The invisible claws of Dr. Mabuse

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Movie
Original title The invisible claws of Dr. Mabuse
The invisible claws of the Dr Mabuse Logo 001.svg
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1962
length 89 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Harald Reinl
script Ladislaus Fodor
production CCC Filmproduktion GmbH ( Artur Brauner )
music Peter Sandloff
camera Ernst W. Kalinke
cut Hermann Haller
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
The 1000 eyes of Dr. Mabuse

Successor  →
The will of Dr. Mabuse

The invisible claws of Dr. Mabuse is a crime film that was shot in West Berlin in the winter of 1961/62 under the direction of Harald Reinl . It is the third part of the Dr. Mabuse film series from the 1960s. The screenwriter Ladislas Fodor wrote the story using the criminal figure invented by Norbert Jacques based on an idea by the film producer Artur Brauner . The black and white film was on 30 March 1962 at the City in Hannover premiered.

action

The former Metropol in Berlin-Schöneberg

While the acclaimed dancer Liane Martin appears in the sold out Metropol Theater, scary things happen in the only empty audience box. An opera glass, a program booklet and a chair move as if by magic. When a stranger observes the mysterious process from a neighboring box and follows the invisible , he ends up through a trap door in the theater's props cellar. The show clown Bobo wants to know how much the curious person knows about "Company X". When the stranger remains silent under the use of torture , he is murdered in cold blood on behalf of a mysterious man behind the scenes. The porter at the Metropol watches as some stagehands make a strikingly heavy trunk disappear into a delivery van of the Transas forwarding company. Later you find the suitcase with the corpse at the port.

FBI agent Joe Como arrives a short time later in the strictest of secrecy . Commissioner Brahm from the Special Department for State Security suspects that the murdered man was Como's colleague Nick Prado, which the American investigator can confirm after a visit to the morgue . Officials know Prado was on to Company X. However, nobody knows what it is. It doesn’t take long before Como receives a warning pointing to the criminal Dr. Mabuse suggests. Detective Hase finally reports that a piece of paper with the telephone number of the dancer Liane Martin was found in the raincoat of the murdered Nick Prado.

At the Metropol Theater, Joe Como notices a delivery truck from the Transas forwarding company. In the warehouse he meets their boss, Mr. Droste, who pretends not to know anything. A little later, a transport driver and the porter at the Metropol fell victim to a cruel attack. Liane Martin seems to be hiding a secret and feels persecuted by invisible forces. Meanwhile, Commissioner Brahm receives a message from the Ministry of the Interior. According to a reliable source, company X is about getting possession of an invention by Nobel Prize winner Professor Erasmus.

Joe Como learns from the scientist's assistant, Dr. Bardorf that the professor, who has been working in a secret laboratory since a car accident, has developed an apparatus that can make solid matter invisible. Finally Como discovers the audience box with the invisible, which Liane Martin also follows home. By order of the doctor Dr. Krone goes to Liane to relax in the castle hotel in Wallgraben. Joe Como, who is also in the hotel, can outsmart the invisible in the steam bath and confront him. It is about Professor Erasmus, who secretly worships Liana and makes himself invisible so that he can be close to her. But once again Mabuse is faster than his pursuers. In order to gain possession of the invention, he kidnaps and hypnotizes Liane in order to blackmail the professor and lure Como into a deceitful trap.

The FBI agent managed to break free and discovered that the haulier Droste was hiding behind the mask of the clown Bobo. Meanwhile, Mabuse, who turns out to be Dr. Bardorf masked and thus brought the professor's apparatus under his control, an assassination attempt on a high personality. At the airport where the attack is supposed to take place, Joe Como and Commissioner Brahm can meet the invisible helpers of Dr. Trick Mabuse and prevent the crime at the last moment. In the end, the obviously insane Dr. Mabuse admitted to a mental hospital. Liane Martin and Joe Como become a couple.

History of origin

prehistory

With Fritz Lang's Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse (1960) and Harald Reinls In the steel network of Dr. Mabuse (1961), the producer Artur Brauner had brought two films to the cinemas that represented a successful and successful counterpart to the Edgar Wallace crime novels . Since both film series were marketed by Constantin Filmverleih , the start dates could be coordinated so as not to compete with one another.

Pre-production and script

From September 1961, Ladislas Fodor was working on a script for a new Dr. Mabuse film. This time the plot was based on an idea by Artur Brauner. After the originally planned director Alfred Vohrer was not available due to the preparations for the film The Door with the Seven Locks , Constantin contract director Harald Reinl could again be engaged. This time his wife at the time, actress Karin Dor , should also be in front of the camera. Other guest roles have included Siegfried Lowitz , Curd Pieritz , Walter Bluhm and Walo Lüönd . The actors Lex Barker , Rudolf Fernau , Werner Peters and Wolfgang Preiss have been seen in previous films in the series.

production

The now converted Palais Mendelssohn in Berlin-Grunewald can be seen in the film as a castle hotel in Wallgraben.
Nick Prado's body was filmed at Berlin's Westhafen.

