The Strange Countess (1961)

The Strange Countess (Die seltsame Gräfin), directed by Josef von Báky, is a relatively early entry in Rialto’s wonderful cycle of Edgar Wallace krimis. It was based on Wallace’s 1925 novel of the same name. This is an extremely interesting entry in that cycle.

Margaret Reedle (Brigitte Grothum) is a very ordinary young woman who works in the office of a lawyer named Shaddle. She will soon be leaving this job to take up a position at Canterfield Castle as private secretary to the Countess Moron (Lil Dagover). Yes, Moron. Don’t blame me, that really is her name. Miss Reedle has one more job to do for Mr Shaddle. She has to deliver the release papers for a prisoner named Mary Pinder to a women’s prison. Mary Pinder has been serving a long sentence for murder. She is a poisoner.

Miss Reedle has been getting some strange telephone calls telling her that her time is almost up. She thinks the calls must be coming from a madman. In fact the calls really are being made by a madman. He is Bresset (Klaus Kinski) and he is confined in an asylum but he keeps escaping.

Miss Reedle isn’t worried until someone tries to kill her. There are three attempts made on her life. She has absolutely no idea why anyone would want to kill her. If it hadn’t been for Mike those attempts would have been successful. Mike is Mike Dorn (Joachim Fuchsberger) and Margaret Reedle thinks that he seems like a rather nice man although she is a bit mystified. How does he always manage to turn up at the right moment to save her life?

She hopes that these attempts to kill her will stop when she takes up her new position at Canterfield Castle. Unfortunately she’s wrong.

There’s an uneasy atmosphere at the castle. Everyone there seems a bit strange and they seem like they’re hiding something, which of course they are. The countess is a bit odd. Her son Selwyn (Eddi Arent) is eccentric to say the least. He dreams of going on the stage and spends his free time on mysterious electrical experiments. The butler, Addams, is very sinister. The countess’s financial advisor seems a bit shifty. And then we meet the family doctor, Dr Tappatt (Rudolf Fernau), and he doesn’t seem any too trustworthy.

Quite apart from the odd collection of misfits living at the castle there’s Mike Dorn. He seems trustworthy but Miss Reedle actually knows nothing about him. And there’s still the crazed telephone caller played by Klaus Kinski who just keeps on escaping from the asylum and he is certainly stalking our heroine.

Miss Reedle is no fool but she’s very confused and frightened and we can’t blame her.

It’s a setup that promises plenty of thrills and suspense and The Strange Countess delivers the goods on those fronts.

On the acting side Joachim Fuchsberger was a Krimi regular and was always reliable. Eddi Arent is quite amusing. Klaus Kinski is of course perfect as a murderous madman and he’s in fine creepy form. Brigitte Grothum makes a likeable heroine and gives a very creditable performance.

Even more interesting is the casting of Lil Dagover as the countess. Her remarkable career as a screen actress began in 1916 and lasted until 1979. It included appearances in several very early Fritz Lang movies as well as a starring rôle in one of the great classics of German Expressionism, Robert Wiene’s 1920 The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. And Fritz Rasp, who plays the lawyer Shaddle, had appeared in Lang’s Metropolis in 1927.

These are not the only links to the German Expressionism of the Weimar era. The Strange Countess was shot in the legendary Ufa studio in Berlin.

The horror in this movie (and there is definitely horror in this one) comes not just from the deceptions you expect in a krimi but to an even greater extent from the idea of madness. Many scenes take place in a lunatic asylum. That’s scary enough but what makes it far more chilling is when characters who are not mad end up in the asylum. Some of the characters in this film really are mad, but some have either been deliberately sent mad or made to believe they are mad. Neither Miss Reedle nor the audience can be quite sure which of those categories the other characters fit into. She knows she is not mad but that’s no guarantee she won’t end up in a padded cell in the asylum. Even more terrifying is the thought that she might end up driven to actual madness.

You expect in this sort of movie that at some stage either the hero or the heroine will be locked up by the villain or villains and will have to find a way to escape. In many movies the means of escape prove to be disappointingly contrived but this movie includes a truly ingenious escape.

The Strange Countess is a first-rate krimi with a definite gothic horror vibe and some intriguing nods to the great days of German Expressionism. Highly recommended.

Tobis have provided an excellent transfer on their Blu-Ray release, included in their Edgar Wallace Blu-Ray Edition 6 boxed set. Both English and German language (with English subtitles) options are available for The Strange Countess.

The Curse of the Hidden Vault (1964)

The Curse of the Hidden Vault (German title Die Gruft mit dem Rätselschloss) is a 1964 Edgar Wallace krimi from Rialto.

The opening sequence is pleasingly clever and witty.

