Dr. Mabuse - Watch Order: Release Order
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.

Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler
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.

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
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.

The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse
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...

The Return of Dr. Mabuse
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".

The Invisible Dr. Mabuse
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?

The Terror of Doctor Mabuse
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.

Dr. Mabuse vs. Scotland Yard
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.

The Vengeance of Dr. Mabuse
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.

Dr. M
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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