"The Will of Dr. Mabus" was created in 1933 and was also Fritz Lang's last work before he left Germany. Compared with Fritz Lang's previous work, the famous "M is the Murderer", this The film is mentioned relatively rarely. There are two edited versions of the film, the German original and a French release with a lot less content, we're talking about the German version.
"The Will of Dr. Mabus" is the sequel to "Dr. Mabus (1922)", and it is necessary to mention the movie "Dr. Mabus", this 271-minute silent film fully shows "criminal crime". "Genius" Dr. Mabus' criminal empire, and how the police officer Vent hunted down Dr. Mabus and disintegrated this criminal empire. Dr. Mabus is proficient in disguise, hypnotism, and has a group of men who execute orders efficiently. This group does various tasks. A variety of criminal activities, including murder, robbery, counterfeiting, fraud, etc., can be said to be all evil, but in the end Venter succeeded in breaking down the criminal group, and Dr. Mabus was also insane and was imprisoned in a mental hospital. As its sequel, "The Will of Dr. Mabus" does not have much connection with the previous work in terms of plot. For example, one of the protagonists in the previous work, Wente, did not appear in the sequel, and "The Will of Dr. Mabus" inherited The concept of "Dr. Mabus" represents the "great" ideal of building a "criminal empire", such a powerful obsession, Dr. Mabus has gone mad. In addition to what he understands, he did not take the initiative to commit a crime, nor did he instigate a crime. He is almost a secondary role in this film in terms of playing time. And the concept carried over, as the title suggests, such an ideal of "building a criminal empire" led to the rise of new forces of evil and the birth of a new Dr. Mabus. The film obviously alludes to the Nazis, and was banned by Nazi Germany. It was not until the 1950s after the war that this great film was re-released in Germany. After the filming of the film, Himmler "invited" Fritz Lang to be the leader of the German film, and Fritz Lang, who was a Jew, had to share with his wife who was a Nazi party member (who was also the screenwriter of the film, and Fritz Lang, the screenwriter of most of his films), divorced and went into exile in France. Later, the position of German film leader was handed over to the controversial and talented female director Leni Riefenstahl.
The opening scene of "The Will of Dr. Mabus" is one of the most outstanding scenes in the entire history of cinema. In a dimly lit room, the camera is aimed at a door, there is a chair on the left, one is panning with the camera, one is pushing forward, and the other is panning to the right. In the pushing shot, the director shows some details of the room, For example, we can see a lot of things hanging on the roof (microphones or chemical containers?) shaking rhythmically (the sound of this scene is also rhythmic noise, like the sound of factory machines), piles of things everywhere details; while panning scans the entire room, the camera's perspective is almost a subjective perspective, like the line of sight of a person searching the room for something. The panning component of the follow-up shot gradually disappeared, and it became a follow-up shot, as if the camera was looking for something more urgently, but we don’t know whether the protagonist is the person who is looking for the camera. At this moment, the camera shot hurriedly to a hiding man. He was very frightened, and wiped his sweat with a cloth. The light came from the front of the person, and his face was clearly visible. It was obvious that he was exposed to the opponent's sight. At this point, the camera shot Haven't cut anywhere yet. At this time, two people came in at the door, and one was wearing a white coat. We only knew at this time that the subjective perspective just now was virtual, and no one was looking for something, but the dangerous situation and fear of the hiding person were Exhibited. The person outside the door, this person took out a pistol, and the two people who came in opened a box. We can easily find out what important things are in the box, and the people hiding in the dark are probably also here. Then the director gave a close-up of the hiding person's feet, and hit the two people who opened the box. Obviously, he was found, and the atmosphere was very tense. The two were discussing something, and one had to kill the hiding person. , another person organized him, and the two of them just took the things in the box and left as if they had not seen it. At this time, the hiding person stood up and walked to the door, and the camera was shown outside the door. In fact, the two hadn't left, and they had been listening to the movement inside, and the two sides formed a confrontation across the door. Then the camera went to the man inside the door, he was obviously trapped, but he thought his opponent didn't see him and had gone, he even made a fake gun move to