Fritz Lang - Dr Mabuse

The Character of Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Mabuse was a character that spanned Fritz Lang's three films made from 1922 to 1960. The character is an evil mastermind with powers of mind control that are at times used (while imprisoned in an insane asylum) to manipulate people to perform the acts necessary to complete his schemes, usually involving counterfeiting currency, or sabotaging the stock market for profit, or any of the other criminal enterprises he leads.

Fritz Lang blamed The Testament of Dr. Mabuse for why he had to leave Germany, as it had a style that appealed to the (then) new Nazi regime in Berlin, prompting an offer to Lang to lead film-making in Germany through the studio UFA. This despite that The Testament of Dr. Mabuse itself was banned by propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels (though Goebbels would on occasion show the film to a private audience.)