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Gangster Joe Legge (Richard Häussler) has some information to
blackmail MP Sir Marney (Walter Rilla), and now he comes to collect. He
wants to use Marney's mansion as hiding place for the loot of a gold
shipment raid. Marney calls private eye Johnny Gray (Joachim Fuchsberger)
in for assistance, and he is quick to pay a visit to a nightclub run by
Legge's associate Igle (Hans Clarin), accompanied by Marney's daughter
Denise (Karin Dor). But then a stripper in this nighclub is murdered with
a razor blade right on stage, and Gray has to smuggle Denise out of the
club, this way bringing attention to himself. Marney receives a warning
from Legge and now insists that Gray drops the case, but he continues to
investigate, sometimes helped by Scotland Yard head Sir John (Siegfried
Schürenberg), sometimes by the Yard's eccentric inventor professor
Higgins (Eddi Arent). Many an attempt are made on his life too, and he has
a hard time evading the gangsters while at the same time staying on their
trail. Eventually, the gangsters get hold of Denise and take her hostage
to force Sir Marney to cooperate, but she manages to free herself - and
somehow, this leads to Legge's moll (Kai Fischer) ending up with her
throat slashed. The day of the raid of the gold shipment: Everything
seems to be going according to an overcomplicated plan, until Legge
arrives with the loot at Marney's place, and Marney welcomes him gun in
hand. A shootout kills them both before Gray arrives with the police to
arrest the Legge-gang. But what about the stripper and Legge's girl, who
ended up with their throats slashed? Somehow that doesn't fit with the
rest of the story. Well, this was all Denise's doing: When she was a
kid, she witnessed her mother killing herself by slashing her throat.
Since then, she felt the compulsion to murder women with a razor blade.
And now, once this is out, she slashes her own throat, just like her mommy
did. No matter for which reason and whether or not you like the
German Edgar Wallace-series, this is one of the weaker films of the cycle.
Basically, it's badly written, so it lacks any and all dramatic buildup.
On top of that, the two elements, the gangster plot and the serialkiller
subplot, are never really blended, seem to exist independently from each
other, and even stand in each others way every now and again. On top of
that, the whole thing is overconvoluted and over-simplistic at the same
time - never a good combination. And on the acting side, Joachim
Fuchsberger is a bit too cool and laddish a lead to properly carry the
story, while Karin Dor, playing a killer for the first time, gives one of
her least interesting performances. Rather a waste of time, actually.
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