Der unheimliche Mönch

I've only just really started getting into the Krimi genre and most of the ones I have seen so far have been the later entries which were in colour. As such, one of the things I like most about this type of film is the wacky colour schemes; yet although The Sinister Monk is shot in black and white and thus doesn't feature one, it's still a very nice film to look at and also provides an interesting and entertaining mystery - ensuring that The Sinister Monk is one of the very best Krimi flicks that I've seen so far! The plot is, as usual, based on a novel by British crime writer Edgar Wallace and this time focuses on a family in turmoil over the distribution of a family will. It turns out that the late patriarch of the family intended to leave all of his wealth to his favourite granddaughter Gwendolyn; a fact that doesn't exactly go down well with the rest of the scheming family. Naturally, they plot to ensure that the granddaughter doesn't get what's coming to her; but things are complicated when a monk with a whip shows up and starts picking people off!

The plot is not exactly original and has literally been seen a hundred times before in mystery thrillers - but the film is made good by Edgar Wallace's strange approach and we get a plot peppered with things such as the whip wielding monk (evidently a Wallace favourite), a wall full of death masks and a revelation involving carrier pigeons! Naturally, the film doesn't always completely make sense and sometimes you just have to go along with it; but really, that is what makes this film so much fun to watch. There's plenty of entertainment and since the film is only short at about eighty minutes, the runtime is rather crowded - but that is a benefit if you ask me! The cinematography is just great; the black and white picture adds a real foreboding atmosphere to the film and the fog-drenched castle in which most of the film takes place makes for a really great central location. It all boils down to an unexpected and silly conclusion; but it's satisfying enough, despite feeling a little bit too rushed. Overall, The Sinister Monk is an excellent little film and I can certainly recommend it!

I'm not really much of an expert on the German sub-genre known as the Krimi. It seemed to be the predominant European mystery-thriller genre before the Italian giallo went into hyper-drive at the dawn of the 70's. The Krimi was a lot less menacing and flamboyant than their Italian counterparts but they shared a focus on cinematic style. Like many, The Sinister Monk was based on a story by the English writer Edgar Wallace. The story can be summarised as thus - a girl inherits a fortune from her grandfather but doesn't get to know about it as her greedy, scheming relatives steal the will; she is subsequently invited to stay at their boarding school where they intend to deal with her but almost immediately a series of strange murders are committed by a mysterious monk character.

So we have a girls boarding school, a family of unpleasant characters fighting over an inheritance, a killer monk whose weapon of choice is a whip which he skilfully strangles victims with, a schoolgirl who carries a water-pistol loaded with sulphuric acid, odd side characters such as a weird death mask making artist who lives in one of the high towers of the school and an ominous new French teacher. Add to this a sub-plot concerning girls from the school seemingly going missing on a regular basis and you have quite a lot of interesting ingredients to make this one up. To make matters even better there is an over-the-top, flamboyant soundtrack that gives off a cool 60's vibe. While the main girl is played by the rather gorgeous Karin Dor who would star later in Alfred Hitchcock's Topaz and the eccentric artist is played by Rudolf Schündler who would turn up several years later as a strange professor of witch-craft in Dario Argento's Suspiria. Despite being a German film, this one is set in and around London. But this was a common trait of the Krimi, used to help sell them overseas. Overall, it's a very good film for those wishing to experience a Krimi for the first time. It's a lot of fun.

Figuring out the plot of a Krimi-flick based on the work of Edgar Wallace can somewhat be compared to throwing a puzzle of a 1,000 pieces on the floor, and then putting it together without looking at the image on the cover of the box! You don't know where to start and keep stumbling into new puzzle pieces that are seemingly not connected to anything else. Every Krimi is complex, but "The Sinister Monk" is without a doubt one of the most complex thrillers in the entire Edgar Wallace collector's box. The plot really goes in all directions, there are a lot of characters, several topics and themes, and a few twists and surprises at the end.

