Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler)

The restoration was carried out in 2000

by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation in Wiesbaden,

based on the camera negative for distribution in Germany

and an export negative from the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv in Berlin.

This version follows a reconstruction by the Filmmuseum München from 1991.

The intertitles were taken from the negatives.

Missing, faulty or damaged titles were revised and restored

with the help of the censor records.

The comparison and copying was carried out by L'Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna.

The master negative of this edit was used for the 2K digital version.

DR MABUSE, THE GAMBLER.

After the novel published in the Berliner Illustrierten Zeitung by Norbert Jacques.

Scenario: Thea von Harbou.

Direction: Fritz Lang.

Collaborators:

Production Design: Otto Hunte and Stahl-Urach.

Director of Photography: Carl Hoffmann.

The wardrobes of the principal actresses were designed by Vally Reinecke

in the fashion studios of Flatow-Schädler and Mossner.

The principal cast and their support:

Dr Mabuse: Rudolf Klein-Rogge

Cara Carozza, the Dancer: Aud Egede Nissen

Countess Dusy Told: Gertrude Welker

Count Told: Alfred Abel

State Prosecutor von Wenk: Bernhard Goetzke

Edgar Hull: Paul Richter Spoerri: Robert Forster-Larrinaga

Georg: Hans Adalbert von Schlettow Pesch: Georg John

Hawasch: Karl Huszar Fine: Grete Berger

Karsten: Julius Falkenstein

The Russian: Lydia Potechina

Emil Schramm: Julius Herrmann

THE GREAT GAMBLER. AN IMAGE OF THE TIME.

FIRST ACT.

How he spends his days...

You've taken cocaine again, Spoerri! You know I don't tolerate that!

If I see you in this state one more time, I'll drive you out like a dog!

If you drive me out... then I'll put a bullet through my head —!

COMMERCIAL CONTRACT

1kg platinum for 3 million Salvarsan,

160,000 bales of cotton for the 1st of March

to France via Switzerland, notified...

Banknotes, Spoerri...!

You're late again by 10 minutes...

You're not to be late when you're in my service...

You'd better be careful, Pesch —!

Calm yourself, sir; you may travel on with my car.

Make sure that the special announcements burst

into the stock exchange at just the right moment.

Half an hour later, the briefcase with the contracts must be "discovered".

Is that understood?

I'm not doing this anymore — running around at 200km!

It's modern cannibalism!

Why not go your own way then, my boy?

Yes, yes, dear friend... if only there were no elimination committee — what?!

You've only just bothered getting home, you filthy pig —?

Blind —!

For as long as the European currencies keep falling, only make dollar notes!

The special announcement.

Special Announcement.

Courier Robbed!

Important Secret Contracts Stolen!

The Dutch courier that was supposed to bring the secret trade contract

between Holland and Switzerland to Geneva

was discovered in the non-stop train robbed and dazed.

The briefcase containing the secret contract is missing.

There is no clue as to the whereabouts of the person responsible.

It's feared that Switzerland may step back from the contract

should the contents become public knowledge —

which would result in the Dutch coffee and cocoa concerns

directly involved in the contract virtually facing disaster.

Sternberg sells —!? Then there's something fishy about all of this!

Bear-market!!!

I buy —!

Special Announcement.

Courier Robbed!

Important Secret Contracts Stolen!

The Dutch courier that was supposed to bring the secret trade contract

between Holland and Switzerland to Geneva

was discovered in the non-stop train robbed and dazed.

The briefcase containing the secret contract is missing.

There is no clue as to the whereabouts of the person responsible.

It's feared that Switzerland may step back from the contract

should the contents become public knowledge —

which would result in the Dutch coffee and cocoa concerns

directly involved in the contract virtually facing disaster.

The briefcase with the Dutch-Swiss trade contract —

has been found by a rail attendant! The secret contract...

The contract has been delivered unscathed to the Swiss Consulate!!!

Swiss secret contract delivered unscathed to consulate.

No reason whatsoever to panic. Details to follow.

Bull-market!!!

I sell —!

Market close —!!

END OF THE FIRST ACT.

SECOND ACT.

How he spends his nights...

