Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler

The master criminal of the title functions as an underworld overlord in pre-Nazi Germany--an emblematic figure in a time of social chaos. Unfortunately, despite flashes of grand cinematic style, director Fritz Lang's 1922 silent epic offers a plodding narrative--one that cannot sustain the 229 minute running time of this two-disc set. Looking somewhat gray and murky, Dr. Mabuse also suffers from a smattering of digital defects that make for tolerable but distinctly distracting viewing. On the plus side, the orchestral score is evocative, the newly created intertitles are easy to read, and the second channel audio commentary by a noted Lang scholar is informative. Unlike Lang's best films, such as M and Metropolis, however, this one is more of a piece of film history than a good film, per se, and is therefore very optional for larger cinema collections. (T. Rich)