Dr. Mabuse - Watch Order: Release Order

Other Watch Orders:
1922 - 199010 Films18h 39m3.5 Average

The Dr. Mabuse series spans nearly seven decades of German cinema, beginning with Fritz Lang's groundbreaking silent epic and evolving through multiple incarnations of the criminal mastermind. The character serves as a symbol of psychological manipulation and societal chaos, adapting to different eras while maintaining his core identity as the ultimate supervillain.

This watch order includes Lang's three films (1922-1960), the popular 1960s sequel series that featured recurring characters like Inspector Kras, and later spiritual successors from 1972 and 1990. The franchise intentionally employs loose continuity with symbolic retcons, as Mabuse often dies and returns through possession or rebirth, making him more of a recurring threat than a consistent character.

1
Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler poster

Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler

19224h 31m4.6
Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Aud Egede-Nissen, Gertrude Welcker, Alfred Abel, Bernhard Goetzke

Dr. Mabuse and his organization of criminals are in the process of completing their latest scheme, a theft of information that will allow Mabuse to make huge profits on the stock exchange. Afterwards, Mabuse disguises himself and attends the Folies Bergères show, where Cara Carozza, the main attraction of the show, passes him information on Mabuse's next intended victim, the young millionaire Edgar Hull. Mabuse then uses psychic manipulation to lure Hull into a card game where he loses heavily. When Police Commissioner von Wenk begins an investigation of this mysterious crime spree, he has little to go on, and he needs to find someone who can help him.

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2
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse poster

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse

19332h 2m4.6
Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Oscar Beregi Sr., Camilla Spira, Otto Wernicke, Paul Henckels

After a detective is assaulted by thugs and placed in an asylum run by Professor Baum, he observes the professor's preoccupation with another patient, the criminal genius Dr. Mabuse the hypnotist. When Mabuse's notes are found to be connected with a rash of recent crimes, Commissioner Lohmann must determine how Mabuse is communicating with the criminals, despite conflicting reports on the doctor's whereabouts, and capture him for good.

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3
The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse poster

The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse

19601h 39m3.9
Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Peter van Eyck, Gert Fröbe, Wolfgang Preiss, Dawn Addams, Werner Peters

A reporter is murdered while driving to his job. The Police are contacted by a clairvoyant who saw the death in a vision, but some dark force is preventing him from seeing the man behind the crime...

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4
The Return of Dr. Mabuse poster

The Return of Dr. Mabuse

19611h 25m3.3
Director: Harald Reinl
Cast: Gert Fröbe, Lex Barker, Daliah Lavi, Werner Peters, Fausto Tozzi

The supposedly dead and buried Mabuse returns to his criminal activities, as his longtime foe Police Inspector Lohmann, a dauntless girl reporter, and an American - who may be an FBI agent, or maybe a Chicago mobster - investigate a series of gruesome murders connected to a maximum security prison and involving a minister who has written a book called "The Anatomy Of The Devil".

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5
The Invisible Dr. Mabuse poster

The Invisible Dr. Mabuse

19621h 28m3.6
Director: Harald Reinl
Cast: Lex Barker, Karin Dor, Werner Peters, Siegfried Lowitz, Walo Lüönd

Strange things happen in a revue theatre. The dancer Maria seems to be hunted by an invisible admirer. When the body of a probable FBI agent is found in a trunk the police asks FBI man Joe Como for help. Como gets interested in the revue theatre and an ominous transport firm soon. When he is receiving mysterious threatening letters he is sure that Dr. Mabuse has risen again. But what is going on at "Enterprise X" so that both the goverment and the mad genius in crime are interested in it?

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6
The Terror of Doctor Mabuse poster

The Terror of Doctor Mabuse

19621h 28m3
Director: Werner Klingler
Cast: Gert Fröbe, Senta Berger, Helmut Schmid, Wolfgang Preiss, Harald Juhnke

Dr. Mabuse has been locked away for years in an insane asylum. Suddenly crimes start occurring and no one knows the culprit. A detective goes to visit the Doctor to find some sort of clues to the robberies.

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7
Dr. Mabuse vs. Scotland Yard poster

Dr. Mabuse vs. Scotland Yard

19631h 27m3.5
Director: Paul May
Cast: Peter van Eyck, Dieter Borsche, Klaus Kinski, Sabine Bethmann, Werner Peters

The spirit of the evil Dr. Mabuse takes over the body of a famous professor. The professor/Dr. Mabuse then begins a new crime wave that terrorizes the city.

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8
The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse poster

The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse

19641h 27m3.1
Director: Hugo Fregonese
Cast: Peter van Eyck, O.E. Hasse, Yvonne Furneaux, Walter Rilla, Ernst Schröder

The evil Dr. Mabuse develops a death ray with which he threatens the world.

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9
The Vengeance of Dr. Mabuse poster

The Vengeance of Dr. Mabuse

19721h 20m3
Director: Jesús Franco
Cast: Fred Williams, Jack Taylor, Beni Cardoso, Moisés Augusto Rocha, Friedrich Joloff

Dr. Mabuse and his accomplices steal all kinds of attributes from a National Research Institute (including female staff members) in order to complete his own evil mind-control ray. Dr. Mabuse has this impressive and horribly scarred man-monster that kills for him while the entire police force desperately tries to catch him.

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10
Dr. M poster

Dr. M

19901h 52m2.2
Director: Claude Chabrol
Cast: Alan Bates, Jennifer Beals, Jan Niklas, Hanns Zischler, Benoît Régent

In the not-too-distant future Berlin is shocked by a series of spectacular suicides; a policeman's investigations lead him to a beautiful, enigmatic woman and the revelation of a sinister plot to manipulate the population through mass hypnosis.

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