The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse

The final film in the Dr. Mabuse series is also truly the least of the series. It is a fairly good spy thriller for the era if you look at it just from that viewpoint. But it definitely is a fairly poor Mabuse movie.

I really missed Gert Frobe as Inspector Lohmann. Peter Van Eyck is back as his suave espionage agent and the movie really centers on him, not Mabuse, who really is not even mentioned much until about two-thirds into the film. Add to that the completely outlandish concept of the "death ray mirror", and you've got a mediocre James Bond film on your hands...not a good Mabuse movie, which really relies on fairly realistic and reasonable (though often somewhat mystical or arcane) concepts in technology and the like.

The cinematography is fairly good, as is the Italian (Sardinian?) scenery. I would recommend the film only to Mabuse completists, or the most ardent spy film fanatic.

From 1960 to 1964 the Germans released six thrillers focusing on Dr Mabuse. I loved five of them.Guess which one I hate.Hate may be too strong a word.But after wanting to see this for so long the actual viewing is a disappointment.

The writers/producers/director strayed from the original source material of Dr Mabuse. James Bond was extremely popular at the time and it heavily influenced this film.

What we have is a hodge podge of too many smart spies running around an island. They're all looking for the latest person possessed by Dr Mabuse. Mabuse has gotten his hands on a death ray and is ready to start World War III.

If it wasn't for a very tenuous three minutes at the beginning of the film and the last two minutes you wouldn't know you were watching a Dr Mabuse movie. You'd chalk it up to a really bad James Bond rip off and do something else. Smart move.

Four years had passed since the Mabuse series was revived with the film THE 1000 EYES OF DOCTOR MABUSE (1960) by Fritz LANG. The concept had slowly run its course. It didn't help that producer Artur BRAUNER made filming in Italy possible. The desired flair of the very successful James Bond film DOCTOR NO (1962) could not even be achieved in the slightest.

In his third Mabuse mission, Peter van EYCK chases mysterious death rays invented by a professor played by O. E. HASSE (known from I CONFESS (1951) by Alfred HITCHCOCK). All of this is combined with a spy plot with timid science fiction elements. The "West German James Bond" Peter von EYCK receives female support in this film from Rika DIALINA and Yvonne FURNEAUX, who remain very colorless. There are also interesting supporting roles from two well-known faces from various CINECITTA films: Yoko TANI shines as a seductive secretary, and Feodor CHALIAPIN Jr. Can be seen as a pharmacist.

In West German cinemas, just over 1.2 million visitors wanted to see the sixth film in the Mabuse series, but the final farewell to Doctor Mabuse was inevitable after this contribution.

This movie is a true direct sequel to "Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse" from 1 year earlier. Normally you don't need to watch any of the other Dr. Mabuse movies in order to watch just one but this movie might be an exception to that.

All of the Dr. Mabuse movies from the '60's have sort of the same style as the early James Bond movies but since the first Dr. Mabuse movie from the '60's is from 1960 and the first James Bond movie is from 1962 it's not completely fair to call the Dr. Mabuse movies a rip-off from the James Bond movie, since it obviously had developed its style before the first James Bond movies became an huge success. Nevertheless its very much thinkable that the '60's Dr. Mabuse movies were inspired by the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming since it obviously shows some similarities in its odd gadgets and way the villain and his organization is often being portrayed, as well as his plan to 'take over the world'. On top of that, I think that this particular Dr. Mabuse movie is still more inspired on the James Bond movies nevertheless. There are a bit too many similarities this time to call it a coincidence.

Not only does the movie feature all kind of odd gadgets again and is the villain once more portrayed in a Blowfeld kind of way but also for the first time the movie is set at different places and the main character travels to exotic locations. But there also are some small other similarities such as in the camera handling, the portrayal of women as sex objects, fist fights with henchman, checking the room for bugs and an underwater sequences.

Peter van Eyck who also starred in the previous movie "Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse" reappears in this movie, only in a different role this time. In "Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse" he played Major Bill Tern. while in this movie he plays Maj. Bob Anders. Sort of makes you wonder why, also since he basically plays the same sort of character in both movies. Also funny thing is that Wolgang Preiss is being credited in this movie, the man who played Dr. Mabuse in the previous five Dr. Mabuse movie, but he never actually appears in this movie at all.

Not only the fact that this movie tries too hard to be a like a James Bond movie makes this movie a quite bad one to watch but also its story. Seriously what is this story all about? Also most of the other Dr. Mabuse movies had a quite silly main plot but because of their entertainment values and camp elements none of it really mattered. This movie just never really becomes interesting or engaging and also totally lacks any of the thriller elements all of the other previous Dr. Mabuse movies still had. On top of that, Dr. Mabuse himself is hardly ever featured in this movie and the story concentrates to much on Maj. Bob Anders, while most of the other Dr. Mabuse movies still concentrated on Dr. Mabuse's criminal master plans.

Quite a dreadful movie to watch.

4/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/