Philharmonic: Scientif. Lectures: Series IV

Today: 3rd Lecture by Psychoanalyst Professor Dr Mabuse:

Psychoanalysis as a Factor of Modern Medicine

Beginning of lecture: 8 o'clock. Guests are welcome.

Association for Psychoanalytical Research.

If I succeed in establishing contact between physician and patient

in a way that fully excludes third-party interference,

I'll be of the firm conviction that, in the future,

80% of all nervous disorders can be healed through psychoanalysis...

Once your tumultuous applause has come to a halt,

allow me, ladies and gentlemen,

to announce the sensation of the Folies Bergères:

Miss Cara Carozza —!!!

There's been a box reserved for me by the Hotel Excelsior.

Box 3, Seat 2 —

Edgar Hull, only son of the industrialist Paul Hull —

90 million — member of the "17 + 4" Club.

Don't mind me, kids, I'm going home!

I can't take this headache any longer!

Good evening, Mr Hull!

You don't know me —?!

Come now! You do know me, Mr Hull —!

You wanted to go into the club, Mr Hull —? May I join you —?

The "17 Plus 4" Club...

Hotel Excelsior Room 111 reserved for you.

You'll find further instructions there.

Hull is losing like mad...

One Mr Balling holds the bank.

...the gentleman plays with the cards provided by the club itself...

I would recommend, Mr Hull, that you stop playing for today...

Allow me to express my embarrassment as a guest of your club

for Mr Hull's situation,

and permit me to hold the bank for a few more rounds!

Gentlemen, it is five o'clock... I think it's time to finish...

I've lost again...

You'll have to be content until tomorrow afternoon

with 20,000 marks and a promissory note of 150,000 marks.

Might I ask your address?

I gambled... I lost... to whom, by the way —?

To your friend!!

Friend? — What friend!? — That was the first time I saw the man!

Who brought him into the club, anyway —?

I think you've had too much to drink, Hull!

First you play va banque despite your bad luck,

and at the end

you claim not even to know the man you yourself brought along —!!

You play va banque...

hold the best cards in your hand — and throw them away??!

What's happening to me —?!

END OF THE SECOND ACT.

THIRD ACT.

Excuse me, I must have taken the wrong door... I wanted Room 112...

So Mr Balling gave me a false room number.

My name is Balling... Hugo Balling...

Did you write this —?

Then I don't owe you 150,000 marks from gambling, either?

The room next door.

What you can't load off onto a man — load off onto a woman!

9th November — Thursday

27th November — Monday

State Prosecutor von Wenk

Medias in res, Mr Hull:

I've come to inform you that from today forward

you're under the direct protection of the police!

For about six weeks,

the authorities have been receiving complaints

concerning malicious gamblers.

In none of these cases could cheating be proved.

But their luck at cards is so unbelievable

that it's impossible for things here to be on the up-and-up...

It's always someone different...

one time, a young gent; one time, an honourable bourgeois;

today, a blond American; tomorrow, a dark-haired Russian...

always someone different...

Maybe — it's one person as well...

Your experience with this mysterious Mr Balling,

which Karsten told me about,

caused me to turn to you with the request for your support.

We don't know why "Mr Balling" has, for now, renounced his 150,000 marks.

Perhaps a precautionary measure — or maybe just a whim.

Am I really no more to you — than just a means to the end..?

You were supposed to be with Hull for ten minutes already!

I am convinced he'll present you with your promissory note

just when you expect it the least —

at which point you should bring me a lead!

One more thing, Mr Hull:

I might request that you handle my visit as a strictly private matter,

as far as anyone else is concerned...

State Prosecutor von Wenk

Here shee cahms —!!!

State Prosecutor von Wenk

What have you got of late for keeping dangerous acquaintances?

State Prosecutor von Wenk

He'd like me to introduce him into a few gambling clubs.

Gardi, don't do anything stupid!

Don't get us into a pickle with your state prosecutor!

Emil Schramm, the proprietor...

It will be a pleasure for me to introduce you,

but you'll have to do it without using your name — which nobody knows...

In gamblers' circles, they call her "the Inactive One,"

as she herself never gambles.

Most gracious madame,

permit me to introduce you to Mr von Wenk —

the most enchanted admirer of your beauty...