The Vengeance of Doctor Mabuse – Kino Lorber (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: West Germany/Spain, 1972
Director: Jesús Franco
Writers: Jesús Franco, Artur Brauner, Arne Elsholtz
Cast: Fred Williams, Jack Taylor, Ewa Strömberg, Roberto Camardiel, Siegfried Lowitz, Moisés Augusto Rocha, Gustavo Re, Eva Garden, Ángel Menéndez, Friedrich Joloff, Beni Cardoso, Jesús Franco

Release Date: August 19th, 2025
Approximate Running Time: 79 Minutes 35 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVCC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono German
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region A
Retail Price: $29.95

"A criminal mastermind (Jack Taylor, Female Vampire) deploys poison gas and a beautiful whip-wielding assassin (Beni Cardoso) in a plot to steal government secrets in The Vengeance of Dr Mabuse (Dr. M schlägt zu). But his elaborate schemes risk unraveling when a small-town inspector (Fred Williams) stumbles into the scene. An unauthorized entry in the Dr. Mabuse cycle, the film makes no reference to Norbert Jacques’s clairvoyant criminal (the M-word is carefully avoided)." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 3/5

The Vengeance of Doctor Mabuse comes on a 25 GB single layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 24.2 GB

Feature: 24 GB

There is no information about the source, it looks dated, and there are blemishes throughout. Colors look flat; image clarity is generally strong, black levels are never convincing, and there are no issues with compression.

Audio: 3/5

This release comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in German with removable English subtitles. Though dialog comes through clearly, do not expect much range-wise.

Extras:

Extras for this release are limited to an audio commentary with film historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson and a slipcover (limited to the first pressing).

Summary:

When Jess Franco’s collaboration with producer Harry Alan Towers ended, he found a new partner with a German producer named Artur Brauner, who’s best known for doing a cycle of Dr. Mabuse films in the 1960s. Their collaboration began with The Devil Came from Akasava and culminated five films later with The Vengeance of Doctor Mabuse. Their best-known collaborations are a pair of films starring Soledad Miranda: Vampyros Lesbos and She Killed in Ecstasy.

Only in name does Jess Franco's The Vengeance of Doctor Mabuse share similarities with Artur Brauner's Dr. Mabuse films. The Vengeance of Doctor Mabuse owes more to the Universal horror films of the 1930s and Jess Franco’s 1960s Spanish horror films than it does to the Dr. Mabuse films that preceded it. Jess Franco’s most used character, Dr. Orloff, even makes an appearance, and this time around he’s not the villain.

A mad scientist named Dr. Mabuse uses his deformed henchman Andros to kidnap and kill anyone who stands in the way of him obtaining Dr. Orloff’s mind control laser.

Something you could always count on from Jess Franco in the 1960s and 70s was his ability to put together a solid cast of recognizable faces. The most notable cast member is Jack Taylor, who made 10 films with Jess Franco; he portrays the protagonist, Dr. Mabuse. Fred Williams, another frequent collaborator of Jess Franco, portrays a policeman named Inspector Thomas who looks like a cowboy from the old west. Ewa Strömberg, who portrays a stripper named Jenny Hering, makes her final appearance in a Jess Franco film; she appeared in 5 of his 6 Artur Brauner-produced films.

Although Jess Franco reigns in most of his cinematic quirks for The Vengeance of Doctor Mabuse, there are still moments that are undeniably him, notably a striptease sequence at a club. When it comes to sex and nudity, things are nowhere near as naughty as they would get later on in Jess Franco’s career. The moments that are most sexual actually have some humor built into them, like a scene where two cops are interviewing a witness and they get caught admiring her legs, and a scene where a hobo fishing with his dog catches a pair of women’s panties.

Known for his deliberate pacing, The Vengeance of Doctor Mabuse is surprisingly more lively than most Jess Franco films. Though it is a dialogue-heavy film, Jess Franco does an excellent job of keeping things interesting and moving forward to a finale where Andros goes berserk and kills his master. There is even a car chase sequence where the police at one point get a flat tire, and later on when their car is back on the road, they just happen to find the car they were originally tailing. Ultimately, The Vengeance of Doctor Mabuse is not a film that will convert someone to the cinema of Jess Franco; it is only recommended for Francophiles.

Any release that is lacking an interview with Stephen Thrower, the definitive expert on Jess Franco, is a huge minus; it does not help that the audio/video presentation is lackluster.

 

Written by Michael Den Boer