relieve his stress, he ate again After taking some medicine and drinking some wine, the camera kept giving him a medium shot, with the door behind him. Of course, the audience thought that behind the door was his enemy. Obviously, he relaxed too early. This is him opening the door, the enemy is gone, the camera is still in the same place, he walks into the door frame, and stands deeper in the camera, which also indicates that the character has walked into the trap frame. this The point is very clear, because his enemies have discovered him before, and since he didn't kill him on the spot, and he didn't do anything wiser than ordinary people, it was obvious that he would be in trouble. After a few minutes of high tension in the audience, Fritz Lang asked us to take a break, and the camera moved to the truck outside, a low angle shot, a person loading barrels on it, and the truck drove away, revealing the building door. Then our old buddy came out of the door and it looked like he had escaped, the camera pushed forward from a depression angle and followed our old buddy, then our old buddy dodged the bricks that fell from the upstairs and he started to run away, The camera followed him, from the depression angle to almost the same height, and then from the side and behind the old man who was running away, and then he found that there were three people in front of the escape route. He fled in the opposite direction, when the person in the truck just dropped an oil drum, which exploded, burst into flames, and faded out. This opening is my favorite of all films, the movement of the camera is amazing, and it contains a strong suspense that makes the audience highly nervous. The lighting in the dim cabin, the rhythmically shaking things, and the outdoor night running scene strongly rendered a grotesque, fatalistic atmosphere with a strong film noir atmosphere.
It's just that our old buddy hasn't died yet, but has escaped. The next time we see him, just a minute later, he is on the phone at a police station. From the conversation, we can understand that he is a police officer. Apparently he was neurotic and had a conflict with his boss, the first time the sheriff hung up on him, the second time he said he had some important information to report, but due to his poor mental state he was hesitant to speak, we can listen It turns out that his previous lurking was to investigate the manufacture of counterfeit banknotes, and he knew the name of the mastermind behind it. However, before he could say anything, the lights were turned off, and then the director very cleverly used the flame of a gun to light up part of the scene. After the shooting, the camera shot to the sheriff, and the police officer's weak singing came from the phone. It is a very clever expression of the complete breakdown of the policeman's spirit.
Then, naturally, I came to a psychiatric analysis class. The seating distribution of the venue was very steep, obviously this is the style of architectural expressionism, which can often be seen in Fritz Lang's most famous work "Metropolis (1927)" This style of scenery. Dr. Baum was giving a lecture, and then he talked about a very special case - Dr. Mabus. This is also the first time Dr. Mabus appears in the audience's ears in the film. A couple of men and women in the audience whispered, "He's here again," indicating that Dr. Baum had repeatedly mentioned this Dr. Mabus. From the doctor's words, we learned that Dr. Mabus was also a doctor before (in fact, the Chinese translation name should be translated as "Dr. Mabus' Will"), and he built a criminal empire with geniuses in all aspects. , in a psychiatric hospital. This passage is not only a review of the content of "The Player Dr. Mabus", adding some necessary information, but also introducing the role of Doctor Baum through Dr. Mabus. Then the projection screen revealed Dr. Mabus sitting on the hospital bed. Dr. Mabus was played by Rudolf Klein Ruger, who starred in almost all Fritz Lang films in Germany. Either the villainous character or the eccentric character. From Dr. Baum's next words, we know that Dr. Mabus' hand has been doing the writing action. After the doctors gave him the pen and paper, Dr. Mabus wrote an incomprehensible manuscript. It's Dr. Mabus' "will", and then two years later, Dr. Mabus' manuscript has some understandable words, and then there are grammatical sentences, but the meaning of the sentences is still confusing, but Gradually, the sentences become more compact and logical, until finally a complete system is formed, the content of which is still the same as that of the criminal empire that Dr. Mabus had previously worked on. Sure enough, the director's next shot shows a group of outlaws, the group in the first act, and one of them said, "As long as we follow the doctor's method, it will be fine." That is, Dr. Mabus Even imprisoned by high walls, he still controls a criminal empire and engages in criminal activities. But is this really the case?