The real story begins with the arrival in London of Kathleen Kent (Judith Dornys). She has been living in Australia. She is accompanied by a law student from Sydney, a Mr Westlake, who claims to be her legal advisor and bodyguard. Since he’s played by Eddi Arent we tend to doubt his competence in either of these rôles.

Kathleen and Westlake are taken to their hotel where they discover they are prisoners. It takes them, and the audience, a while to start getting some idea of what is going on. Twenty years earlier a casino operator named Real (Rudolf Forster) cheated Kathleen’s father out of his entire fortune. Real is now old and he feels guilty about his past misdeeds. He summoned Kathleen to London to make amends. He intends to restore her father’s fortune to her.

So Real is a bad guy but maybe he has now become a good guy. Real’s assistant is a barrister named Spedding. We don’t know if he’s really a good guy or not.

We assume that Connor and his associates, the men who are holding Kathleen prisoner, are definitely bad guys. But what about Jimmy Flynn? Jimmy seems very friendly with all the crooks but he’s also very friendly with Inspector Angel (Harry Meyen) from Scotland Yard. The crooks don’t know whether to trust Jimmy, and nor does Inspector Angel. Nor, for that matter, does the viewer.

And then there’s the mysterious George (Klaus Kinski), who keeps floating about silently. We have no idea whose side he’s on.

Apart from trying to figure out how to distinguish the good guys from the bad we also have to consider the very real possibility that some of the good guys will try double-cross other good guys and some of the bad guys will undoubtedly double-cross some of their fellow bad guys.

To add another complication, there’s an unknown sniper who shoots people from time to time.

Real’s fortune is kept in a secret vault protected by ingenious, imaginative and apparently impregnable security devices. Everybody would like to know how to get into that vault and out again while staying alive.

Several people have already been murdered (one of them was murdered in three different ways simultaneously) so this is a rather dangerous game.

The fact that the chief of Scotland Yard, Sir John (Siegfried Schürenberg), is taking a personal interest in the case naturally gives us those of us who have seen him in action in other krimis no confidence at all.

Judith Dornys as Kathleen Kent is clearly the heroine and she’s likeable enough if not particularly memorable. We’re not sure if the hero will turn out to be Inspector Angel or Jimmy Flynn, or maybe somebody else. We’re not sure who will turn out to be the real villain.

Harald Leipnitz as Jimmy Flynn is reasonably good. Siegfried Schürenberg grown on me more and more. Klaus Kinski looks suitably mysterious and sinister.

The plot twists and turns all over the place, which is what you want in a krimi.

Franz Josef Gottlieb does a solid job and throws in some nice visual set-pieces.

Visually the movie is impressive and imaginative, especially the wonderful hidden vault complex sets.

This movie was shot in black-and-white and in Ultrascope, one of those cheaper Cinemascope equivalents that were popular at that time.

The Tobis Blu-Ray transfer looks terrific. It offers the options of the English dubbed version or the German language version with English subtitles. It is always a good idea to avoid the English dubbed versions of krimis.

The Curse of the Hidden Vault is a typical krimi and there’s nothing wrong with that. It doesn’t break any new ground but it delivers the pleasures that you expect from this genre. Highly recommended.

The Hound of Blackwood Castle (1968)

The Hound of Blackwood Castle (Der Hund von Blackwood Castle) is one of the later colour krimis made by West Germany’s Rialto Films. It came out in 1968. It was directed by Alfred Vohrer, the man responsible for many of the best of these Edgar Wallace movies.

We start with a man mauled to death by a huge savage dog. Since the man was out on the moors in heavy mist we immediately get a bit of a Hound of the Baskervilles vibe. There’ll be more of that vibe later.

Even before the opening credits roll things get creepier. A big guy with an eye-patch is taking a dead body somewhere in a rowing boat, on a fog-shrouded river. Later we find out that the eye-patch guy is Grimsby, an old family retainer of the now deceased owner of Blackwood Castle.

Then we move into full-on Edgar Wallace krimi mode. There’s a semi-derelict castle. The owner has recently died and has left the castle (Blackwood Castle) to his beautiful young blonde daughter Jane Wilson (Karin Baal). There are lots of suitably gothic cobwebs all through the castle. And I haven’t mentioned the castle’s collection of deadly snakes yet.

There’s some concern at the local inn. One of the guests, a Mr Tucker, went for a walk and never came back. A howling dog was heard that night.

A man named Connery (Heinz Drache) arrives at the inn and immediately disappears into a secret passageway. His behaviour in general is suspicious, but then everybody in this movie behaves suspiciously. New suspicious characters just keep on arriving. Fairbanks (Horst Tappert) seems very suspicious indeed.

Another mysterious stranger turns up at the castle and tells Jane’s lawyer Jackson (Hans Söhnker) that he’s prepared to offer a ludicrously large amount of money to buy the castle, but Jackson doesn’t inform Jane of the offer.

