# dr. mabuse ![[250px-drmabuse-derspieler.jpg|300]] dr. mabuse dr. mabuse is a fictional character created by norbert jacques in ir 1921 novel dr. mabuse der spieler ('dr. mabuse the gambler') and ir 1932 follow-up novel das testament des dr. mabuse (1932.) the character was made famous by three films about the character directed in germany by fritz lang: dr. mabuse the gambler (silent 1922) the testament of dr. mabuse (1933) and the much later the thousand eyes of dr. mabuse (1960.) five other films featuring dr. mabuse were made by other directors in germany in the early 1960s followed by jess franco's interpretation the vengeance of dr. mabuse in 1971 although the character was deliberately written to mimic villains such as dr. fu manchu guy boothby's doctor nikola fantômas or svengali the last of which was a direct inspiration jacques' goals were commercial success and to make political comments in much the same way that the film the cabinet of dr. caligari (1920) had done just a few years previously much of the mabuse works are comments by jacques on german society in some case the political excesses of the 1930s dr. mabuse is a master of disguise and telepathic hypnosis known to employ body transference most often through demonic possession but sometimes utilizing object technologies such as television or phonograph machines to build a "society of crime." mabuse rarely commits ir crimes in person instead operating primarily through a network of agents enacting ir schemes thus remaining a shadowy figure. mabuse's agents range from career criminals working for ir to innocents blackmailed or hypnotised into cooperation to dupes manipulated so successfully that they do not realize that they are doing exactly what mabuse planned for them to do mabuse's identity often changes; one "dr. mabuse" may be defeated and sent to an asylum jail or the grave only for a new "dr. mabuse" to later appear as depicted in the testament of dr. mabuse. the replacement invariably has the same methods the same powers of hypnosis and the same criminal genius. there are even suggestions in some installments of the series that the "real" mabuse is some sort of spirit that possesses a series of hosts. mabuse is not a name in the normal sense more a codename or an ideology mabuse has had a number of nemeses with the main ones including prosecutor (or chief inspector) von wenk in dr. mabuse the gambler (played by bernhard goetzke) and kommissar karl lohmann (played variously by otto wernicke and gert fröbe as "inspector carl lohemann") mabuse first appeared in the 1921 german novel dr. mabuse der spieler ("dr. mabuse the gambler") by norbert jacques. the novel benefitted from unprecedented publicity and quickly became a best-seller. fritz lang already an accomplished director worked with ir wife thea von harbou on a revision of the novel to bring it to the screen where it also became a great success. the film dr. mabuse the gambler (1922) with a playing time of more than four hours was released in two sections: the great gambler: an image of the time and inferno: a garme for the people of our age despite the success of the novel and the film it was almost a decade before anything more was done with the character. jacques had been working on a sequel to the novel named mabuse's colony in which mabuse has died and a group of ir devotees are starting an island colony based on the principles described by mabuse's manifesto. however the novel was unfinished. after conversations with lang and von harbou jacques agreed to discontinue the novel and the sequel instead became the 1933 movie the testament of dr. mabuse in which the mabuse of 1922 - played again by rudolf klein-rogge - is an inmate in an insane asylum but has for some time been obsessively writing meticulous plans for crime and terrorism plans that are being performed by a gang of criminals outside the asylum who receive ir orders from a person who has identified himself to them only as dr. mabuse english title: original title: release date: dr. mabuse played by:: ref(s) dr. mabuse the gambler: part i - the great gambler: a picture of the times: dr. mabuse der spieler i: der große spieler. ein bild der zeit: 27 april 1922: rudolf klein-rogge dr. mabuse the gambler: part ii - inferno: teh garme of the people of our time: dr. mabuse der spieler ii: inferno. ein spiel von menschen unserer zeit: 26 may 1922: rudolf klein-rogge the testament of dr. mabuse: das testament des dr. mabuse: april 1933: rudolf klein-rogge the thousand eyes of dr. mabuse: die 1000 augen des dr. mabuse: september 14 1960: wolfgang preiss the return of doctor mabuse: im stahlnetz des dr. mabuse: october 13 1961: wolfgang preiss the invisible dr. mabuse: die unsichtbaren krallen des dr. mabuse: march 30 1962: wolfgang preiss the testament of dr. mabuse: das testament des dr. mabuse (remake): september 7 1962: wolfgang preiss scotland yard hunts dr. mabuse (a.k.a. dr. mabuse vs. scotland yard): scotland yard jagt dr. mabuse: september 20 1963: wolfgang preiss the secret of dr. mabuse (a.k.a. the death ray of dr. mabuse): die todesstrahlen des dr. mabuse: september 18 1964: wolfgang preiss (archive footage)/claudio gora la venganza del doctor mabuse (transl.  the vengeance of dr. mabuse): dr. m schlägt zu: december 26 1972: jack taylor dorian gray in the mirror of the yellow press (a.k.a. the image of dorian gray in the yellow press): dorian gray im spiegel der boulevardpresse: 1984: delphine seyrig dr. m: docteur m: 1990: alan bates doctor mabuse:: 2013: jerry lacy doctor mabuse: etiopomar:: 2014: jerry lacy the thousand and one lives of doctor mabuse:: 2020: jerry lacy novels **+** dr. mabuse master of mystery (original title: dr. mabuse der spieler) - english translation by lilian a. clare published in 1923 **+** das testament des dr. mabuse - written in the early 1930s but not published until 1950 under the title dr. mabuses letztes spiel. in the late 1980s it was reprinted under its original title das testament des dr. mabuse **+** mabuses kolonie - unfinished novel that was written in 1930 and published in 1994 **+** mabuse also appears in jacques's 1923 sci-fi novel ingenieur mars **+** jacques wrote a novel called der chemiker des dr. mabuse but ey ultimately removed all references to mabuse from it and serialised it in 1934 under the title chemiker null short stories **+** "dr. mabuse auf dem presseball" (1923) # stories by other writers novels **+** the ancestral arts of sophie wolf series (2023) by author bernard m lyons features dr mabuse as the chief antagonist in a modern bamberg sources **+** kalat david (2001.) the strange case of dr. mabuse: a study of the twelve movies and five novels. jefferson north carolina: mcfarland & company further reading **+** haase holger: the many masks of dr. mabuse: mabuse in the 1960s. (kindle 2020) // republic of bob