Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler

Hypnotist, speculator, and master of manipulation—Dr. Mabuse is less a person than a principle. He changes identities as others change their clothes, pulling the strings from the shadows in a world where power, money, and deception are inextricably linked. Lang’s panorama of the Weimar Republic reveals a society in a state of constant unrest, for behind every surface lurks the threat of yet another masquerade. Permeated by Expressionist stylization, the film turns its gaze toward the modern metropolis and its social realities. New Objectivity makes its mark on this feverish "portrait of the times," centered on one of cinema’s great archetypal figures—a character whose kin would go on to haunt not only the rest of Fritz Lang’s body of work.
(Florian Widegger)