Hot Picks
|
|
|
Der Rächer
The Avenger
West Germany 1960
produced by Kurt Ulrich, Heinz Willeg for Kurt Ulrich Filmproduktion
directed by Karl Anton
starring Heinz Drache, Ingrid van Bergen, Benno Sterzenbach, Ina Duscha, Ludwig Linkmann, Siegfried Schürenberg, Klaus Kinski, Rainer Brandt, Friedrich Schoenfelder, Al Hoosmann, Maria Litto, Franz-Otto Krüger, Rainer Penkert, Albert Bessler, Asikin Nazir
screenplay by Gustav Kampendonk, Rudolph Cartier, based on the novel by Edgar Wallace, music by Peter Sandloff
Edgar Wallace made in Germany
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
|
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
|
|
A serial killer dugbbed the Headhunter is roaming the streets of
London, decapitating his victims and leaving their heads in a box with
some warning attached to it. And since the last victim of the Headhunter
has been the uncle of a bit player at a film production, Ruth Sanders (Ina
Duscha), Secret Service agent Brixan (Heinz Drache) tracks her down to the
mansion of Lord Longvale (Ludwig Linkmann) to investigate - and witness
her being promoted to lead status after the film's star Stella Mendoza
(Ingrid van Bergen) throws yet another scene. At another mansion they're
shooting at, mansion owner Sir Gregory (Benno Sterzenbach) desparately
tries to get into Ruth's panties, and makes himself very suspicious in the
process. Other suspects are Stella Mendoza of course, who will stop at
nothing to get her role back, the film's star Reggie (Rainer Brandt),
who's pretty much Stella's trusted sidekick, weird script supervisor
Lorenz Voss (Klaus Kinski), and even the film's director Jackson
(Friedrich Schoenfelder), who comes across as a bit too helpful. Early on,
everything seems to point into Sir Gregory's direction, he owns swords
sharp enough to cut off a head as cleanly as the Headhunter does, he has a
creepy servant/slave, Bhag (Al Hoosmann), a half-animal he brought from
Malaysia, he keeps a Malaysian dancer (Maria Litto) locked up in his
attic, he agrees to help Stella Mendoza get her role back, he tries to
rape Ruth, and so on and so forth - until he eventually is made captive by
the Headhunter himself. Eventually Brixan figures out that the Headhunter
is actually none other than eccentric Lord Longvale, a descendent of a
famed executioner from the Spanish revolution, who has picked up dishing
out punishment to those he sees unfit. And he uses a massive system of
abandoned mines in the region to move from one place to the other unseen.
Of course, Brixan eventually falls into one of Lord Longvale's trap, and
in the finale, Longvale tries to behead Ruth with an actual guillotine,
but Bhag, always loyal to his master Sir Gregory, utterly kills Longvale
and saves the day. Siegfried Schürenberg can be seen as head of the
Secret Service, basically a more serious version of his later beloved
Edgar Wallace character Sir John. To cash in on the success
production company Rialto
had with their early Edgar
Wallace adaptations, producer Kurt Ulrich was quick to adapt
the one book of the writer he owned the rights to, The Avenger -
and had it turned into an at best ok krimi. Basically, it just
fails to live up to the standards of Rialto's
early output that was notoriously high on atmosphere, featured a bit of
humour to lighten up the mood (later Rialto
movies actually tended to come across as outright comedies), and was
driven by suspense, also to often hide the narrative shortcomings of its
source material. This film at hand seems to be much more just going
through the motions, driven by a very functional directorial effort and at
best standard characters. Now that's not to say this is a bad movie
in the true sense of the word, it just feels a tad empty and in fact
uninteresting. What's interesting here though is that many
actors who would later appear in Rialto's
Edgar Wallace adaptations would get their first taste of Edgar
Wallace in this one, and especially Klaus Kinski, Heinz Drache and
Siegfried Schürenberg would later become cornerstones of Rialto's
series.
|
|
|