The Return of Dr. Mabuse

1961
5.9| 1h25m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 01 January 1961 Released
Producted By: Critérion Film
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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The supposedly dead and buried Mabuse returns to his criminal activities, as his longtime foe Police Inspector Lohmann, a dauntless girl reporter, and an American - who may be an FBI agent, or maybe a Chicago mobster - investigate a series of gruesome murders connected to a maximum security prison and involving a minister who has written a book called "The Anatomy Of The Devil".

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Director

Harald Reinl

Production Companies

Critérion Film

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The Return of Dr. Mabuse Audience Reviews

GamerTab That was an excellent one.
Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike
Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.
Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.
Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse" or "The Return of Dr. Mabuse" is a German movie from 55 years ago that continues the story of the famous Dr. Mabuse that was already a crowd pleaser several decades earlier during the silent film era. It mixes once again the usual formula of making a movie about a criminal mastermind and include some film-noir and horror references. Plus there is of course always a beautiful female. The film is like all/most of the others in black-and-white. Unfortunately, the story is usually underwhelming. looking at how Sean Connery's James Bond was born at the same time in the United States, it becomes painfully obvious how inferior German cinema was around that time. The crimes as a whole are fairly uninteresting and the writing is not really inspired. The only thing that kept this from being a total disappointment for me is probably the fact that Gert Fröbe was on board and I am quite a fan. The title is pretty nice too, but nothing in the film lives up to it. Also you can occasionally see references to all the German Edgar Wallace crime films, so if you like these, then you may even enjoy this Mabuse movie. I don't like them either. My favorite scene in here was maybe when the guy sits in the shadows and the cop shoots him before we find out he was just a puppet on Mabuse's strings. But there weren't many more good scenes like this. Certainly not enough, even for a film that is fairly short at 85 minutes. I don't recommend the watch. Thumbs down.
classicsoncall The style and direction of the movie reminded me of the later British Hitchcock films as well as some of the Sherlock Holmes flicks of the 1930's and '40's, even though this German movie was made in 1961. The quality of the print I viewed also seemed to place it as an older film by a couple of decades, but in that regard it added to the atmosphere of the story. I'm not familiar with the prior Mabuse films as most of the other posters on this board are, so my review isn't influenced by those other works.Of course the mystery lies in the identity of the title character, regularly mentioned but never seen, with hints of his previous demise and possible after life as a ghost of some sort. The voice of Mabuse makes contact at various times with Inspector Lohmann (Gert Frobe) and a mysterious contact who could be an undercover policeman or a mob contact from a Chicago based syndicate. It's not enough that Lex Barker goes by Joe Como and Nick Scappio, but later takes on a third guise as Bob Arco. I thought Mabuse figured out his identity just a little too easily with the Maria hostage ruse; I would have thought the character would be more wary of a trick like that.I was a bit surprised to see that gruesome flamethrower death scene near the beginning of the story, particularly involving a woman. When a similar apparatus appeared later on with Maria (Dahlia Lavi) as a target I caught myself wincing a bit. I would have hated to see her go out like that.The story takes enough twists and turns to make it rather hard to follow as it nears the finale, and the payoff as to the identity of Mabuse came off as a downer actually since he wasn't a character introduced earlier in the story. There was enough mis-direction in the picture to suggest Mabuse as any number of people like Warden Wolf, the creepy Bohmler, or even Maria's father the Professor. Come to think of it, the Professor said he WAS Mabuse, and you kept watching for that to play itself out to no avail. So having Mabuse show up as someone else altogether was a bit of a disconnect for me. I did come away though wondering, as did Lohmann, that perhaps Mabuse found a way to escape his fate in a way that Sherlock Holmes' nemesis Professor Moriarty managed to do on more than one occasion.
evilskip This film has had more titles than some folks have shorts.No matter what the title we do have a nifty follow up to the classic 1000 Eyes Of Dr Mabuse. A man is murdered on a train which brings in Inspector Lohmann.In a rather gruesome scene a woman representing the Chicago Mafia is roasted alive by a flame thrower in a truck.This brings in Joe Como,FBI agent.Or is he really Nick Scapio from the Chicago mob? Dr Mabuse wants to make a deal with the Chicago gangsters for some undisclosed reason.He has a chemical which makes a person a slave to the will of Dr Mabuse.Mabuse intends to take over and destroy a nuclear power plant in the city as a show of good faith.Cleverly using prisoners from the local prison Mabuse intends to create mass havoc & terror. This film is never dull and will keep you guessing right until the end.It also has one of the more paranoid endings in the Dr Mabuse series.If you can find it enjoy it!
amikus2000 Own laws are valid for criminal-genious Dr. Mabuse ( Wolfgang Preiss ). Inspector Gert Fröbe is being helped or disturbed by Lex Barker. The team, director H. Reinl and Lex Barker continued their work at Winnetou. The Westgerman-criminal-era started in the late 1950ies up to 1970. Famous were the many Wallace-criminals, but Dr. Mabuse is more unique with great Preiss and contains action and disport.