Fritz Lang is one of the best filmmakers cinema has ever known. He’s also one of my personal faves. Masters of Cinema clearly think he’s the bees knees too because they’re releasing two of the director’s early classics this autumn. First up is Das Testament Des Dr Mabuse, which arrives on 24th September in Dual Format (Blu-ray and DVD) and with a SteelBook edition.

Eureka Entertainment have shot us over disc details for the forthcoming release along with a nice synopsis and a coouple of stills courtesy of the British Film Institute. If you’re a film student getting into world cinema and its history, then Masters of Cinema is the best label you’re likely to find. Cinemart sings their praises every chance we get – we’re practically evangelical about it.

Also released later this year by Masters of Cinema is another Lang epic, Die Nibelungen, on 22nd October. Stay alert for more info on that.

With the etching onto glass of a single word – “MABUSE” – Berlin reawakens into a nightmare. Fritz Lang’s electrifying Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse [The Testament of Dr. Mabuse] is the astonishing second instalment in the German master’s legendary Mabuse series, a film that puts image and sound into an hypnotic arrangement unlike anything seen or heard in the cinema before – or since.

It’s been eleven years since the downfall of arch-criminal and master-of-disguise Dr. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), now sequestered in an asylum under the watchful eye of one Professor Baum (Oskar Beregi). Mabuse exists in a state of “catatonic graphomania”, his only action the irrepressible scribbling of blueprints that would realise a seemingly theoretical “Empire of Crime”. But when a series of violent events courses through the city, police and populace alike start asking themselves with increasing panic: “Who is behind all this?!” The answer borders on the realm of the impossible…

SPECIAL DUAL FORMAT (BLU-RAY + DVD) EDITION FEATURES:

• HD transfer of the film presented in its original aspect ratio, in 1080p on the Blu-ray
• Optional English-language subtitles
• Feature-length audio commentary by film scholar and Fritz Lang expert David Kalat
• Lavish booklet featuring the words of Fritz Lang, rare archival imagery, and more

UK Release Date: 24th September