Another body turns up, it gets dragged away by one man just as Grimsby shows up, apparently also intent on dragging that body off. The body turns up at the castle, Scotland Yard is called, and the body disappears again. Other mysterious characters turn up and they’re clearly up to something secretive.

This is all classic outrageous Rialto krimi stuff, and that’s the stuff I personally love.

The plot outrageousness continues and the bodies keep piling up. Sir John of Scotland Yard (Siegfried Schürenberg) is perplexed. Sir John has great confidence in his own investigative capabilities but that confidence is sadly misplaced.

There’s at least one nefarious conspiracy brewing here but there may be more than one. There's also a very clever mystery regarding the various murders and that dog.

A lot of the regulars of the early krimis had departed by this time. For this movie Rialto still managed to assemble a very capable cast, with Heinz Drache being particularly good. Karin Baal makes a fine heroine (assuming she isn’t a villainess and in this movie you can never be sure of anyone) and adds some glamour.

The departure of the series’ regular comic relief actor, the very popular Eddi Arent, was a blow. This time the comic relief is mostly provided by Sir John’s personal assistant, Miss Finley (Ilse Pagé). She’s genuinely amusing and Miss Finley is an appealing character. It’s Miss Finley who really runs Scotland Yard, not the bumbling Sir John. There are amusing hints that the relationship between Sir John and Miss Finley might not be purely professional. She is also more than a comic relief character. She is no fool and of all the people trying their hands at investigating the mystery she’s probably the sharpest and the cleverest. She became a regular in the later krimis, and a very popular one.

Peter Thomas’s score must be mentioned - his bizarre scores were a distinctive feature of Rialto’s krimis.

Alfred Vohrer directs with plenty of gusto.

Visually the movie is a delight, with the gothic trappings laid on extra thick.

The Hound of Blackwood Castle is very much a typical krimi but somehow it makes the forrnula seem fresh and exciting, even at times inspired. This movie is a complete delight. Very highly recommended.

The Tobis Blu-Ray offers an excellent 16:9 enhanced transfer and English-speaking viewers there’s a choice between the English dubbed soundtrack and the German soundtrack with English subtitles. The latter is very definitely the better option.

The Man with the Glass Eye (1969)

The Man with the Glass Eye (Der Mann mit dem Glasauge) is a late entry in the West German Edgar Wallace krimi cycle made by Rialto Film. The krimis had been in tune with the zeitgeist of the early 60s and had enjoyed immense success. By 1969 they were struggling to hold on to their audience and in this film you can see desperate attempts to get in touch with the late 60s zeitgeist.

It has in its favour the fact that it was directed by Alfred Vohrer, probably the best of the krimi directors.

By this stage the connection between the krimis and the works of Edgar Wallace was becoming very tenuous indeed. The krimi cycle would eventually end in 1972 with a couple of Italian-German co-productions, the Massimo Dallanano-directed What Have You Done to Solange? and the Umberto Lenzi-directed Seven Blood-Stained Orchids. What Have You Done to Solange? is a superb movie and Seven Blood-Stained Orchids is quite good but they are clearly gialli rather than krimis.

Which is not entirely inappropriate given that the giallo was a kind of offspring of the krimi. At the very least the krimi was a major influence on the giallo.

The movie opens with a man named Jefferson checking into a London hotel with cute blonde showgirl Leila. While they’re making love a man bursts into the room and knifes Jefferson to death.

Leila is one of the Las Vegas Girls who performs at a night club. That club seems to have been one of Jefferson’s many business interests. The police discover that Jefferson was a very shady character, suspected of white slavery.

Shortly afterwards Leila becomes the second victim.

The police have a few clues - a glass eye and billiard cues.

Other Las Vegas Girls are kidnapped and we get hints that whoever is behind the white slavery racket dabbles in drug smuggling as well.

Showgirl Yvonne Duvall (played by Karin Hübner who is essentially the female lead in this film) has run into an old flame, young Lord Bruce Sheringham (Fritz Wepper). Bruce had wanted to marry Yvonne three years earlier but she disappeared out of his life. He still wants to marry her. This romance subplot will later connect to the main plot, and Yvonne’s disappearance will become significant.

We know the identity of the main players in the white slavery racket but we don’t know if the guy who seems to be in charge really is the kingpin. And we don’t know the identity of the murderer - it may be a member of the gang or it may be somebody else entirely. The killer seems to want to kill the bad guys.

Many of the iconic krimi stars had departed by this time. Rialto tried to find suitable replacements but it isn’t easy to replace a Klaus Kinski. One of their biggest problems was finding a substitute for Eddi Arent. Arent had provided the comic relief in most of the krimis up to 1966. If you’ve only ever seen English-dubbed versions of krimis you might conclude that Arent’s deprture wold be no great less but when you watch the movies in German with English subtitles you realise that Arent was a fine comic actor and a major asset to the series.

