bosley crowther wrote a negative review in "the new york times" on the film's 1943 release, stating "it is a good, old film, well played and beautifully directed – but a battered antique, none the less." on the 1973 re-release, the same newspaper wrote a positive review of the film, stating that it "yields a sensational torrent of images that almost make the early nineteen-seventies seem tame." and "while this "mabuse" lacks most of the surrealistic effects and the dazzling hallucinations that gave its predecessor such magic, it's rich in the images and the shocks at which lang excelled."