In reality, however, Dr. Mabus is more of a religion than a criminal gang. This religion has many believers, including many crime squads strictly carrying out Dr. Mabus' orders. I am afraid that such a powerful force is only possessed by the religion and the Nazi party. And Dr. Mabus' biggest and most loyal believer is the doctor who gave the speech before. Dr. Mabus was also a doctor before, which gives them some commonalities. At first, the things that Dr. Mabus wrote were incomprehensible, but gradually developed to understand, to articles and systems. This is not the change of Dr. Mabus himself, but his believers are more and more convinced. Believing in Dr. Mabus' ideal of crime, there is a clear mapping of the Nazis here. Judging from what the doctor has done, he wants to believe in Dr. Mabus. He seems to be a new generation of Dr. Mabus, like the Pope of this religion, and Dr. Mabus is this religion. of God. In one scene, Doctor Baum went to inspect Dr. Mabus. Suddenly, he turned around and saw the apparition of Dr. Mabus. He collected Dr. Mabus' manuscripts every day. The next scene reveals to the audience that Doctor Baum is actually the biggest executor of the criminal empire. He manipulates the 2-B team to intercept his assistant halfway, and the assistant has just discovered the manuscript of Dr. Mabus and some criminal acts. Has a high degree of similarity, ready to report to the police. The assassination sequence is very clever, the criminal honked the horn, so everyone started honking, including the assistant, then shot and killed, and finally gave a panoramic view of the rear of a bunch of cars, the other cars drove away, only the assistant's car Still stopped there. This technique has become a classic, and is very common in later films, such as the famous British spy film "The Ypcress File" (dir. Sidney J. Freer, 1965).
In fact, this is repeatedly mentioned and confirmed in the later paragraphs of the film. For example, when Doctor Baum planned to detonate the chemical plant, a vision of Dr. Mabus suddenly appeared across his desk, and then Dr. Mabus stood up, Go to Doctor Baum and sit down as if they were one. After that, Dr. Mabus died, and the method of death was almost dead, which further proved that the specific Dr. Mabus did not exist, and that Dr. Mabus was a criminal belief and a religion. In the end, Doctor Baum's conspiracy was revealed. When he drove away, Dr. Mabus' phantom appeared on the top of his side. The camera showed a low angle, highlighting that Dr. Mabus was "instructing" Doctor Baum. With all kinds of gestures, Doctor Baum looked nervous. When he escaped to the mental hospital, Dr. Mabus' phantom opened the door for him. After that, Doctor Baum had a nervous breakdown. He rushed into the ward of the regular police officer and said he was Mabu. Dr. Si, and then ended up insane sitting on the bed tearing up the note, just like Dr. Mabus was back in the day.
A very big feature of "The Will of Dr. Mabus" is deceit. First of all, in terms of sound, comparing Fritz Lang's 1931 work "M is the Murderer", we can find that in this film the sound The deceptiveness of Lang is not due to Lang's naive use of voice, but deliberately causing deceptive effects, such as the initial mechanical voice. The most deceptive place is in the "boss's room," a room where the boss sits behind a curtain, and everyone thinks it's Dr. Mabus, who gives orders here. But after the death of Dr. Mabus, this is a shot of Lang giving a person sitting behind the curtain, we can only see his outline, which makes the audience doubt the true identity of the boss (of course we have early I suspect Dr. Baum). And then when Kent and Lily were put to death in this room, Kent shot behind the curtain, lifted the curtain, and we found out that it was just a phonograph. This is an example of the film's deceit.
There are also some interesting characters in this film, including Officer Roman, Kent and Lily, which are not detailed here due to space limitations.
All in all, "The Will of Dr. Mabus" is another landmark work by Fritz Lang in film noir. It is not only a master work at the film level, but also contributed to the change of the German film pattern by insinuating the Nazis. Fritz Lang fled Germany to France and the United States, his wife Thea von Harburg, the screenwriter of the film, joined the Nazis, and more. "The Will of Dr. Mabus" was born out of expressionism, and has the obvious style of later Hollywood noir films. Like "M is the Murderer", it is a masterpiece of film noir.
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