The Man with the Glass Eye offers the audience two comic relief characters. There’s Stefan Behrens as Sergeant Pepper and there’s Scotland Yard chief Sir Arthur’s secretary (and mistress) Miss Finley. They both try too hard but Miss Finley is at times amusing.

Hubert von Meyerinck is not especially likeable as Sir Arthur. On the other hand this movie’s main detective, Inspector Perkins, is played by Horst Tappert and he’s quite good. Karin Hübner is good as well.

The murders, especially the second one, are quite imaginative. Not as bloody as movie murders would become in the 70s but there’s a bit more blood than you’d see in the early krimis.

Maybe the plot is a bit incoherent but I don’t mind that in a krimi (or a giallo) as long it’s fairly outrageous.

Vohrer keeps the action moving along briskly and he treats us to a rather epic fight scene in a billiard club.

There are plenty of nice visual touches. I liked the little mobile glass compartment which delivers the kidnapped girls to the home of Mr Donovan, whose intentions may not be honourable.

There are odd slightly surreal touches, such as the weird ventriloquist’s doll.

The Man with the Glass Eye might not be the equal of the classic early krimis but it’s rather enjoyable.

The German Tobis Blu-Ray release looks terrific and offers both the English dub and the German soundtrack with English subtitles.

Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972)

Seven Blood-Stained Orchids is a 1972 crime thriller directed by Umberto Lenzi. It’s usually considered to be a giallo but it’s a bit more complicated than that. This was a West German-Italian co-production and the German company involved was Rialto Film. Rialto of course were responsible for the wonderful Edgar Wallace krimi cycle of the 60s and early 70s. That krimi cycle was a definite influence on the evolution of the giallo.

The two genres have a number of things in common, the most important being that both emphasised style over content. The plots tended to be fairly outrageous and plot coherence was not a major consideration in either genre. Seven Blood-Stained Orchids belongs to an intriguing group of early 70s movies that were in fact marketed in Germany as krimis, or krimi-giallo hybrids. It is however a genuine giallo.

The main source material for this movie was Cornell Woolrich’s novel Rendezvous in Black. For the German release the claim was made that it was also based partly on an Edgar Wallace story, but this was simply an attempt to boost the movie’s chances at the German box office. The closing opening sequence used in the Rialto krimis was also added to give the impression that this really was a krimi. Lenzi wasn’t pleased by this but it worked and the movie did very well in Germany.

A psycho killer is stalking women (a black-gloved killer naturally) . A half-moon amulet is left by the body of each victim so the psycho becomes known as the Half Moon Maniac. One of his victims, Giulia Torresi (Uschi Glas), has a lucky escape. She is married to fashion designer Mario Gerosa (Antonio Sabato).

There seems to be no obvious connection between the victims until it is discovered that a couple of years earlier they all stayed at the same hotel, the hotel owned at that time by Giulia’s family.

Inspector Vismara (Pier Paolo Capponi) has assigned plain-clothes officers to protect the other likely victims but the police just don’t seem to be able to get their act together and women get killed under their very noses.

Mario (fairly reasonably) comes to the conclusion that he can’t rely on the police so he decides to play private detective. As the killer accumulates more victims both Mario and the police always seem to be one step behind. Mario does go tantalisingly close to saving one victim, a woman confined in a mental hospital.

There is one promising clue, an American who used to eat regularly at the Torresi family’s hotel. And Mario comes across another clue - seven orchids all stained blood-red. But that clue seems to lead nowhere.

In desperation a trap is set for the killer, with slightly unexpected results.

There’s a very high body count and the murders are done in typical baroque giallo style (and several of them are quite impressive visual set-pieces).

There are false leads and plenty of deception. In two cases where the victim survives the police lead the murderer to think that those victims are dead. It was hardly an original idea to have the lead character decide to play private detective but in this film it makes sense. The police really do make a mess of things.

Lenzi considered this movie to be fairly clued and to some extent he was right. There are certainly clues that should awaken an alert viewer’s suspicions.

Antonio Sabato is not the most colourful or endearing of heroes. Marisa Mell has a small part which doesn’t give her any real opportunities. The supporting players are generally extremely good. The standout performance however is given by Uschi Glas. She has real screen presence and she makes Giulia a lively, likeable intelligent heroine.

The plot stretches credibility but if you’re watching a giallo and looking for plot coherence then you’ve picked the wrong genre. A giallo plot is not required to make sense or hang together and the more outrageous the plot the better.

