I’d heard much about this — Fritz Lang’s 1933 updating of an old serial, adapted from a novel about a criminal mastermind. The film uses its lovingly-reiterated generic conventions to take potshots at the Nazis, then ascendant in Germany.
I won’t say much about all this significance–I watched the Criterion disc, which comes with all of these important extras which someday, maybe, when terribly bored or in prep for a poorly-thought-through decision to teach this film, I need more background. Political allegory, censored film, genre/pop film as subversion, etc.
But I will recommend it on the merits. Despite (because of?) its antiquated plot techniques, there’s this dazzling melodramatic aesthetic: Continue reading Mabuse — insert “abuse” joke, preferably prefixed by “self-“, here