Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler (1922) Rating: Starring: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Aud Egede Nissen, Gertrude Welcker, Alfred Abel, Bernhard Goetzke Director: Fritz Lang Category: Classics, Classics Studio: Image Ent. Subtitles: [None] Length: 229 mins     A Film by Fritz Lang Dr. Mabuse - criminal genius, psychologist, hypnotist, counterfeiter, card shark, master of disguise, thief of state secrets and ruler of a sinister empire founded on selfishness, chicanery and murder - gained his first screen incarnation in this monumental four-hour film by Fritz Lang, one of cinema's greatest directors.Made in 1922 and subtitled "A Picture of the Times," Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler is indeed a snapshot of a precise historical moment when Germany was often likened to Sodom and Gomorrah, when inflation skyrocketed, public morality collapsed, and the Nazi party first emerged from Munich beer-halls. But into Mabuse's seemingly invulnerable kingdom of crime drops State Attorney von Wenk, obsessively determined to penetrate a world of cocaine, gaming and promiscuity to find "The Great Unknown" and bring him to justice.In the manner of an old-time serial thriller, pursued and pursuer alternate in gaining the upper hand.The fantastically pulpy plot comes from Thea von Harbou's adaptation of Norbert Jacques' original novel, but even after eighty years, as critic Noel Burch has observed, Lang's textured and unforgettable portraits of Mabuse, von Wenk, Count and Countess Told, Cara Carozza, Edgar Hull and the evil Doctor's criminal gang "are still as 'alive' and as captivating as they were in 1922." "Shoot-outs, car chases, bomb explosions, gruesome deaths - Mabuse teemed with the story components that made directing a rapturous adventure for Fritz Lang," wrote biographer Patrick McGilligan.Lang worked his crew around the clock, firing real bullets on the set for take after take, intending nothing short of perfection - which, in a way, he achieved in one of the most memorable of all silent films. Although most of Mabuse's revolutionary photographic accomplishments no longer seem remarkable, having been absorbed into the mainstream film technique, cinematographer Carl Hoffmann here first achieved many realistic and stylized effects which brought original audiences to spontaneous applause.