Lenzi used to be better known for some of his notorious later movies (such as his cannibal movies) but his earlier giallos have since grown in reputation and it’s those giallos on which Lenzi should be judged as a director. And he was a fine giallo director. He made better giallos than this one (the wonderfully offbeat Spasmo is his masterpiece) but Seven Blood-Stained Orchids is still a very solid very entertaining effort. Highly recommended.

The 88 Films Blu-Ray release offers a lovely transfer, and offers both the Italian and English dubbed version. All Italian movies of this era post-dubbed so whether you watch the Italian or English version really doesn’t matter. There’s an audio commentary plus a couple of interview, the interview with Lenzi being a very worthwhile extra.

The Doll of Satan (1969)

The Doll of Satan (La bambola di Satana) is an Italian horror movie directed by Ferruccio Casapinta and released in 1969 (although doubts have been raised as to the extent to which Casapinta actually did direct this movie). But the genre to which this movie actually belongs is debatable.

Elizabeth Ball Janon (Erna Schurer) has inherited a spooky gothic castle from her uncle. She has been in London for several years but has now returned, with her fiancé Jack Seaton (Roland Carey), to take possession of the castle.

There is some question as to whether it was her uncle’s wish that the castle be sold. Elizabeth would like to respect her uncle’s wishes, if she could be sure that he really did intend to sell. A neighbour is definitely very anxious to buy.

On the other hand her uncle’s close friend and adviser, the elderly Mr Shinton (Domenico Ravenna), assures her that her uncle would never have wanted the castle sold. Mr Shinton tells her that he can produce proof that her uncle had no such intentions. Elizabeth is more than a little confused.

Slightly creepy things start happening right away. The castle has another inhabitant, Jeanette. Jeanette was supposed to have died in an accident (an accident in which Elizabeth’s uncle was involved) years earlier. She isn’t dead, but she’s crippled in insane. An insane woman locked in an upstairs bedroom is certainly pretty gothic.

The household includes several servants as well as Elizabeth’s childhood governess, Miss Carol (Lucia Bomez). Miss Carol is just a little strange. She likes to tell ghost stories. Elizabeth is a bit spooked by these ghostly tales. She’s even more spooked when she hears the castle’s ghost.

And Elizabeth has strange and disturbing nocturnal visions. Visions of dungeons and torture, with herself as the victim.

There are disappearances. The family dog is very unsettled. Something is very wrong in this castle.

Superficially this is a gothic horror movie. The setting is a haunted castle and there are ghosty visitations. However from a very early stage there are definite giallo touches. There is for example a black-gloved killer. And right from the start we have strong reason to doubt whether there is anything remotely supernatural going on. In fact I don’t think the audience is expected for one moment to believe that anything in this story has a supernatural explanation. So it could be seen as a giallo with gothic horror trappings.

Personally I would call this movie a krimi. The very popular West German Edgar Wallace krimi genre certainly had a strong influence on the early development of the Italian giallo and there were German-Italian co-productions that combined both krimi and giallo elements. The Doll of Satan is entirely an Italian production but I feel quite confident in saying that spiritually it’s a krimi. It has the classic krimi signatures- the gothic setting, the sinister hooded figures, the outrageous plot, the use of disguise, the number of characters who are not whom they appear to be, the swordfight. These are things you expect in a krimi. Indeed they’re things you expect from Edgar Wallace.

There’s also perhaps a touch of the Old Dark House movies of the 30s.

The necessary ingredients are all here, but the execution falls very flat. What makes Italian and German genre movies of the 60s and 70s so wonderful is that they emphasised style over substance. Visual style was crucial and they didn’t mind if it came at the expense of plot coherence. And they were correct. Style matters more than substance. Movies are all about style. And that’s where The Doll of Satan falls down. It’s just seriously lacking in visual style. It’s also seriously lacking in energy.

The 88 Films Blu-Ray offers a nice transfer with a few extras including an audio commentary.

The Doll of Satan just doesn’t quite make it. It isn’t terrible, but it is a bit stodgy. Maybe worth a look as a curiosity.

The Red Circle (Der rote Kreis, 1960)

The Red Circle (Der rote Kreis) was the second of the West German Edgar Wallace krimis (which is the term used in Germany for crime thrillers) made by Rialto. Technically this one was a West German-Danish co-production. It was based on Edgar Wallace’s 1922 novel The Crimson Circle.

The movie starts with an execution in France. Or at least an attempted execution. We then jump forward several years, to London. Scotland Yard is perplexed by a major blackmailing racket, with the blackmail leading to murder in a disturbing number of cases. Blackmail victims who don’t pay up end up dead. The Red Circle is responsible for these crimes, but nobody knows if this is a single individual or a gang.

Of course in an Edgar Wallace story you’re likely to have a rich elderly man (in this case he’s a man named Beardmore), and some question about the inheritance he will leave when his time comes. His only obvious heir is his nephew Jack (Thomas Alder), whom he despises.

