Fight Club!


I don't know if it really is the case, but The Testament of Dr Mabuse uses themes very similar to Chuck Palahniuk's "Fight Club" - double identity mastermind organizing terrorist attacks against the society, to be precise. Now while in Lang's film the organized crime thing is a kind of manifestation of pure evil (the Empire of Crime, total anarchy etc) and thus differs from the motives given in Palahniuk's/Fincher's "Fight Club", the two stories share a number of similarities - the love story of Tom Kent, for example, could be the basis of Jack's/Dyrden's affair between Marla etc.

I know it's a long shot, but postmodern writers - when they rewrite original narratives - tend to hide and mix different elements they base their works upon. Could this be the case? Or is my imagination running wild here?

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Haha, I know this post is from forever years ago, but I just saw the movie last night because I have Hulu plus now.
I also could not help but think of Fight Club when I saw this movie. One can't help but think that Palahnuik must have seen this film at some point while writing that story (although I have only seen the film). I even felt myself wondering if Mabuse really had psychic/supernatural powers, or if there was actually a Tyler Dyrden thing going on. Was the head of the asylum really being possessed by Mabuse in the creepy ghost scene, or did he just read enough of his crazy writings and develop a split personality? I think the movie makes it obvious that Mabuse actually has those powers, because he opens doors and also the asylum doctor recognizes people Mabuse knows when he is possessed...it's fun to think about though.

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