"Die Todesstrahlen des Dr. Mabuse" is a German black-and-white film from 1964, so this one is already way over half a century. It runs for slightly under 1.5 hours and looking at the crew list you will see that actually quite a few people worked as writers and directors here. The outcome for that is quite disappointing, so it is probably a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. But there is another major problem here, namely that this film delivers zero creativity as a stand-alone movie. It is a bit of everything that was popular around that time in Germany: a touch of Edgar Wallace (Rialto) films, a touch of James Bond (the death ray obviously) and a touch of Mabuse and the older films about the criminal mastermind. The only thing missing is probably Winnetou-related stuff. But there is absolutely nothing in here that somehow warrants the film as a stand-alone creative achievement. It is also a waste of actors, even if Gert Fröbe isn't on board this time. Peter van Eyck is a much better actor than he is allowed to show us here for sure and he is just as forgettable as the rest basically. The script is very forgettable. Every time the film seems to head in a direction where it could actually made an impact, it is thrown back by random Mabuse references and honestly this film could have turned out clearly superior without the evil doctor being in the center of it. but I guess it is the name that lured so many people into cinema, so they did not want to do without it. It cost them as by today's standards the film has not aged well at all. I'd say the rating here on IMDb is accurate, but then again it is not worse than several previous Mabuse films. Still maybe a good thing the series came to a halt for a while after this one as the subject honestly had been overdone by then. Also the more frequent inclusion of color in the coming years may have hurt the franchise, but you could almost say "helped" as they could not mess it up any further. So yeah, I don't think "The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse" (and there are several other titles out there for this one) is a failure or anything, but it is a film that is basically just a collection of stuff that had been done better and more originally on other occasions. I don't recommend seeing it. Thumbs down.

This movie is a true direct sequel to "Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse" from 1 year earlier. Normally you don't need to watch any of the other Dr. Mabuse movies in order to watch just one but this movie might be an exception to that.

All of the Dr. Mabuse movies from the '60's have sort of the same style as the early James Bond movies but since the first Dr. Mabuse movie from the '60's is from 1960 and the first James Bond movie is from 1962 it's not completely fair to call the Dr. Mabuse movies a rip-off from the James Bond movie, since it obviously had developed its style before the first James Bond movies became an huge success. Nevertheless its very much thinkable that the '60's Dr. Mabuse movies were inspired by the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming since it obviously shows some similarities in its odd gadgets and way the villain and his organization is often being portrayed, as well as his plan to 'take over the world'. On top of that, I think that this particular Dr. Mabuse movie is still more inspired on the James Bond movies nevertheless. There are a bit too many similarities this time to call it a coincidence.

Not only does the movie feature all kind of odd gadgets again and is the villain once more portrayed in a Blowfeld kind of way but also for the first time the movie is set at different places and the main character travels to exotic locations. But there also are some small other similarities such as in the camera handling, the portrayal of women as sex objects, fist fights with henchman, checking the room for bugs and an underwater sequences.

Peter van Eyck who also starred in the previous movie "Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse" reappears in this movie, only in a different role this time. In "Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse" he played Major Bill Tern. while in this movie he plays Maj. Bob Anders. Sort of makes you wonder why, also since he basically plays the same sort of character in both movies. Also funny thing is that Wolgang Preiss is being credited in this movie, the man who played Dr. Mabuse in the previous five Dr. Mabuse movie, but he never actually appears in this movie at all.

Not only the fact that this movie tries too hard to be a like a James Bond movie makes this movie a quite bad one to watch but also its story. Seriously what is this story all about? Also most of the other Dr. Mabuse movies had a quite silly main plot but because of their entertainment values and camp elements none of it really mattered. This movie just never really becomes interesting or engaging and also totally lacks any of the thriller elements all of the other previous Dr. Mabuse movies still had. On top of that, Dr. Mabuse himself is hardly ever featured in this movie and the story concentrates to much on Maj. Bob Anders, while most of the other Dr. Mabuse movies still concentrated on Dr. Mabuse's criminal master plans.

Quite a dreadful movie to watch.

4/10

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From 1960 to 1964 the Germans released six thrillers focusing on Dr Mabuse. I loved five of them.Guess which one I hate.Hate may be too strong a word.But after wanting to see this for so long the actual viewing is a disappointment.

The writers/producers/director strayed from the original source material of Dr Mabuse. James Bond was extremely popular at the time and it heavily influenced this film.

What we have is a hodge podge of too many smart spies running around an island. They're all looking for the latest person possessed by Dr Mabuse. Mabuse has gotten his hands on a death ray and is ready to start World War III.

If it wasn't for a very tenuous three minutes at the beginning of the film and the last two minutes you wouldn't know you were watching a Dr Mabuse movie. You'd chalk it up to a really bad James Bond rip off and do something else. Smart move.