SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our THE LANG CONNECTION/HITCHCOCK'S HITCHCOCK Series, Thursday, June 1, 2023
LOCATION: The Secret Movie Club Theater, 1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90021
*Please note entrance/parking is actually in the back of the building. Make a right on Wilson Street, then a right behind the building. We’re the first set of black steps after the big gate.
7pm DR. MABUSE THE GAMBLER, Pt. 1 (1922, dir. Fritz Lang, Germany, 155mns, Digital)
10pm DR. MABUSE THE GAMBLER, Pt. 2 (1922, dir. Fritz Lang, Germany, 116mns, Digital)
This month, we’re taking a look at Hitchcock’s Hitchcock: Fritz Lang. German filmmaker Lang’s abiding fascinations with crime, murder, the depths and darknesses of the human heart married to Lang’s mastery of film technique had a profound effect on a very young Alfred Hitchcock who was in Germany designing movie sets and titles in the fertile 1920’s flowering of German Expressionism.
Although Fritz Lang would make movies in every genre with tremendous facility, his forays into suspense and the seedy criminal underworld were constant throughout his entire career.
Tonight, we present the first movie in a trilogy that would actually represent the start, middle, and final act of Fritz Lang’s career: Dr. Mabuse The Gambler. We will follow this with the other two movies in the Mabuse trilogy on June 8, 2023 and June 15, 2023 respectively (so stay tuned).
Dr. Mabuse The Gambler introduces us to the one character Fritz Lang would return to again and again in his career: Dr. Mabuse, a mastermind criminal who pulls off his robberies through various disguises and his ability to manipulate people (with telepathic powers!!). Mabuse is also a reckless gambler.
In fact, the original German title Dr. Mabuse Der Spieler better captures this complexity. As Spieler can mean performer, manipulator, or gambler depending on its context.
Lang, as he did on almost all his German productions before World War II, co-wrote the script with his wife, Thea Von Harbou. This provides another interesting link between Lang and Hitchcock since Hitch often collaborated with his wife, Alma Reville, on scenarios and screenplays throughout his entire career.
This first entry in the Mabuse canon is filled with all the pulpy thrills and machinations of the early movie seriels but it is also suffused with Lang’s enduring obsession with a kind of inherent criminality in the human mind itself.
It’s easy to see how Hitchcock would be so affected by Lang’s ability to spin personal obsessions and aberrations into cinematic gold. In this way, one might say there is even a kind of paternal lineage from Fritz Lang to Alfred Hitchcock to David Fincher.
The movie utilizes a number of filmic techniques almost unheard of at the time including animation, night time photography to create mood, and complicated ghost/demon/superimposition effects.
It also developed the German expressionistic technique of finding cinematic physical ways of expressing complex states of mind like guilt, psychotic desire, wild fear, etc.
These techniques married to theme would form a key foundation of Hitchcock’s own approach his own life.
Dr. Mabuse The Gambler is often considered one of the greatest movies of the silent era. None other than Akira Kurosawa himself cited it as one of his top 100 movies of all time.
So come join us and see how a young Hitchcock started on his path to becoming the master. By learning from another master: Fritz Lang.
Best always,
Craig Hammill
Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
REFUNDS:
We can offer refunds up to 24 hours before showtime. Please request a refund through Eventbrite and we will process ASAP. After that, no refunds. Sorry.
However if something last minute comes up and you can’t make the screening, for whatever reason, just write to us before showtime: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening, good for 90 days. (Disclaimer: Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)
HELPFUL SECRET MOVIE CLUB (1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021) THEATER PARKING TIPS:
We recommend that you park just outside our theater. Remember our theater is actually in a beautiful street art alleyway in the back of the 1917 Bay Street building. You get to our entrance by taking a right on Wilson, then a right behind the building. We are the first set of black steps on the right after the big gate.
There is also a parking lot at the corner of Mateo and Violet Street, just 2 blocks from our theater, which costs $7 per car.
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HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS:
You can always email us at community@secretmovieclub.com with any other questions, concerns, thoughts, recommendations.