Horror crime thriller meets hit film - first attempt
The 1960 film "DAS RÄTSEL DER GRÜNEN SPINNE / The Mystery of the Green Spider" is an interesting mix of crime and hit film. After the Edgar Wallace horror crime wave had been heralded a year earlier with the surprising audience success of "DER FROSCH MIT DER MASKE / The Frog with the Mask" (1959), an attempt was made to cross such a crime film with another popular genre in the Federal Republic film industry, the hit and revue film . This entertaining film came out in which bizarre murders alternate with beautiful singing performances. Another attempt at a film of this kind was made in 1965 with "Hotel der Toten Gäste" (again, by the way, with the stunningly beautiful Renate Ewert), which pursued a similar concept.
What's particularly worth seeing in "The Riddle of the Green Spider" are the great actors Adrian Hoven, Hans von Borsody and of course the breathtakingly attractive Renate Ewert (1933-1966), who unfortunately died far too early. Di(e)tmar Christensen's successful dance performances are also worth mentioning.
An absolute highlight of this film is the appearance of Jacqueline Boyer, who won the Eurovision Song Contest 1960 in London that year with "Tom Pillibi" and now sang one of her other successful songs in the film with "Comme au premier jour". Absolutely great and almost a contemporary document of this legendary EUROVISION winner.
Anyone who has a taste for such an unusual mix of horror crime and hit films will be thoroughly entertained here.