Jack has been spending a lot of time with a Miss Drummond (Renate Ewert), secretary to a neighbour named Froyant. This interests Chief Inspector Parr (Karl-Georg Saebisch) a good deal. Miss Drummond is well known to the Yard as a successful and daring thief. Jack has been instructing her in archery, which will later have some significance.

Beardmore is one of the Red Circle’s intended victims and he’s a cantankerous old man who has no intention whatsoever of paying up.

Another intended victim is Lady Doringham, the rich and not entirely faithful wife of a much older very rich man. She appeals to Scotland Yard for help.

Chief Inspector Parr finds himself having to work with a private detective, Derrick Yale (Klausjürgen Wussow). His superiors at the Yard believe he’ll need help on this case. Parr isn’t thrilled, although he admits that Derrick is a fine detective.

The body count rises steadily. The Red Circle is always one jump ahead of the police. Embarrassingly, some of the victims are killed right under the noses of the police.

There are at least four possible suspects, all equally plausible.

Compared to the first Rialto krimi Der Frosch mit der Maske (Face of the Frog) this one had a different distributor, a different director (Jürgen Roland replacing Harald Reinl) and a totally different cast. In spite of this you can see the krimi starting to emerge as a distinctive genre. Outrageous plotting, lots of style and some nice visual set-pieces. And with just enough of a tongue-in-cheek quality without going overboard.

Jürgen Roland is certainly more than competent as director and went on to make a couple more movies in the series.

Eddi Arent is the only familiar face from the first time. If you’ve only seen the English-dubbed versions of these movies you probably hate Eddi Arent and think he’s the most irritating comic relief actor in movie history. I hated him too, but it turns out that the problem was that he was so horribly dubbed in English. Much to my surprise, when I started watching these movies in the German-language versions with English subtitles I started to really like Eddi Arent.

The other cast members are very good, with Renate Ewert being particularly good as the sexy bad girl.

The plot is complicated, with plenty of red herrings. It’s best not to worry too much about the coherence of the plot. What matters is that it’s fun. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.

The German Tobis Blu-Ray (in one of their three-disc Edgar Wallace sets) offers the movie in both the English-dubbed version and in German with English subtitles. I very strongly urge you to watch the subtitled version. The transfer is anamorphic and looks lovely. It’s such a pleasure to see these movies looking so fantastic. They’re movies that rely so much on stylish visuals that you really can’t appreciate them in some of the horrible pan-and-scanned DVDs that have been floating around for years. And the Tobis Blu-Rays are very easily obtainable.

The Red Circle is an excellent early krimi. Well-crafted and well-paced and wildly and deliriously entertaining. Highly recommended.

The Sinister Monk (1965)

In 1926 Edgar Wallace wrote a novel called The Black Abbot. It was very popular and the following year he turned it into a stage play under the title The Terror, which then became another novel. The play was filmed more than once, the 1938 British movie The Terror being a particularly good version. The original novel was the subject of one of the West German Edgar Wallace krimis, The Black Abbot, in 1963. Two years later Rialto adapted the stage play under the title Der unheimliche Mönch (The Sinister Monk). This movie was directed by Harald Reinl.

A very very rich old man is dying. He considers his children to be a sorry lot (and as we will find out his judgment is spot on) so he writes them out of his will. His home, Darkwood Hall, will go to his daughter Patricia so she can continue to run her girls’ boarding school but the rest of his vast estate will go to his beloved granddaughter Gwendolin (played by krimi regular Karin Dor).

The will goes missing. Without a will the estate will be divided equally between the children, except for Gwendolin’s father who is serving a life sentence for murder.

One of the sons has come up with a rather nasty scheme. And Patricia’s oily son Ronny has come up with a nefarious scheme of his own. There’s obviously plenty of potential for trouble, and just as obviously there are going to be quite a few people with motives for murder and other crimes.

Patricia invites Gwendolin to stay at Darkwood Hall. Most of the schoolgirls are on holiday but about a dozen have no place to go during the holidays so they remain at Darkwood Hall.

Ronny starts putting the moves on Gwendolin right away, as part of his plan.

At about this time the monk makes his appearance. The legendary monk of Darkwood Hall is the ghost of a long-dead monk (Darkwood Hall was at one time a monastery). Of course in an Edgar Wallace krimi we tend to suspect that ghosts are not necessarily actual ghosts.

A Scotland Yard inspector has an unfortunate encounter with the monk, not far from Darkwood Hall. Scotland Yard is now very interested in this case.

And then the bodies slowly start to accumulate.

