Preservation Fest to Start With ‘Mabuse’ : Movies: The Fritz Lang classic has been newly restored by the Munich Film Museum.

Fritz Lang’s “Dr. Mabuse” will launch the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s fourth Festival of Preservation at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Royce Hall. Newly restored by the Munich Film Museum’s Enno Patalas, the two-part “Dr. Mabuse” will be screened again at 7 p.m. on Thursday in its entirety, running nearly five hours with a one-half hour intermission. Dennis James will accompany the 1922 silent on the Skinner organ.

The menacing Rudolf Klein-Rogge, a Lang favorite, has the title role as a master criminal of infinite disguises who is also a skilled hypnotist gradually taking control of the world’s currency. “Dr. Mabuse” was adapted by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou (who later married Klein-Rogge) from a popular pre-World War I novel by Norbert Jacques.

“Dr. Mabuse” is the most amazing of museum pieces and anticipated Ian Fleming’s “Dr. No.” It is a film rich in exotic decor and has an array of superbly staged sequences, such as a frenzied stock exchange scene similar to the one in Antonioni’s “The Eclipse.” It has the striking composition, eloquent lighting and masterful climax that characterized Lang’s work throughout his four decades as a director.

Like most of Lang’s films, it can be appreciated on several levels: as an indictment of Weimar decadence, a story of a decent, ordinary man challenging an evil genius or simply as a cops-and-robbers entertainment. “Dr. Mabuse” was innovative in many ways, most notably in its bold German Expressionist style and in its dynamic editing, regarded as a source of inspiration for the Soviet master of montage, Sergei Eisenstein.

“Dr. Mabuse” ticket information: (213) 825-2953. Festival of Preservation schedule: (213) 206-FILM.