We need a new U.S. DVD!


I finally got a chance to see this film, and I thought it was great. It did an excellent job of updating the Mabuse character to the Cold War era, it was different enough from The Testament of Dr. Mabuse that it felt original, rather than just being a rehash of "Testament" for a different era, and it was generally a very well-done psychological thriller, with some great twists. It also played with the idea of truth in some very interesting ways, like when you think you are just seeing a conversation on the dance floor, but then the camera pulls back to reveal you are actually seeing a TV monitor being watched by Mabuse. It reminds you that film can deceive, and you can never be quite sure of what the truth is, which is appropriate since none of the characters (except Kras) turn out to be what they seem. It may not be quite on the same level as "Testament," but it is nonetheless great.
And obviously, this is also significant as Lang's final film.

Where is a good American DVD release? The out-of-print Allday Entertainment disc is getting increasingly rare and expensive, and this film deserves much more exposure!
This deserves a Criterion release, like M and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse got. Any chance that a re-release will happen in the future?

reply

Eureka Entertainment (in collaboration with Masters of Cinema) has released all 3 of Lang's Mabuse films as a 4-disc package. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B002MPTIYA/ref=ox_ya_oh_product
Hope this answers your question.

Hayes! Get me somebody real!

reply

Masters of Cinema is a series of Eureka Entertainment, not a "separate entity" they'd have to "collaborate" with.

He asked for an American DVD. The All Day DVD is horrendously done. And the region doesn't really matter in this day and age, so i'd say as brchthethird:

Definitely go with the Eureka MoC boxset. When it comes to Feuillade, Lang, Murnau et.al. don't even bother with Criterion or KinoLorber, unless that's your only option (such as the recently released Kino BluRay of Feuillade's masterpiece "Les Vampires" from 1915-1916).

Kino is HORRIBLE at restoring films from the silent era, on one of their DVDs of Murnau's Nosferatu they friggin cropped off the top half of the main characters head in an important scene!

Also:
Two of Lang's "Mabuse"-films (Der Spieler/The Gambler and Testament) is already released by Eureka on BluRay (as BluRay-DVD combo's, which is a bonus), Testament was released some time ago, and The Gambler is released right around the days when i'm writing this. They're both available as dual-format (BluRay+DVD) "standard" MoC editions, and also both available in limited edition steelbook-form (for the perfectionists...there's no difference other than the packaging and the price i believe). SO, a Eureka MoC BluRay of "100 Eyes" shouldn't be that far away, and i would think Eureka will eventually release the three as a boxset, just as the DVD box (which is also part of the MoC series, so...).

For the time being, go with the best available DVD, the Eureka MoC one, and wait for Eureka to release "1000 Eyes" (or the whole boxset, as on DVD) on BluRay.

reply