Apart from the family members (all of whom are potential suspects) there are other suspicious characters hanging about. There’s Monsieur d’Arol (Kurd Pieritz), the newly arrived French master who behaves rather oddly. There’s Mr Short (Rudolf Schündler), an artist who rents a room at Darkwood Hall. He could be an eccentric but harmless old gentleman or he could be a raving loony. There’s the school butler Smitty. Since Smitty is played by Eddi Arent we assume he’s one of the good guys but there’s still the chance he’s not what he appears to be. There are strange men lurking in the woods. And of course there’s The Monk.

That missing will provides a motive for murder but there are other possibilities, other nefarious schemes that may be hatching at Darkwood Hall.

Pretty soon the schoolgirls start getting drawn into the action although it’s not clear whether they’re innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire or whether someone has some reason for targeting one or more of the girls. One of the girls, the glamorous Lola, seems to be mixed up in something but whether as victim or conspirator is not clear. Lola carries a water pistol for protection. You might think that a water pistol would not be much protection for a girl but Lola has filled it with sulphuric acid making it a very nasty little weapon. And Lola is prepared to use it.

Mr Short’s pigeons also arouse the curiosity of Scotland Yard.

Sir John of Scotland Yard (Siegfried Schürenberg) is very worried. He has to find a murderer, and as well he has to protect not just Gwendolin but a dozen schoolgirls. Inspector Black (Harald Leipnitz) seems confident at first but soon he has things to worry about, such as staying alive.

The plot has several strands to it and lots of twists. Even as the bodies pile up we’re still left with multiple suspects and the eventual solution is both neat and outrageous.

Harald Reinl was one of the two best directors employed by Rialto on their krimi series (along with Alfred Vohrer). In this movie he keeps the action moving along briskly and keeps the complex plot fairly coherent.

Mention should be made of Peter Thomas’s totally bizarre score.

This was an important movie in the history of the krimi genre. It was director Harald Reinl’s final krimi, it was Karin Dor’s last appearance in the series, and it was the last of the Rialto krimis to be shot in black-and-white. It was the end of an era and the beginning of a new one.

The German Tobis Blu-Ray Edition 3 includes this movie and two others, Der Schwarze Abbot (The Black Abbot) and Der Mönck mit der Peitsche (The College Girl Murders). All three movies come with multiple language options including German with English subtitles and English-dubbed versions. The transfer is excellent.

The Sinister Monk ended the black-and-white era on a high note. Lots of gothic atmosphere, some real horror, a fine plot. Highly recommended.

The Black Abbot (1963)

The Black Abbot (Der schwarze Abt) is a 1963 entry in the West German Edgar Wallace krimi series. I’ve seen this one before, but in an English dubbed version years ago.

Edgar Wallace's original novel The Black Abbot, published in 1926, is one of his best. It has all the classic Edgar Wallace ingredients, mixed to perfection.

The movie takes place at Fossaway, the Chelford family seat in England, where a dead body has just turned up.

Scotland Yard are called in but as yet Inspector Puddler (Charles Regnier) and his assistant Horatio W. Smith (Eddi Arendt) can make no sense of the murder.

There’s plenty of scheming going on. Mary Wenner (Eva Ingeborg Scholz) is angling for marriage to Lord Chelford. Crooked lawyer Arthur Gine has an angle. So does his even more crooked head clerk. His angle involves marriage to Gine’s sister Leslie (Grit Boettcher). The butler, Thomas Fortuna (Klaus Kinski) is definitely hatching some plot. The administrator of the Chelford Estate, Dick Alford (Joachim Fushsberger), is up to something. He has some marriage plans as well.

At the bottom of all the scheming is the Chelford Treasure. Nobody has any idea where the treasure is or of its value (it’s rumoured to be a cache of gold but there’s also a rumour that it includes a secret wonder drug) and it may be just a legend. But it may be real. There are people who think it’s worth taking the chance that the treasure really exists.

There are rumours of ghosts, and there’s the mysterious Black Abbot. There are countless secret passageways. There are lots of double-crosses and attempted double-crosses. There’s greed and madness. There’s love and lust, and in this movie they can be as dangerous as greed and madness. There’s an ancient map which could reveal the treasure’s location.

And there’s quite a high body count.

We’re kept in the dark rather effectively as to whether some of the characters are good guys or bad guys.

Franz Josef Gottlieb directed several of the Wallace krimis. He does an effective job here.

As usual with a krimi it’s set in England but shot in Germany and it doesn’t look anything like England but that adds to the fun.

The movie’s cast consists of names very familiar to krimi fans - Joachim Fushsberger, Eddi Arendt and Klaus Kinski. Fuchsberger and Kinski are always good in these films.

Something that struck me forcibly when I started watching these movies subtitled rather than dubbed is how much it changes the performances. I’d always thought of Eddi Arendt as a particularly annoying comic relief actor but it turns out that much of that was due to bad dubbing. He’s actually not that bad, in fact he can be quite amusing.

