Mabuse Lives - Dr Mabuse At CCC 1960 to 1964 Limited Edition Blu-Ray   Eureka

Fritz Lang made two of the defining works of early German cinema with Dr Mabuse the Gambler and The Testament of Dr Mabuse, two masterpieces centred on Norbert Jacques’ nefarious literary supervillain. In 1960, Lang was charged by Artur Brauner’s CCC Film with making a third crime thriller centred on the infamous Dr Mabuse, completing a trilogy nearly forty years in the making. A huge success, The Thousand Eyes of Dr Mabuse gave CCC the confidence to launch into an entire series focused on the master criminal between 1960 and 1964, with Wolfgang Preiss filling the title role. All six films are presented here alongside a wealth of new and archival extras.

In Fritz Lang’s final film The Thousand Eyes of Dr Mabuse, the eponymous master of disguise (Preiss) re-emerges in the Cold War era after a lengthy absence – and uses all manner of methods to insight murder and mayhem. The Return of Dr Mabuse sees him use brainwashed prison inmates to commit a litany of crimes while evading the German authorities and the FBI. In The Invisible Dr Mabuse, he seeks to use an amazing new invention – a device that renders the user invisible – to his own ends. The Testament of Dr Mabuse – a remake of Lang’s earlier film – has the German police tying themselves in knots as they try to figure out how their adversary could be continuing his reign of terror from inside an asylum. In Scotland Yard Hunts Dr Mabuse, Mabuse’s tentacles begin to creep across the English Channel. Finally, in The Death Ray of Dr Mabuse, the criminal mastermind comes to possess a weapon capable of unleashing untold destruction.

Directed by Fritz Lang, Harald Reinl (Face of the Frog), Werner Klingler (Police Raid), Paul May (Duel with Death) and Hugo Fregonese (Black Tuesday), the CCC Mabuse series continues Fritz Lang’s legacy while playing into a popular market taste in Germany for adaptations of literary krimis – or crime thrillers – that can also be seen in the enormous popularity of films based upon Edgar Wallace’s novels throughout the 1960s. The Masters of Cinema series is honoured to collect all six of the 1960s Mabuse films together in this set, presented in high definition from 2K restorations.

Limited edition hardbound slipcase featuring new artwork by Tony Stella
1080p HD presentations of all six films from 2K restorations of the original film elements undertaken by CCC
Original German audio tracks (Uncompressed LPCM audio)
Optional English dub tracks on all six films
Optional English subtitles
Archival audio commentary on The Thousand Eyes of Dr Mabuse by film historian and author David Kalat
New audio commentaries on the other five films in this set by film historian and author David Kalat
New introductions to each film by genre film expert and Video Watchdog founder Tim Lucas
Mabuse Lives at CCC – new interview with producer and managing director of CCC Film Alice Brauner, daughter of CCC founder Artur Brauner
Kriminology – new video essay by David Cairns and Fiona Watson
I raggi mortali del Dr Mabuse – alternate Italian cut of The Death Ray of Dr Mabuse
2002 interview with actor Wolfgang Preiss
Alternate ending for The Thousand Eyes of Dr Mabuse
Trailers
PLUS: A limited edition 60-page collector’s book featuring a new essay by German film scholar Tim Bergfelder, new notes on each film by Holger Haase, co-editor of Krimi! magazine, an archival essay by David Cairns, archival writing by Fritz Lang and notes by Lotte Eisner on Lang’s final unreleased projects