The story starts traditionally Gothic, with the death of an old (and rich) patriarch who removes his four children from his will and leaves all his possessions to granddaughter Gwendolin. A premise like this always works, especially when there's thunder and lightning outside, and when the notary ruthlessly gets murdered. The large house also serves as a boarding school for girls, and they are kidnapped every time they make trips to London. Communication is done through carrier pigeons, girls defend themselves with water guns filled with burning acid, several people want to kill Gwendolin, but anyone who wants to harm her is killed by a monk who is very handy with a whip! With one blow he/she strangles and hangs the victims, nice trick!

As you can see, there is a lot to eventfulness in "The Sinister Monk", and the experienced director Harald Reinl keeps the pace quite high. There are many action-packed moments, exciting scenes, gruesome murders, and beautiful girls. There is hardly even time for comic relief, and that's positive because this usually bothers me in Krimi movies. Eddi Arent - who usually plays the klutz on duty - does walk around in the story, but his role is rather serious this time. The only lame remarks come from Siegfried Schürenberg as the dimwit Scotland Yard superintendent. The swinging and slightly annoying soundtrack is also included for free, obviously.

Immediately before his death, the wealthy patriarch of the Darkwood Manor modifies his will, leaving his entire fortune to his granddaughter Gwendoline (Karin Dor). This upsets the plans of the dead man's greedy relatives, which includes Patricia (Ilse Steppat), who needs the money to finance the girl's school she operates at the manor, brother Richard (Siegfried Lowitz), and her son William (Dieter Eppler). William is the kind of fellow you wouldn't want anywhere near your daughter, and Richard doesn't balk at killing the family lawyer by forcing his car off the road, and stealing the will.

Into this den of malefactors comes Gwendoline, unaware of the events swirling around her. The malice continues: A student is murdered; a mysterious monk stalks the manor, strangling people with a whip; and Gwendoline is sexually harassed by William, whose earlier murder of a school girl was hushed-up by the family. Mr. Short, an oddball character sequestered in the manor's attic, raises carrier pigeons and has made plaster life masks of locals who recently died.

Scotland Yard inspector Bratt (Harald Leipnitz) attempts to clarify the mystery when the monk kills one of his men. After some school girls disappear without trace, he tracks one of Mr. Short's pigeons and discovers a ring of white slave traders, led by the monk. Gwendoline is abducted and brought to Richard, who explains the history of her grandfather's will and attempts to blackmail her. He is interrupted and strangled by the monk, who then dies from his wounds. Bratt arrives too late to do anything other than reveal the monk's identity.

Filmed as part of the Edgar Wallace series of krimis produced by Berlin's Rialto Films, this mildly entertaining thriller was the last black-and-white film of the successful crime series. It was very successful during its initial release, and holds up well more than 30 years later.

Director Harald Reinl, then husband of the film's star Karin Dor, moves things at a fast pace. Though it's not too difficult to guess which character plays the monk, there are numerous red herrings and distractions, and THE SINISTER MONK boasts a high body count overall. The film's "deadly accoutrements" include the whip, which is modified to break one's neck in an instant, and a water pistol that fires sulfuric acid.

The movie is an adaptation of Edgar Wallace's novel "The Terror," which had previously been offered as a stage play in London in the 1920s, followed by three forgotten film versions in 1928, 1934 (as RETURN OF THE TERROR), and 1938. THE SINISTER MONK was itself remade two years later, as DER MÖNCH MIT DER PEITSCHE (1967), directed by Alfred Vohrer.

Gwendolin (Karin Dor) inherited a fortune from her grandfather, but doesn't know it yet. Her greedy relatives try to get her out of the way, but that's not as easy as it seems, when a hooded monk sneaks through the night and kills people with his whip. Is it a ghost, a psychopathic killer, or a man with a secret plan? Harald Leipnitz plays the inspector investigating on this case, whilst one of the most famous inspectors of German TV history, Siegfried Lowitz, plays the villain this time. The 20th movie of the Edgar Wallace series (which began only 6 years earlier with "Der Frosch mit der Maske") was the last one in black & white. Somehow the later color movies didn't have the same atmosphere anymore and ran out of ideas. "Der unheimliche Mönch", however, is spooky, foggy fun and absolutely worthy to close this chapter of the classic series.