Directed by Paul May and written by Ladislas Fodor from a story idea by Bryan Edgar Wallace, this time Dr. Mabuse (Wolfgang Preiss) has returned as a ghost and Professor Pohland (Walter Rilla) and takes back his criminal empire. He then orders the death of a professor who has invented a mind control device, which puts the man’s daughter Nancy (Sabine Bethmann) into harm’s way, ready to be saved by hero Bill Tern (Peter van Eyck).
The thing I don’t like about this movie? Tern’s elderly mother (Agnes Windeck) has to save the day again and again. She should be the protagonist in this, not her son, who is dumb enough to jump into a river at one point and nearly die. What I did like was seeing Klaus Kinski show up as a cop who gets hypnotized and placed on the side of evil.
These movies have always hinted at a supernatural side of Dr. Mabuse and now, this one pays that off and somehow is one of the slowest of the series.
The Eureka box set Mabuse Lives! includes this movie, an introduction by genre film expert and Video Watchdog founder Tim Lucas, a new 1080p presentation from a 2K restoration of the original film elements undertaken by CCC, a commentary track by film historian and author David Kalat, and an alternate ending. You can get it from MVD.
A remake of the 1933 Fritz Lang film, this finds Dr. Mabuse (Wolfgang Preiss) in Hannibal Lecter mode — I get it, Lecter was in Mabuse mode because this comes first, but let me get back to writing this — and trapped in an asylum where Inspector Lohmann (Gert Frobe) keeps visiting, wanting to know how he’s communicating with criminals despite being locked away.
There’s also a boxer named Jonny Briggs (Helmut Schmid) who becomes part of Mabuse’s gang of henchpeople. Maybe he should just not live this life of crime and spend more time with his girl, Nelly. That’s because she’s played by Senta Berger (The Ambushers, When Women Had Tails), and that’s way cooler than being a hood for a mysterious mastermind, but what do I know?
I like how these films are gradually becoming more Eurospy. Here, the last film—The Invisible Dr. Mabuse—leads directly into this one. As no one in the U.S. knew who Dr. Mabuse was—or so they say, despite nearly all of the CCC movies coming out here—this was released as The Terror of the Mad Doctor. This time around, Werner Klingler directs.
The Eureka box set Mabuse Lives! includes this movie, an introduction by genre film expert and Video Watchdog founder Tim Lucas, a new 1080p presentation from a 2K restoration of the original film elements undertaken by CCC, a commentary track by film historian and author David Kalat, and an alternate ending. You can get it from MVD.
Dr. Mabuse has a new base under a theater, a place that is putting on a play about the French Revolution but really, it’s just a place for dancer Liane Martin (Karin Dor, You Only Live Twice, Assignment Terror) to take a steamy bath. Something for daddy, as they say.
Anyhow, Mabuse wants an invisibility machine and he’ll kill for it. Or at least his new henchmen will, who include Walter Bluhm as a murder clown. Only FBI agent Joe Como (Lex Barker) — Perry’s brother? — can save the day. There’s also a mutated scientist, if you have a Letterboxd list of those.
The Eureka box set Mabuse Lives! has this movie, along with an introduction by genre film expert and Video Watchdog founder Tim Lucas, a new 1080p presentation from a 2K restoration of the original film elements undertaken by CCC, a commentary track by film historian and author David Kalat, and an alternate ending. You can get it from MVD.
Directed and written by Booker T. Mattison (Twisted Marriage Therapist), this is the tale of the impossibly named Viola January (Christie Leverette). Just out of law school and in a new job, she’s also working a case pro bono to free Will (Derrick J. Smith), a man she believes was wrongly accused of kidnapping a young woman. But the truth is more complicated, and now, the real criminal is after her.
I should have gone to law school, I think, after seeing this. Viola has no idea who the killer is, but somehow gets in the middle of this mess, dragging the police into things and screaming so much — so many screams — until we have numerous people drawing guns, cops in shadowed rooms with guns out and somehow, Viola gets to follow the cops in there.
If I saw this as a kid, the end scene of the dude hiding in the house’s air ducts would have given me nightmares. Also, a shower scene without nudity is bad directing. Also also: That headshot at the end was great.
The second of the 1960s CCC Films Dr. Mabuse film series, this movie follows up Fritz Lang’s The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse. Gert Fröbe, who plays Inspector Lohmann, was the selling point in the U.S., as he had become known as Goldfinger.
