{{Short description|1947 film}} {{Infobox film | name = Madness Rules | image = Madness Rules (1947 film).jpg | caption = Heinrich Gretler (left) as Constable Studer | director = Leopold Lindtberg | writer = Alfred Neumann<br>Leopold Lindtberg | starring = Heinrich Gretler<br>Heinz Woester<br>Irene Naef | cinematography = Emil Berna | editing = Hermann Haller | studio = Praesens Film AG | released = {{Film date|1946}} | runtime = 113 minutes | country = Switzerland | language = Swiss German }}
'''''Madness Rules''''' (German: '''''Matto regiert'')''' is a 1946 Swiss crime film directed by Leopold Lindtberg<ref>Fritsche p.31</ref> and based on a novel by Friedrich Glauser. It is one of Lindtberg’s Wachtmeister Studer films and was later screened at the Zurich Film Festival.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
== Background == ''Madness Rules'' is based on Friedrich Glauser’s novel ''Matto regiert''.<ref name=":1" /> Heinrich Gretler plays Wachtmeister Hermann Studer. He had previously played the character in Leopold Lindtberg’s 1939 film ''Constable Studer'', which was adapted from a novel by Glauser.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":02">{{Cite web |title=Wachtmeister Studer|url=https://www.filmpodium.ch/film/158589/wachtmeister-studer|access-date=17 March 2026|website=Filmpodium|language=de}}</ref>
Glauser drew on his own experience of psychiatric institutions, and the film presents both a crime story and a conflict between modern and outdated psychiatric methods.<ref>{{Cite web |date=17 May 2009 |title=17. Mai 2009: Schweizer Film «Matto regiert» |url=https://medien.srf.ch/documents/20142/3708308/17._Mai-Schweizer_Film__Matto_regiert_.pdf/d55fc2a2-c397-25dd-9247-fbb06c136194?t=1548925328600 |access-date=5 April 2026 |website=SRF Medienportal |language=de}}</ref>
==Synopsis== Wachtmeister Studer investigates a disappearance at a psychiatric clinic after a dance for the patients. The young patient Herbert Caplaun had wanted to attend, but the clinic director Ulrich Borstli refused permission, and by the next morning Borstli has vanished.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Matto regiert |url=https://www.swissfilms.ch/de/movie/matto-regiert/9db45fe8caf14babbc05430deba2ea16 |access-date=5 April 2026 |website=Swiss Films |language=de}}</ref><ref name=":1" />
==Cast== The cast includes:<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Matto regiert |url=https://www.filmpodium.ch/film/168746/matto-regiert |access-date=5 April 2026 |website=Filmpodium |language=de}}</ref>
* Heinrich Gretler as Wachtmeister Hermann Studer * Heinz Woester as Dr. med. Ernst Laduner * Elisabeth Müller as Irma Wasem * Olaf Kübler as Herbert Caplaun * Irene Naef as Margrit Laduner * Johannes Steiner as Dr. med. Ulrich Borstli * Adolf Manz as Georg Caplaun * Zarli Carigiet as Patient * Hans Kaes as Portier Dreyer * Mathilde Danegger as Dr. med. Spühler * Hans Gaugler as Leibundgut * Emil Hegetschweiler as Pfleger
== Reception == Writing in ''Geschichte des Schweizer Films'' (1987), Hervé Dumont described the film as visually aligned with film noir and argued that its psychological density outweighs suspense and plot.<ref name=":1" /> ''filmo'' described the film as a suspenseful crime story with a dense film-noir atmosphere, and wrote that while the criminal plot recedes, Lindtberg focuses on the complex network of relationships within the psychiatric clinic.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Matto regiert |url=https://www.filmo.ch/Edition/katalog/staffel-3/matto-regiert.html |access-date=5 April 2026 |website=Filmo |language=de}}</ref>
== Digitisation == The film was digitised in 2009 by Schweizer Fernsehen in Zurich and the Cinémathèque suisse in Lausanne.<ref name=":2" />
== Festival screenings == The film premiered in 1946. It was later screened at the 21st Zurich Film Festival in 2025.<ref name=":0" />
== References == {{Reflist}}
== Bibliography == * Fritsche, Maria. ''Homemade Men in Postwar Austrian Cinema: Nationhood, Genre and Masculinity''. Berghahn Books, 2013.
== External links == * {{IMDb title|0127681}}
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Category:1947 films Category:1947 crime films Category:Swiss crime films Category:Swiss German–language films Category:Films directed by Leopold Lindtberg Category:Films based on Swiss novels Category:Police detective films Category:Swiss sequel films Category:Swiss black-and-white films Category:1947 German-language films Category:1940s Swiss films