Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922) on Netflix
NR19224h 31mCrimeMysteryThriller
Dr. Mabuse runs Berlin's counterfeiting and gambling rackets behind a series of disguises, using hypnosis to win at cards. State prosecutor von Wenk investigates with almost no leads.
- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.8/1010,070 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
Clip
Plot summary
Berlin's underworld answers to Dr. Mabuse, a doctor of psychology who works behind a series of disguises. Hypnosis and suggestion win him money at the card tables, and his organization includes the dancer Cara Carozza and a chauffeur named Georg. His people steal a commercial contract, and the panic it causes on the stock exchange pays him a fortune. Mabuse turns next to Edgar Hull, a young millionaire, who loses heavily to him at cards and cannot account for his own play. The state prosecutor, Norbert von Wenk, begins an inquiry into the crimes, believing Hull is the latest victim of a trickster known only as the Great Unknown. Wenk goes undercover in a gambling den to look for the man.
Cast
- Paul Richteras Edgar Hull
- Robert Forster-Larrinagaas Spoerri
- Grete Bergeras Fine, a servant
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Lang and von Harbou began their affair during the production of Dr. Mabuse the Gambler and eventually married; von Harbou was then married to Klein-Rogge, but their separation was amicable and caused no problem for the film.
- Filming on the first part began while Norbert Jacques's novel Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler was still being serialized; the film dropped the book's constant soliloquies, unworkable in a silent film, and a subplot in which Mabuse wanted to create his own country in South America.
- The 20-minute opening was not in the novel: Mabuse shuffles a deck of photos like playing cards to choose his disguise for the day and ends up manipulating a stock market crash, and Kalat traces the sequence to Louis Feuillade's 1913 Fantômas II: Juve contre Fantômas.