The lawman is called away from his vacation to investigate a series of murders, including an Interpol agent with proof that American organized crime is working with a European crime syndicate, as well as the wife of one of that group’s members, who is killed by a flamethrower in a scene that’s pretty intense seeing as how this was made in 1961.
That woman was carrying Lohmann’s book, The Devil’s Anatomy, which was written by a Reverend Briefenstein of St. Thomas Church. That book has a theory: Satan is a spirit that can take the form of a werewolf, vampire or Dr. Mabuse. Yet, isn’t Dr. Mabuse dead? A priest informs Lohmann that even though the body can die, a soul can infest the bodies of other men. At that very point, Dr. Mabuse’s voice crackles from the church’s speaker system, demanding that the investigation stop now.
Mabuse (Wolfgang Preiss) now has an army of zombie criminals that he will use to take anything he wants, including giving these zombies orders to every prisoner in a jail and then sending them to destroy a nuclear power plant.
This movie would be followed by three more: The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, Scotland Yard Hunts Dr. Mabuse and The Secret of Dr. Mabuse. In 1990, Claude Chabrol would bring the character back for his movie Dr. M.
The Eureka box set Mabuse Lives! has this movie, along with an introduction by genre film expert and Video Watchdog founder Tim Lucas, a new 1080p presentation from a 2K restoration of the original film elements undertaken by CCC and a commentary track by film historian and author David Kalat. You can get it from MVD.
A CCC Filmkunst (West Germany), C.E.I. Incom (Italy) and Critérion Film (France) co-production — a UN of a movie — this is the last film ever directed by Fritz Lang, bringing back his villain of all villains, Dr. Mabuse. Lang had made the first two movies about this character, Dr. Mabuse the Gambler and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, in 1922 and 1933.
It’s based on Mr. Tot Buys A Thousand Eyes by Jan Fethke, which was written in Esperanto. I love this Wikipedia description, which said it was a modern take on Dr. Mabuse that combined “German Edgar Wallace film series, spy fiction and Big Brother surveillance with the nihilism of the Mabuse world.”
Dr. Mabuse is dead. But they always say that. And if he is, who kills reporters and anyone who gets close to the truth? Who was in the vision of the murder that blind telepath Peter Cornelius (Wolfgang Preiss) saw? Is the doctor inside the Luxor Hotel, a place wired by the Third Reich to spy on its guests? What’s the deal with clubfoot wifebeater Roberto Menil (Reinhard Kolldehoff), who has abused his wife Marion (Dawn Addams) to a suicide jump and into the arms of American Henry Travers (Peter van Eyck)? What’s the story with Hieronymus B. Mistelzweig (Werner Peters)? Is that Jess Franco’s — Jess would later make The Vengeance of Doctor Mabuse — favorite bad guy, Howard Vernon? How about how in America, the posters claimed that this starred Gert Frobe, Mr. Goldfinger?
Despite Mabuse being surrounded by technology, it’s suggested that his power is near-supernatural. I’m all for that. I also kind of love that Mabuse’s plan is never explained. Why has he brought all of these people together? What’s he trying to do? It doesn’t matter. He’s just evil. Sometimes, that’s all a villain requires.
The Eureka box set Mabuse Lives! has this movie, along with an introduction by genre film expert and Video Watchdog founder Tim Lucas, a new 1080p presentation from a 2K restoration of the original film elements undertaken by CCC, a commentary track by film historian and author David Kalat, and an alternate ending. You can get it from MVD.
Official synopsis: Tetsuo, a low-level yakuza, is double-crossed by his boss and attacked. His younger brother Kenji, an aspiring artist with no connections to crime, comes to his aid and kills Tetsuo’s assailant. Fearing repercussions from the yakuza, they flee to Manchuria where they risk coming under suspicion of rival gangs. Seijun Suzuki remains loyal to the conventions of the yakuza film, yet Tattooed Life contains flashes of his later creative genius, including a final act of explosive visual excess that has become one of the director’s all-time classic scenes.
Seijun Suzuki directs the yakuza drama Tattooed Life with flair, and although the majority of the film involves brotherly drama and romances that cannot be, the climax provides a fine payoff. Hideki Takahashi gives a standout performance as older brother and yakuza member Tetsuo, who does his best to hide the identities of himself and his younger brother Kenji (Kotobuki Hananomoto, also solid as a tortured artist consumed by love with their boss’s wife), as both are on the run after a yakuza murder.
