted Norbert Jacques to begin work on a sequel to the novel. However, for some reason, the sequel to the novel called "Mabuses Kolonie (The Colony of Mabuse)" remained unfinished, and in 1930 the writer finally stopped working on it. However, Fritz Lang convinced Jacques to write another novel about Dr. Mabuse. In 1932, the novel The Testament of Dr. Mabuse was written. It can be assumed that some storylines in this novel were suggested to Norbert Jacques by Fritz Lang. This assumption is supported, firstly, by the fact that Jacques did not publish it until 1950, as Lang asked him to. And, secondly, one of the key characters in the novel "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse" was Inspector Karl Lohmann, who was not in the novel "Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler", but was in Fritz Lang's 1931 film "M".

Filming began in late 1932 and completed in early 1933. On March 24, 1933, the premiere of the film was scheduled at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo, in the same cinema in which in 1922 the premiere of the film "Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler" took place. However, these plans were not destined to come true.

As you know, on January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor, and in this capacity, on March 14, he established a new Ministry of Public Education and Propaganda, headed by Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels requested a copy of the film for a preview. Lang was only able to provide him with such a copy on 23 March. After the screening, Goebbels announced that the premiere of the film would be postponed indefinitely for technical reasons. At the same time, Goebbels invited Lang to his home for a talk.

Fritz Lang later recalled that during a meeting, Goebbels noted that both he and Hitler really liked Lang's early films, in particular The Nibelungs: Siegfried (1924), The Nibelungs: The Revenge of Kriemhild (1924) and Metropolis (1927). But the director's later films, in particular, "M", they did not like much. Goebbels did not like the just viewed "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse", because, allegedly, it shows that "an extremely close-knit group of people is quite capable of overthrowing any state with the help of violence." But, despite this, thanks to the established reputation and talent of Lang Goebbels is ready to offer him to head the German national film industry, but on the condition that he joins the Nazis. After Goebbels made his offer, Lang replied: "But you must know that my mother was Jewish," to which Goebbels replied: "We ourselves decide who is Jewish and who is not!” According to Lang, on the same night, on the midnight train, he fled to Paris, unable to withdraw his money from the bank.

It is difficult to say whether everything was as Lang described. There were no witnesses to that conversation. But there is at least one inaccuracy in Lang's story. He really went to Paris. But not on the same night, but much later: the director's passport showed that he finally left Germany only in June 1933, and before that he made repeated trips between France and Germany.

But what is documented is that on March 29, 1933, the film was banned by the Berlin censorship under the chairmanship of government adviser Zimmermann "for its subversive nature and the possibility that it might incite people to anti-social behavior and terrorism against the state." However, according to many film critics, the real reason for the ban on Lang's picture is that it too clearly drew an analogy between the "testament" that Mabuse wrote while in a closed cell in a psychiatric hospital, and the book "Mein Kampf", which Hitler wrote while also being in prison.

For these reasons, the world premiere of Fritz Lang's film "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse" took place on April 21, 1933: the German–language version of the film in Budapest, the French-language version in Paris. It can be assumed that Fritz Lang assumed and even prepared for such a development of events. This assumption is supported by the fact that two groups of actors were initially involved in the filming of the two versions of the film: German-speaking, mainly Austrian actors, and French-speaking.

During 1933-1934, the film "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse" was shown with great success in many European countries. 10 years after the premiere in Europe, the film was also shown in the USA. Fritz Lang himself, anticipating the release of the film on the American screen, characterized it as follows:

"The film was made as an allegory to show Hitler's processes of terrorism. Slogans and doctrines of the Third Reich have been put into the mouths of criminals in the film. Thus I hoped to expose the masked Nazi theory of the necessity to deliberately destroy everything which is precious to a people." cited in: Зигфрид Кракауэр. От Калигари до Гитлера: Психологическая история немецкого кино — Москва: Искусство, 1977

The next day after the premiere The New York Times film columnist Bosley Crowther wrote in his review in his usual tart and sarcastic tone:

"It is a weird and morbid crime film, in Mr. Lang's vivid early style...Mr. Lang has recently written that he made the film as an allegory to show the German people the vicious methods of their new leaders, Hitler and his gang. Maybe. That sounds like after-reckoning. But, at least, this film is in the vein of brutish paranoia which afflicted the Germans at the time, and for that it has significance and interest." - By Bosley Crowther March 20, 1943 The New York Times

Later, in 1947, Siegfried Kracauer, one of the most influential film theorists, noted in his book "From Caligari to Hitler: The Psychological History of German Cinema" that Lang's commentary "smacks of hindsight". Kracauer expressed doubt that the average German moviegoer could see the analogy between the complex criminal organization Mabuse and the Nazis. At the same time, Kracauer stated:

"This anti-Nazi film demonstrates the strength of the Nazi spirit over a mind that is not prepared enough to withstand its peculiar charm." According to Krakauer, Lang deliberately sought to make Adolf Hitler and Mabuse similar in the film.»

The film was shown to German moviegoers only in 1951. True, in a 13-minute shortened version. The film was not shown to Soviet moviegoers at all. Apparently, Soviet censorship strictly followed the prohibition of government adviser Zimmerman.

Despite the fact that more than a dozen years have passed since the release of Fritz Lang's film "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse", its ratings among moviegoers continue to be very high. 67% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users rated the film from 8 to 10. Due to this, the rating of the film according to FilmGourmand version was 7,851, which allowed it to enter the Golden Thousand at number 920. It should be noted that Fritz Lang's film "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse" turned out to be the only film of 1933 included in the Golden Thousand, which allows us to consider this picture the best film of world cinema in 1933.