Anyone know what the actual plan was involving Hull?
This took up a big (and mainly laborious it has to be said) part of the first half and yet I don't know what the point was.
Mabuse got the girl to infiltrate Hull's life but for what end?
Nothing seems to come of it at all.
Mabuse seems to gain nothing from having them together.
Did I miss something? As the 'Eureka' release subtitles are sometimes rather dubious.
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One possible explaination is that Fritz Lang had a contractual or financial obligation to include Paul Ritcher in his film, who he has a habit of casting as the boring dashing young man, and killing him off slightly less then half way through.
But Hull was the first person that Mabuse hypnotized. Really, Hull was just a character linked with Mabuse as soon as he started to hypno-rob him. He started to get all suspicious, and Mabuse had to eliminate him.
black and white movies were better
From what I gathered the scenario involving Hull can be seen from two different viewpoints.
One viewpoint holds that he originally had a plan to use Hull for something else, but then discarded this idea once he believed Hull was no longer necessary. That may seem like a bit of a copout, which leads me to viewpoint number two.
This second viewpoint is shown when Dr. Mabuse is talking to the countess following the failed seance. He states something along the lines of, "Life is boring unless you can learn how to control the destinies of other individuals." This leads me to believe that much of his time is simply spent playing "God" because he believes himself so powerful and unstoppable.
Hope this helps even though it is nearly 2 years later.
Yes, thanks very much.
The 2nd sounds good to me. Just took up a lot of screen time for such a dead end.
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Which version did you see? I watched the 4 hour plus version and it is clear that Edgar Hull is the son of a rich industrialist who Mabuse hypnotises to win money from (150,000 Marks)and as one of Mabuse's many victims (under different disguises) he becomes part of Von Wenk's plan to catch Mabuse. I don't undertand any of the replies to the OP. I suggest you all watch it again (the long version) and as for Paul Richter, Seigfried can hardly be described as a 'boring young man' so I suggest watching 'Die Niebelungen' as well.
I am a four eyed evil genius.
Haha, you suggest they watch a 4.5 hour long silent movie again? Fantastic. We know "that Edgar Hull is the son of a rich industrialist who Mabuse hypnotises to win money from (150,000 Marks)and as one of Mabuse's many victims (under different disguises) he becomes part of Von Wenk's plan to catch Mabuse." The problem/question is why did Mabuse bother planting the girl in Hull's life since it was AFTER said scam.
The replies all make sense. I tend to think Mabuse was going to milk Hull for more (there's a line like 'if you can't spend it on a man, spend it on a lady') but when he realized the police were involved he kept her ingrained to track the police's investigation and, later, bump Hull off.
I read the book several years ago, and as I recall, Mabuse was planning to get Hull to MARRY Cara. Hull was the only son of the rich industrialist, and he'd inherit his father's millions. Cara would then see to it that Mabuse got his hands on all that money, and Hull would be disposed of when he was no longer useful. Mabuse really wants LOTS of money, more than he can get just by playing at cards. Wenk spoiled that plan when he called on Hull and alerted him to the danger he was in with Cara, even though he didn't know just how serious the situation was. Mabuse abandoned his plan at that point, and resolved to just get rid of Hull. This is just another one of those moments when Wenk gets in his way and spoils his plans.
It isn't really clear in the movie, but Hull was planning to break up with Cara at the point that he's murdered; you can tell if you watch closely - the way he sort of stares at her in the lobby of the gambling den, and then when they're sitting at the game, you can see that they're actually fighting, not at all behaving as if they're in love.
Flat, drab passion meanders across the screen!