Mission spéciale au 2ème bureau

The final film in the Dr. Mabuse series is also truly the least of the series. It is a fairly good spy thriller for the era if you look at it just from that viewpoint. But it definitely is a fairly poor Mabuse movie.

I really missed Gert Frobe as Inspector Lohmann. Peter Van Eyck is back as his suave espionage agent and the movie really centers on him, not Mabuse, who really is not even mentioned much until about two-thirds into the film. Add to that the completely outlandish concept of the "death ray mirror", and you've got a mediocre James Bond film on your hands...not a good Mabuse movie, which really relies on fairly realistic and reasonable (though often somewhat mystical or arcane) concepts in technology and the like.

The cinematography is fairly good, as is the Italian (Sardinian?) scenery. I would recommend the film only to Mabuse completists, or the most ardent spy film fanatic.