The Terror of Dr. Mabuse
Cast & Crew
Werner Klingler
Gert Fröbe
Helmut Schmid
Charles Regnier
Senta Berger
Wolfgang Preiss
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Police Inspector Lohmann investigates a series of crimes that resemble the schemes of Dr. Mabuse, a notorious criminal imprisoned in an insane asylum under the care of Professor Polland. A police informer assists the inspector, but it is Johnny Briggs, a disenchanted new recruit of the gang, who informs Lohmann that Mortimer, the alleged mastermind, actually is responsible to someone at the asylum. Lohmann returns there to learn that Dr. Mabuse has died suddenly, and that, before his death, he had hypnotized the professor. Obsessed by Mabuse's mind, Polland captures Lohmann and begins to torture him with electric shock treatments until Johnny rescues him. Escaping with Dr. Mabuse's papers and pursued by police, Polland accidentally crashes his car into a deep gorge.
Director
Werner Klingler
Cast
Gert Fröbe
Helmut Schmid
Charles Regnier
Senta Berger
Wolfgang Preiss
Walter Rilla
Harald Juhnke
Leon Askin
Ann Savo
Claus Tinney
Zeev Berlinski
Albert Bessler
Arthur Schilski
Alan Dijon
Alon Armand
Rolf Eden
Crew
Carl Von Barany
Albert Benitz
Artur Brauner
Wolf Brauner
Ladislaus Fodor
Heinz Götze
Thea Von Harbou
Robert Hartgrove
Alex Henningsen
Thomas Kapiewicz
Manfred Korytowski
Paul Markwitz
Vera Mügge
Helmut Nentwig
Raimund Rosenberger
Erwin Schänzle
Willy Stamm
Robert A. Stemmle
Walter Wischniewsky
Film Details
Technical Specs
Articles
Leon Askin (1907-2005)
Born in Vienna, Austria as Leo Aschkenasy on September 18, 1907, Askin developed a taste for theater through his mother's love of cabaret, and as a youngster, often accompanied his mother to weekend productions.
He made a go of acting as a profession in 1925, when he took drama classes from Hans Thimig, a noted Austrian stage actor at the time. The following year, he made his Vienna stage debut in Rolf Lauckner's "Schrei aus der Strasse."
For the next six year (1927-33), he was a popular stage actor in both Vienna and Berlin before he was prevented to work on the stage by Hitler's SA for being a Jew. He left for Paris in 1935 to escape anti-semetic persecution, but returned to Vienna in 1935, to find work (albeit a much lower profile to escape scrutiny), but after a few years, the writing was on the wall, and he escaped to New York City in 1939, just at the outbreak of World War II. His luck in the Big Apple wasn't really happening, and in 1941, he relocated to Washington D.C. and briefly held the position of managing director of the Civic Theatre, a popular city venue of the day. Unfortunately, after the tragic events of Pearl Harbor in December of that year, the United States became involved in the war that had already engulfed Europe for two years, and seeing a possibility to expediate his application for American citizenship, he enlisted in the U.S. Army.
After the war, Leon indeed became a U.S. citizen and changed his name from Leon Aschkenasy to Leon Askin. He returned to New York and found work as a drama teacher, and more importantly, landed his first gig on Broadway, as director and actor in Goethe's Faust in 1947, which starred Askin in the title character opposite the legendary Albert Bassermann who played Mephisto. The production was a huge success. Askin followed this up with another director/actor stint with Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and co-starred with Jose Ferrer in Ben Hecht's 20th Century. They were all Broadway hits, and Askin had finally achieved the success he had worked so hard to seek and merit.
It wasn't long before Hollywood came calling, and soon Askin, with his rich German accent and massive physical presence, made a very effective villian in a number of Hollywood films: the Hope-Crosby comedy Road to Bali (1952); Richard Burton's first hit film The Robe; and the Danny Kaye vehicle Knock on Wood (1954).
Askin's roles throughout the 50's were pretty much in this "menacing figure" vein, so little did anyone suspect that around the corner, Billy Wilder would be offering him his most memorable screen role - that of the Russian commissar Peripetschikof who gleefully embraces Amercian Capitalism in the scintillating politcal satire, One, Two, Three (1961). Who can forget this wonderfully exchange between Peripetschikof and Coca Cola executive C.R. MacNamara (James Cagney):
Peripetschikof: I have a great idea to make money. I have a storage full of saurkraut and I'll sell it as Christmas tree tinsil!
MacNamara: You're a cinch!
His performance for Wilder was wonderfully comedic and wholly memorable, and after One, Two, Three the film roles for Askin got noticable better, especially in Lulu and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (both 1962); but he began to find prominent guest shots on hit television shows too: My Favorite Martian and The Outer Limits to name a few; yet his big break came in 1965, when for six seasons he played General Albert Burkhalter, the Nazi general who was forever taking Col. Kilink's ineptitude to task in Hogan's Heroes (1965-71).
Roles dried up for Askin after the run of Hogan's Heroes, save for the occassional guest spot on television: Diff'rent Strokes, Three's Company, Happy Days; and parts in forgettable comedies: Going Ape! (1981), Airplane II: The Sequel (1982). After years of seclusion, Askin relocated to his birthplace of Vienna in 1994, and he began taking parts in numerous stage productions almost to his death. In 2002, he received the highest national award for an Austrian citizen when he was bestowed with the Austrian Cross of Honor, First Class, for Science and Art. He is survived by his third wife of three years, Anita Wicher.
by Michael T. Toole
Leon Askin (1907-2005)
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Released in West Germany in September 1962 as Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse. Also known as The Terror of the Mad Doctor. Remake of a 1932 German version entitled Das Testament von Doktor Mabuse.