Im Banne des Unheimlichen

This is pretty poor. I started well and being in colour and made in 1968 had high-ish hopes. The thing here is that there were just too many people involved and the tale far too ridiculous and uninteresting. It needs more than a few colourful sets and humour. Actually the humorous element was okay but then the seriousness of the tangled tale then becomes undermined and more difficult to watch. The only reason this gets any points at all from me is the 'zombie'. An absolute object lesson to all low budget film makers. A black cloak, a wide brimmed hat and a skull face mask with beautifully working jaw and great lighting. It is increasingly such a joy when the killer 'zombie' arrives to relieve us from our boredom that we are immediately on the wrong side.

Actually it is Inspector Higgins, played by Joachim Fuchsberger ... and he did a few of these movies. I remember that I loved them as a kid, even if they were done way before I was even born. But I had a thing for crime stories anyway, so that wasn't that hard actually.

They may be more about the mystery and us guessing who the culprit is all along. And while Higgins is no Sherlock Holmes, this is not supposed to be any Holmes either ... there are elements of Giallo I reckon in this ... with the fake red blood and the killings ... and the story quite frankly. A nice little movie and throwback ... when criminals coorparated after you apprehended them ... for no good reason at all....

OK late 60's West German made, English-dubbed Edgar Wallace mystery thriller. Usual convoluted story, this time pepped-up with some creep running around in a skeleton outfit, poisoning victims with a needle ring. The heroine is a reporter who always seems to be one up on the cops. The Sinister Cinema DVD-R is not bad quality and the color is adequate.

As far as bad movies goes, this one is a gem. Everything, from the killer's skull mask to the cheesy melodrama effects, makes it extremely funny. One extraordinary line shows a mechanism triggering the door to a secret passage opened by. a penny bank! Some wacko characters shows the filmmakers didn't take themselves very seriously. The final explanation doesn't explain anything. But this is a murder mystery far over the edge, on the tradition of "Doctor X".

Basically all of these German movies based on the Edgar Wallace novels are being pretty silly and even bad ones but thing about them it that they are being so (delibertatly) silly that it actually does work out as great entertainment.

The psychedelic '60's was nearing its end, so so was this movie series, featuring the Inspektor Higgins characters. And I'm also glad because of that, since there is no way really that this type of movie would had worked out in any other decade than the '60's. It's perfectly silly and laid back all, as if it simply doesn't seem to worry about the fact that it's being a pretty silly and bad movie.

Germans are not exactly know for their great humor but there are of course some exception here and there. And this movie does really feature some amusing comedy, that is being quite cheap and predictable but it works out thanks to its fine timing and the handling by its actors. The actors all play their roles as straight as possible, which is often something that can strengthen a movie its comedy actually.

As for the movie and story itself; it really is being a very typical crime/mystery movie, in which a murdered needs to be literally unmasked. There is really nothing specular or special about any of it and some moment really don't make that much sense but at least it has a pretty cool killer; a person in a skeleton costume that kills people with his poisonous ring. But really, it just isn't the story that makes this movie such an effective and fun one to watch; it simply is its '60's atmosphere and tone throughout the movie, combined with fine humor and plenty of deliberately silly moments.

Simply effective as some great entertainment.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/