4.0027 Metropolis and Mabuse (147)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Thu, 10 May 90 17:01:07 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0027. Thursday, 10 May 1990.


(1) Date: Wed, 09 May 90 23:03 PDT (14 lines)
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 4.0018 Golems in Literature and Film (32)

(2) Date: Thu, 10 May 90 09:27:28 EDT (133 lines)
From: Mark Ritchie <AVFILM@watdcs.UWaterloo.ca>
Subject: Mabuse and Metropolis

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 09 May 90 23:03 PDT
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 4.0018 Golems in Literature and Film (32)

No, no conflation here. The man with the long hari in the long black
krtle or c loak in the little gingerbread house in the depths of the
Metroplolis, who crea ted a female aluminum robot and sent her upstairs.
there is is blond young hero , the mayor's son, in white clothese,
tennis clothes of the 20's, and his grilf riend, another blondie, in
whose likeness the female robot is made. It's metro plois all right,
and the workers are below in steam rooms and sweating like gal ley
slaves, and big gears and all that and it goes on for 2 hours and more.
One never forgets those early MOMA movies. Mabuse is something else
again. Kessler here.

(2) --------------------------------------------------------------148---
Date: Thu, 10 May 90 09:27:28 EDT
From: Mark Ritchie <AVFILM@watdcs.UWaterloo.ca>
Subject: Mabuse and Metropolis

In addition to the two Mabuse films listed below there were two others
made during the same period. The Testament OF Dr Mabuse and The Thousand
Eyes Of Dr Mabuse were not as well crafted as the first Mabuse film. In
the films Mabuse makes use of "modern" technology in his crime empire but
does not use a robot. In Metropolis the robot is a starring character.

WATERLOO MEDIA CATALOGUING SYSTEM

TITLE: Dr Mabuse, Der Spieler - Ein Bild Der Zeit
or: the Big Gambler
Dr Mabuse, Der Spieler, 1 Teil: Der Grosse Spieler
le Joueur
der Spieler

SUBJECT HEADINGS:
Moving-pictures, Germany

INTERSUBJECT HEADINGS:
Cinema Studies - Features

DEWEY CLASS: 791
DESCRIPTION:
PRODUCTION DATE: 1922
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Germany
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE: German
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Acting: Alfred Abel
Acting: Aud Egede Nissen
Acting: Gertrude Welcker
Acting: Lili Dagover
Acting: Paul Richter
Acting: Rudolf Klein-Rogge
Direction: Fritz Lang
ABSTRACT:
A baroque tale about master criminal Mabuse who gambles
with lives and fates, is an allegory of postwar German
decadence. Brilliantly directed, designed and photographed,
it was originally half of a two-part film, now shown
separately (DR MABUSE, KING OF CRIME).

TITLE: Dr Mabuse - Inferno Des Verbrechens
or: Dr Mabuse, King Of Crime
le Demon Du Crime
Dr Mabuse, Der Spieler, 2 Teil: Inferno
the Inferno Of Crime
the Inferno

SUBJECT HEADINGS:
Moving-pictures, Germany

INTERSUBJECT HEADINGS:
Cinema Studies - Features

DEWEY CLASS: 791
DESCRIPTION:
PRODUCTION DATE: 1921
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Germany
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE: German
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Acting: Alfred Abel
Acting: Aud Egede Nissen
Acting: Gertrude Welcker
Acting: Rudolf Klein-Rogge
Direction: Fritz Lang
ABSTRACT:
Part two of Lang's epic work DR MABUSE, DER SPIELER,
which follows various story threads and details Mabuse's
descent into madness. Not as flamboyant as Part One, but
still quite good.

TITLE: Metropolis: Das Schicksal Einer Menschheit Im Jahre 2000
or: Metropolis

SUBJECT HEADINGS:
Moving-pictures, Germany

INTERSUBJECT HEADINGS:
Cinema Studies - Features

DEWEY CLASS: 791
DESCRIPTION:
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Universum Film Aktien Gesellschaft (UFA)
PRODUCTION DATE: 1926
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Germany
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE: German
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Acting: Alfred Abel
Acting: Brigitte Helm
Acting: Fritz Rasp
Acting: Gustav Frohlich
Acting: Heinrich Geingge
Acting: Rudolf Klein-Rogge
Design: Erich Kettlehut
Design: Karl Vollbrecht
Design: Otto Hunte
Direction: Fritz Lang
Laboratory: Eigen Schufftan
Music: Gottfried Huppertz
Photography: Gunther Rittau
Photography: Karl Freund
Script: Thea von Harbou
SUMMARY:
In the twenty-first century a gigantic metropolis is
controlled by an authoritarian industrialist who lives with
his son, Freder, and his collaborators in a paradise-like
garden. The workers live in a subterranean portion of the
city. Maria, a saintly agitator, exhorts the workers to be
patient; soon the mediator will come. Freder becomes a
devotee of Maria. The industrialist hears Maria and
entrusts a mad inventor with the job of creating a robot
that looks exactly like her and that will incite the workers
to revolt. The inventor is successful and the workers
destroy the machines, releasing flood waters that threaten
to drown their own children. Freder and Maria save the
doomed city and, in the finale, a foreman shakes hands with
the industrialist, and Maria and Freder are married: labour
and capital are united. "The path to human dignity and
happiness lies through the master of us all, the great
Mediator, Love," says the industrialist at the end of Thea
von Harbou's scenario. This ending is not the one
originally planned for the film because the German Censors
banned Lang's original ending featuring a successful
worker's revolt overthrowing the established powers.

Mark Ritchie | Tel: (519) 888-4070
Media Librarian | Fax: (519) 888-6197
Audio-Visual Centre |
University of Waterloo | NetNorth: avfilm@watdcs.Uwaterloo.ca

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