GRGR (20) Part 3, Episode 13: Notes, Part 2 of 2 "Mabuse"

[Michael Perez]

455.35  “No one used real names.  We were given code names. 
Characters from a movie, somebody said.  The other
aerodynamics people were ‘Spörri’ and ‘Hawasch.’  I was
called ‘Wenk.’”  All three of these names (Weisenburger cites
only Wenk) are of characters from Fritz Lang’s 1922 two part
film saga (nearly four and one half hour’s worth for the
German version), _Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler_.  According to a
somewhat garbled cast list at  
http://www.generalworks.com/databank/movie/title1/drmab.html 
Spörri [Spoerri] was played by Robert Forster-Larrinaga,
Detective Wenk by Bernhard Goetzke, and Hawasch by Karl
Huszar.  The following is from Paul M. Jensen’s detailed study
_The Cinema of Fritz Lang_ (Zwimmer/Barnes: 1969):

   “Part one was called _Der grosse Spieler (The
Great Gambler)_ and was subtitled ‘Ein Bild der
Zeit,’ and the second episode was called _Inferno_
and subtitled ‘Menschen der Zeit.’  This reference to
‘Image of a Generation’ and ‘People of a Generation’
indicates that although _Dr. Mabuse_ is in the
tradition of the superficial, action-oriented serial, at
least part of Lang’s aim was the documentation of
inflationary Germany’s social atmosphere.  By means
of a thriller, he depicts the decadence and lawlessness
that provide a background for the action.  Thus, the
comtemporary craving for sensation is expressed by
Countess Told, who describes her ‘tired blood’ that
reacts only to extreme thrills.  The gamblers, such as a
fat lady who has a younger male friend constantly
hovering over her shoulder, play with humorless
determination.  When Wenk, disguised, arrives at one
of these clubs, he is casually asked, ‘Cocaine or
cards?’
   “The entertainment is equally decadent.  At the
Folies, for instance, we see a series of nude tableaux
on stage, followed by Cara’s dance which involves
two giant heads with extremely long, phallic noses. 
She is caught between the noses and kicks at them. 
At the end of her act, they are crossed and she is
standing on top of them; a gust of wind then comes
from below and blows her dress up over her head and
off, as the curtain closes.  As a bonus for its
customers, one of the casinos has an almost
completely nude girl ‘dance’ before the gambling
begins.  But what is worse than the public’s need of
these ‘topless’ entertainments is the fact that
sensation-hungry audiences are clearly not gaining
any sensation from them.  They sit back and watch
with no enthusiasm at all.” [Jensen, p. 39]

   Jensen goes on to describe the riots in Berlin and
elsewhere during 1918-19 (557 people were killed between
April 30 and May 8, 1919) which occurred, in part, in protest
to the election of the new National Assembly.  It was during
this time period when inflation was spiraling out of control.  A
pre-war dollar could buy 4.2 marks, in 1919 it took 8.9.  By
1923, however, 4,200,000,000 marks were needed to equal one
US dollar!  The printing business was booming, but was unable
to keep up with demand and it was not certain whether anyone
would get paid comparably for anything that was done.  We
should remember that Rosa Luxemburg was murdered in 1919
and Walter Rathenau was assassinated in 1922 (Weisenburger
calls 1922 one of _GR_’s “*anni mirabili*” [SW 193, in
reference to Alexander Friedmann’s calculation for
“red-shifting”]).  There are always people ready to blame a
single person for troubles even of this magnitude.  Jensen
writes:

