A Rogue Mabuse Tale With Sleaze and Style

MOVIE REVIEW
The Vengeance of Dr. Mabuse (Dr. M schlägt zu) (Blu-ray)
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Genre: Science Fiction, Horror, Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Year Released: 1972, Kino Lorber Blu-ray 2025
Runtime: 1h 16m
Director(s): Jess Franco
Writer(s): Jess Franco, Artur Brauner
Cast: Fred Williams, Jack Taylor, Ewa Strömberg, Moisés Augusto Rocha, Eva Garden, Jess Franco, Beni Cardoso
Where to Watch: available August 19, 2025, pre-order your copy here: www.kinolorber.com or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: When Jess Franco took the director’s chair for THE VENGEANCE OF DR. MABUSE in 1972, he wasn’t interested in adoration. This is no faithful continuation of Fritz Lang’s hypnotic criminal mastermind, nor even a straight adaptation of Norbert Jacques’ novels. Instead, it’s a rebranding — a “Mabuse” in name only — that allowed Franco to indulge his pulp obsessions: exotic assassins, seedy nightclubs, grotesque henchmen, and half-serious sci-fi conspiracies. The result is a brisk, 76-minute cocktail that feels like a collision between a Euro-crime programmer and a feverish jazz improvisation.

The so-called Dr. Mabuse here — played by Jack Taylor — bears little resemblance to the calculating hypnotist of earlier films. He’s a suave but slippery criminal mastermind orchestrating a plot to steal government secrets. His weapons of choice? Poison gas and a whip-wielding femme fatale (Beni Cardoso), the latter dispatched on assignments with the kind of theatrical flair only Franco could coax from such material. Rather than elaborate psychological games, this Mabuse rules his corner of the criminal underworld with flamboyant menace and a taste for the lurid.

The story itself is thin, even by the relaxed standards of early ’70s Euro-thrillers. A small-town inspector, played by Fred Williams, stumbles upon the operation, and his investigation becomes the thread connecting the film’s parts. From a plotting standpoint, it’s mostly an excuse for Franco to move between smoky nightclubs, shadowy backrooms, and sudden bursts of violence. The connective tissue is loose, but that looseness is part of its eccentric appeal — the sense that anything could happen next, whether it advances the plot or simply indulges the atmosphere.

Franco regulars populate the cast, bringing with them familiar shades of his other work from the era. Ewa Strömberg, a mainstay from VAMPYROS LESBOS and SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY, shows up as a striptease dancer, lending an air of exotic danger to her brief appearances. Moisés Augusto Rocha plays a disfigured henchman, a physical reminder of the film’s pulp-comic inspirations. Even Franco himself appears on screen, as if to stamp his authorial presence on a production that already bears his unmistakable fingerprints.

The film is a patchwork of low-budget ingenuity and deliberate excess. Franco makes the most of shadow-soaked interiors and cramped sets, layering in splashes of color when the story dips into its nightclub sequences. The lighting alternates between expressionistic pools of shadow and sudden bursts of brightness, echoing the push-and-pull between the mystery and the exploitation elements. The camera lingers just long enough on gestures or odd details to keep the audience slightly off balance.

What truly sets the film’s mood, however, is its score. The jazz soundtrack, shifting between sultry and frantic, mirrors the film’s tonal swings. It’s an auditory reminder that Franco wasn’t aiming for the kind of cold, controlled suspense that defined earlier Mabuse films. This is unique as performance — messy, playful, and unafraid to veer into the absurd.

Kino Lorber’s 2025 Blu-ray release presents the film in a cleaned-up transfer that preserves the grit without sanding away its character. The grain is intact, colors have more pop than faded prints of the film typically offer, and the audio retains that smoky, lived-in quality that suits both the dialogue and the score. The standout extra is the audio commentary from film historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson, who contextualize the film within Franco’s career and the broader Mabuse lineage. Their discussion underlines the film’s peculiar status as an “unauthorized” entry — a project that borrowed the name without the mythology, much to the trepidation of purists but to the delight of those who appreciate Franco’s idiosyncrasies.

The unauthorized nature of the production is key to understanding its tone. By sidestepping the established Mabuse mythos, Franco freed himself from narrative constraints. The danger, of course, is that without the hypnotist’s defining traits, the character becomes interchangeable with a dozen other villains. Yet that very interchangeability allows Franco to merge Mabuse with the kind of criminal kingpin archetype he preferred — a man surrounded by beautiful women, loyal but monstrous henchmen, and an ever-present air of sleaze.

For viewers unfamiliar with Franco’s work, THE VENGEANCE OF DR. MABUSE might feel like an oddly assembled curiosity, a genre hybrid that refuses to pick a lane. It’s part sci-fi, part crime procedural, and part Euro-cult erotica. The seams are visible, but so is the charm of watching a filmmaker follow his instincts wherever they lead, unconcerned with cohesion if a scene feels good in the moment.

In the grand scheme of the Mabuse legacy, this film is a side alley — a strange, smoky detour that plays more like a cousin to THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF or THE DIABOLICAL DR. Z than a direct descendant of Lang’s classics. It won’t satisfy those seeking the cerebral intrigue of the earlier entries. Still, it offers a different kind of pleasure: a lean, pulpy romp through the obsessions of one of exploitation cinema’s most prolific auteurs.

If judged strictly as a Mabuse film, it’s a misfit. Judged as a Jess Franco production from his early ’70s period, it’s a distillation of his strengths and indulgences: seductive women, eccentric villains, improbable plots, and a willingness to embrace style over story. Kino’s release lets it be appreciated for exactly what it is — not the Mabuse some expect, but a time capsule of a moment when European genre cinema thrived on bending (or breaking) the rules.

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[photo courtesy of KINO LORBER, KINO CULT]

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