About a criminally insane genius who plots the overthrow of civilization and runs a vast criminal enterprise from beyond the grave.
Everyone smokes everywhere they please, the yo-yo is a favourite a pastime of the police, and for a film made in 1933 it's almost entirely modern in it's sets and furniture. There's the deranged patient and psychiatrist - his office filled with for art - masks of different tribes, various deformed human skulls (a-la Mutter Museum), the paintings of patients or other lunatics, Dr. Mabuse is - in a sense - the original "Joker", set out to upend the world for it’s own sake, the pleasure of it, and there are surprisingly innovative techniques - for example the cut from mugshot to the scene.
Still, almost a hundred years later a great film, only we've forgotten who the villains are; Dr. Mabuse's manifesto was not intended to become the roadmap for 20th century capitalism...