   “As in _Dr. Caligari_ and _Der müde Tod_, a
single representative figure dominates the rest of the
world.  It is at his will that others act, and through his
unseen, unknown organization he can change the lives
of people entirely ignorant of his existence.  This
figure embodies all the threats and dangers that in
reality cannot be explained or organised, and even
though Mabuse is a specific individual, he remains a
general, anonymous force through his ability to
change identities, which penetrate all levels of society
and allow him to hide behind innocent and
unsupecting facades.  In fact, it seems as though each
time we see Mabuse he looks slightly different; this is
not exactly true, but he does use a great many
disguises.  He is the bearded old man who receives the
trade contract; the staggering drunk in the slums; a
top-hatted stock broker; Dr. Mabuse, the psychiatrist;
‘Hugo Balling,’ complete with monocle; a younger,
blond man who gambles with Hull [a young
millionaire] the second time; the Dutch professor
whose wispy hair and crooked nose make him look
like a Puritan parson suffering from a bad case of
static electricity; a hotel official; a Jewish peddler;
and the black-bearded hypnotist ‘Sandor Weltmann.’ 
Most of the disguises are convincing, thanks to the
changes in make-up and in Rudolf Klein-Rogge’s
performance, and they certainly add to the feeling that
Mabuse is ubiquitous and unknown.  The depiction of
him as a threat whose existence no one save Wenk
even suspects helps to blur the boundary lines of
reality, and suggests that dangerous social, emotional,
or psychological forces may exist beneath an
apparently innocent surface.
   “Sigfried Kracauer states that Mabuse’s tyranny
is offered by Lang as the alternative to chaos [_From
Caligari to Hitler_, Noonday:  1959], yet that is not
the case at all.  Actually, Lang establishes Mabuse as
the cause of all this chaos and violence in order to
give form to what is in reality haphazard; he provides
a concrete figure against whom to fight, and thus
creates a meaning and source for meaningless
violence.  He is against chaos, but instead of offering
tyranny as an alternative, he equates the two by
discovering a tyrant who is the source of what seems
on the surface to be disorder.  This same approach can
also be seen in some of Lang’s Second World War
films, in which unexpected violence is traced back to
Hitler.  Unfortunately, this use of a melodramatic
master criminal is the easy way out for Lang, since it
removes from him the need to really analyse the
situation.  All it requires him to do is use the social
environment as the general backdrop for the activities
of a main character who is just a non-realistic symbol
for the overall situation; as social criticism or
description, the film has no choice but to remain
superficial.” [Jensen, p. 41-2]

   Obviously, Pynchon did not take the “easy way out.” 
There is really no one or no group on which to pin the negative
machinations in _GR_.  It may not be all Their fault either,
especially since it will be hard to identify Them, for they wear
as many disguises as Mabuse.  No one wants to believe they
had anything to do with it, like Achtfaden, and the so-called
Nuremberg defense has served more than just Nazis over the
centuries.
   Another parallel connecting Achtfaden and Wenk
concerns the Toiletship.  At one point in the film, Mabuse’s
chauffeur, gasses Wenk and places him in a rowboat that is set
adrift.  Jensen describes the action in this scene as “just an
inept contrivance” [Jensen, p.45], yet earlier in his account he
remarks that “Lang fails to make full use of the established
opposition between these two men; while the film could have
been a struggle between two giants (similar to Sherlock
Holmes-Professor Moriarty, Fu Manchu-Nayland Smith
oppositions),  the emphasis on subplots involving the Count,
the Countess, and Edgar Hull tends to dissipate the force of the
situation.” [Jensen, p. 44]  _Mabuse_ and _GR_ have suffered
some of the same criticisms.  Both have been accused of being
overly long, overrun by needless characters, illogical, dense,
and desperately lacking focus.  Well, as for the Toiletship and
rowboat, why not?  Instead of opposites, we may have a
perverse kind of mutual respect like Dillinger and Estill [see
notes to episode 12].  The lack of absolute antagonism may
have been deliberate.  Is there a Mabuse in _GR_?  Is it
Weissmann (it is more likely we find a double for him in _Dr.
Mabuse_’s Weltmann)?  Hitler?  Is Von Braun, who left the
minor research functionaries like Achtfaden adrift, playing
Georg the chauffeur, maybe?



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