I now have this movie in an excellent Blu-Ray release from Tobis. Seeing these krimis in the original German with English subtitles makes a huge difference. Tobis also presents the movie in a 16:9 enhanced transfer in the correct aspect ratio (the film was shot in Ultrascope, a German version of Cinemascope).

Tobis have released all of the krimis in their Blu-Ray sets (and on DVD). The majority either include the English dubbed versions or include English subtitles but not all do. These are German releases but they’re very easy to obtain. You don’t need to order them from Germany. The Edgar Wallace krimis have been available for years in dodgy grey-market versions. Seeing them presented in truly excellent transfers makes a huge difference. The visual style in a large part of the appeal of these movies.

The Black Abbot incorporates all the features that you could wish for in a krimi. Deliriously entertaining. Plus of course you get Klaus Kinski. Highly recommended.

The Forger of London (1961)

The Forger of London (Der Fälscher von London) is a 1961 German krimi (crime film) based on an Edgar Wallace story. This is one of the krimis made by Rialto Studios which were on the whole perhaps slightly superior to the ones made by rival studio CCC. This is one of several Edgar Wallace krimis made by Harald Reinl, a fairly prolific director of mostly fun potboilers (he also helmed a couple of the Dr Mabuse films.) Reinl was, sadly, eventually murdered by his third wife.

Scotland Yard is trying to break up a counterfeiting racket. They’re rather puzzled by the fact that the most recent forgeries are obviously the work of a forger well known to them but they’re nowhere near up to his usual standards. Chief Inspector Bourke (Siegfried Lowitz) is not going to be tempted to jump to any conclusions about this point.

Somehow the forgeries are going to be tied in to the story of newlyweds Peter and Jane Clifton (played respectively by Helmut Lange and Karin Dor), and to dissolute playboy Basil Hale (who had also set his sights on marrying Jane). The marriage of Peter and Jane isn’t quite a match made in heaven. It’s more a marriage that seems to be socially suitable and financial considerations may have had more to do with it than love.

Although it seems like Jane was the one who married for money she’s the one who is resentful. And she soon realises she may have got more she bargained for in Peter. He has a dark secret. Of course he’s not the only one with dark secrets, this being the world of Edgar Wallace.

It might be just as well that Jane’s uncle is a psychiatrist. Although psychiatrists might have dark secrets also.

Scotland Yard have traced Peter as the source of one of those forged bank notes but he seems very vague as to how the note came to be in his possession. Chief Inspector Bourke is definitely very interested in the goings-on at Longford Castle, where Peter and Jane are honeymooning (in separate bedrooms).

With so many secrets at stake it’s inevitable that sooner or later someone is going to get murdered. In this case it’s the traditional blunt instrument to the skull type murder.

The plot is typical Edgar Wallace krimi stuff - very complicated and you need to have your wits about you to keep track of the twists and the multiple plot strands.

The acting is competent enough. Karin Dor adds a touch of glamour, as she did in so many of these movies (and she was an OK actress). She was at the time married to Harald Reinl (although I hasten to add that she’s not the one who stabbed him to death). Naturally Eddi Arent is on hand fir comic relief purposes, which is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your own personal tastes. He also apparently plays an additional unexpected minor rôle (although I failed to recognise him).  Siegfried Lowitz is excellent as the enigmatic and surprising Chief Inspector Bourke.

Some of the exteriors were shot at Herdringen Castle in Arnsberg, Germany - a location that shows up in more than one Edgar Wallace krimi. These were the sorts of low-budget movies that kept the German film industry afloat but Rialto generally managed to make their productions look reasonably good.

Reinl does his usual competent job as director.

The Forger of London is not as extravagant visually as some krimis but it does have the plot extravagance that krimi fans know and love. And the plot, for all its convolutions, does make some sort of sense if you don’t panic and lose concentration. There’s a reasonably effective atmosphere of the sinister and the mysterious. And yes, there is at least one hidden passageway!

The Rialto and CCC krimis were invariably shot widescreen and until the end they were invariably in black-and-white.

Finding decent DVD releases of the German krimis can be a challenge. If you’re unlucky enough to live in Australia, as I do, it’s just about impossible. There are some very good German DVDs and Blu-Rays but of course they’re German-Language versions. Some have the English dubbed versions as well but most don’t, and some have English subtitles and some don’t. English dubbed DVDs are not difficult to find but the quality can be iffy (or even terrible). If you can get hold of the German releases and you check that they have subtitles then they’re the way to go - they’re usually very good.

All of these German krimis are enjoyable and while I wouldn’t put The Forger of London in the very top rank it’s a solid offering. Highly recommended.