The shooting of The Invisible Claws of Dr. Mabuse took place in West Berlin from December 5, 1961 to January 8, 1962 . The studio recordings were shot in the CCC-Film studios in Berlin-Haselhorst . Gabriel Pellon and Oskar Pietsch were hired as film architects . Irms Pauli was responsible for the costume advice . The trick shots came from Karl Ludwig Ruppel.

As in the second part of the film series, well-known locations in Berlin were omitted for the outdoor shots . The name of the city does not appear in the film, so it ultimately remains open where the story takes place. A luggage card with the flight details Washington - Frankfurt hangs on Joe Como's suitcase . The license plates visible in the film begin with a “P”, which did not exist at the time of filming and which was already intended for Potsdam in the event of the reunification of Germany . The castle hotel shown in the film in the fictional town of Wallgraben is the St. Michael's home in Palais Mendelssohn .

The following locations can be seen in the film:

Film music

The film music was composed by Peter Sandloff . Six music tracks from the soundtrack appeared on CD Kriminalfilmmusik No. 4 :

  1. The dancer, the hangman and the clown 1:16
  2. Theme music 1:35
  3. Clown theme 2:10
  4. On the way to Wallgraben 1:30
  5. Seductive liana 1:45
  6. Closing music 0:32

synchronization

Some roles were dubbed for dramaturgical reasons to distract the audience from their identity. Werner Peters has a different voice as the clown Bobo. In contrast, he can be heard as Mr. Droste himself. The same applies to Wolfgang Preiss, who as Dr. Mabuse himself speaks. Curiously, he is known as Dr. Primarius Krone synchronized by Curt Ackermann , who Wolfgang Preiss and Dr. Mabuse already gave his voice in the previous films in the series. The well-known voice actors and their roles in The invisible claws of Dr. Mabuse were:

role actor Voice actor
Joe Como Lex Barker Gert Günther Hoffmann
Clown Bobo Werner Peters Harry Wüstenhagen
Dr. Primarius crown Wolfgang Preiss Curt Ackermann
Detective hare Walo Lüond Georg Thomalla

reception

publication

The FSK released the film on March 28, 1962 for ages 16 and up. The working committee came to the conclusion that "the fear and excitement arising from the film experience" prohibit "showing this turbulent mixture of cruelty, crime, horror tension and fear to young people and children under the age of 16." Confident that “through the over-construction of the unbelievable fable, they will only have superficial fun in the racy slapstick; a brutal effect is therefore not to be expected in this age group, despite the many fights. "

The film, which premiered two days later, was able to build on the great commercial success of its predecessors. As early as May of the same year, the sequel The Testament of Dr. Mabuse , a remake of the classic film of the same name from 1933.

For the DVD release in 2005, the age rating of The invisible claws of Dr. Mabuse downgraded to 12 years. For the entire box set, because of the film it contains, Scotland Yard is chasing Dr. Mabuse , but still a release from 16 years.

Reviews

"Continuation of the scary thriller series about the ingenious criminal and unscrupulous world conqueror Dr. Mabuse, who has long since had nothing in common with the demonic figure that Fritz Lang once brought to the canvas. [...] Shock clothes with thin tension and the usual absurd and unimaginative plot. "

- Lexicon of international film

"Cute, dusty shock clothes"

- cinema.de

"Horrible and disgusting dominate the picture."

- Protestant film observer

literature

  • Solveig Wrage: Dr. Mabuse in the film . Reinhard Weber Verlag, Landshut September 2011, ISBN 978-3-943127-00-3

Audio book

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 89 minutes for cinema projection (24 images / second), 86 minutes for television playback (25 images / second), film length: 2438 meters
  2. ↑ Joachim Kramp: Hello! This is Edgar Wallace speaking. The history of the crime film series from 1959 to 1972. Third, revised and expanded edition . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89602-645-3 , p. 452-454 .
  3. ↑ Disposition for December 17, 1961  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 240 kB), CCC film@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.filmportal.de  
  4. ↑ Disposition for January 2nd, 1962  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 218 kB), CCC film@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.filmportal.de  
  5. ↑ CD crime film music No. 4 . BSC Music. 2000. Order no. 398.6560.2
  6. ↑ Youth decision  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 191 kB), FSK working committee, March 28, 1962@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.filmportal.de  
  7. ↑ The Invisible Claws of Dr. Mabuse. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  8. ↑ Ev. Munich Press Association, Review No. 177/1962
The Dr. Mabuse films
1920s and 1930s

Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922) | The will of Dr. Mabuse (1933)

1960s

The 1000 eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960) | In the steel network of Dr. Mabuse (1961) | The invisible claws of Dr. Mabuse (1961) | The will of Dr. Mabuse (1962) | Scotland Yard is chasing Dr. Mabuse (1963) | The death rays of Dr. Mabuse (1964)

Other films (selection)

The living corpses of Dr. Mabuse (1970) | Dr. M strikes (1972) | Bruce Lee - The Secret of the Green Hornet (1966/1975) | Kottan investigates: Mabuse returns (1983) | Dr. M (1990)