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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, all starring Wolfgang Priess in 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 (Priess) 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 (The Fellowship 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 and available together for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK.

LIMITED EDITION FOUR-DISC BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES*:

Limited edition of 2000 copies | 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 and optional English dubs on select 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 by film historian and author David Kalat | Mabuse Lives at CCC – New interview with producer and managing director of CCC Film Alice Brauner, daughter of CCC founder Artur Brauner | New introductions to each film by genre film expert and Video Watchdog founder Tim Lucas | Kriminology – new video essay by David Cairns & Fiona Watson | 2002 interview with actor Wolfgang Preiss | Alternate endings for The Thousand Eyes of Dr Mabuse and The Death Ray of Dr Mabuse | PLUS: A limited edition 60-page collector’s book featuring new notes on each film by journalist Holger Haase, a new essay by German film scholar Tim Bergfelder, an archival essay by David Cairns, archival writing by Fritz Lang and notes by Lotte Eisner on Lang’s final unreleased projects | * All extras subject to change