Lighthearted moments prevent the film from becoming overly heavy, as camaraderie, cautiousness, suspicion, and semi-unrequited love are all at play. Lighter on violence than later films in the subgenre, there are still flashes of ferocity and danger. The members of the sizable cast all give fine performances, and just wait until you get a load of the beautifully choreographed swordplay. Tattooed Life comes strongly recommended from me for aficionados of Suzuki’s work, yakuza films, and Japanese cinema in general.
Tattooed Lifescreens on OVID in May 2025. For more information, visit https://www.ovid.tv/.
It’s also available from Third Window Films and has extras such as audio commentary by William Carroll, author of Seijun Suzuki and Postwar Cinema, a newly edited archival interview with Seijun Suzuki, a newly edited archival interview with art director Takeo Kimura, a trailer, a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow, a limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Tom Vick and a newly translated archival review of the film, all in a limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings. This is the first time this movie has been available in the West and you can get it from MVD.
Once called Vampz, this Steve Lustgarten (American Taboo, Power Slide)- directed and written movie is about Lillith (Sierra Tawan), Delilah (Tawanna Browne), and Cleo (Chantal Lashon), who are vampires who find that going out for their blood has become too dangerous. But what if they started a high-end call girl service, along with their familiar Dennis (Rick Irvin), and began using DoorDash to obtain the plasma they need so badly?
One night while they feed, a cop named Keith (Lamik Blake) sees them, which creates a psychic link that gets passed to his abused wife Eve (Emayatzy Corinealdi), who eventually becomes a vampire herself.
This looks a lot like a music video and reminds me of a time when between Blade and Queen of the Damned, it seemed like black vampires were about to have a moment. There are also two Blacula movies, as well as Vamp, Vampire in Brooklyn, and Ganja & Hess.
The best part of this? So much gore. These vampires don’t just drink blood; they devour people. There are some great ideas in it as well, so ignore the budget — you know that already — and just sit back.
Shion (Makiko Kuno) is the most perfect killer in the Magnificat crime religion. Raised from birth to kill without passion or emotion by Father Kano (Koji Shimizu), she sees a photo of herself taken by a reporter named Ito (Johnny Ôkura). It shocks her into feeling something, as does his begging for his life on his knees, which soon turns into him going down on her, showing her that there is pleasure beyond being a mindless death giver.
Imagine a Hong Kong girl with guns movie, but add more sex- lots more- and base it on a manga, Shion by Mangetsu Hanamura, and you get a slight bit of what this is all about. It’s also better than you can imagine.
From BDSM electrical marital aid torture from fellow killer Mitsuko (Maiko Kazama) to having to choose between killing her new lover or giving up everything she has learned, this is a quick, down-and-dirty bit of V-cinema perfection.
Director Masaru Konuma made plenty of Roman Porno for Nikkatsu and the Woman In the Box movies. Star Makiko Kuno was a model—a Pocari Sweat girl, no less—and is a sommelier today. This is the second in the XX series, following XX: Beautiful Weapon, with XX: Beautiful Beast, XX: Beautiful Target, XX: Beautiful Prey, and XX: Beautiful KillingMachine also in the series.
If you ever said, “I wish La Femme Nikita felt like a rougie,” good news. This is it.
The Hitman: Blood Smells Like Roses is just one of the movies in the Arrow Video V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal set. The set includes a newly filmed introduction by Japanese film critic Masak Tanioka, an interview with screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi, a video essay by critic and Japanese cinema expert Patrick Macias and a trailer. You can get this from MVD.
With a non-linear narrative and older and younger hired killers paired together years before Pulp Fiction, this tells the story of two men who will kill anyone in their way before one of them is obsessed with a photo found in the hands of one of his victims. This leads to one of those noir “don’t ask what you don’t want to know” narratives, as everyone they meet is untrustworthy at best and murderous at worst. Crime doesn’t pay, except here, it ends up that way, even if it’s not for everyone.
The Hitman: Blood Smells Like Roses is just one of the movies in the Arrow Video V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal set. The set includes a newly filmed introduction by Japanese film critic Masak Tanioka and a video essay by critic and Japanese cinema expert James Balmont. You can get this from MVD.
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