Murderers Club of Brooklyn (1967)

Murderers Club of Brooklyn (Der Mörderclub von Brooklyn) is the fifth of the German Jerry Cotton crime movies. It came out in 1967. It was also released in English as The Body in Central Park (a rather appropriate title).

FBI agent Jerry Cotton is the hero of an incredibly successful series of German pulp novels. It began in the mid-1950s and was still going strong sixty years later, with total sales of close to a billion copies.

It’s hardly surprising that someone had the bright idea of bringing the popular G-Man to the big screen and between 1965 and 1969 eight Jerry Cotton movies were made in Germany, all starring George Nader. The early movies were shot in black-and-white but beginning with Murderers Club of Brooklyn they were made in colour. In fact the pre-credits sequence is in black-and-white, presumably to heighten the impact of the switch to colour.

These movies are all set in the United States. They were shot mostly in Germany but with some location shooting in New York. Murderers Club of Brooklyn makes use of Hamburg locations as well, doubling for New York.

Murderers Club of Brooklyn is a kidnapping story. It’s not easy to come up with original twists to such stories but one interesting touch in this film is that the ransom demands are made before the kidnappings. This gang is confident that even if the FBI is alerted beforehand they can snatch their victims from under the noses of the G-Men. The gang’s confidence seems to be fully justified.

The gang has selected three victims, all wealthy middle-aged businessman. Banker Dyers has a pretty daughter named Jean, Cormick has an equally pretty daughter named Edna and Johnson has a son. So all three men are suitable victims.

It becomes obvious very early on that this gang is ruthless. When they initially kidnap the wrong girl they immediately kill her.

The FBI not only have to solve the case, they have to do so without endangering the lives of two people who have fallen into the gang’s hands. Jerry thinks he has the key to the case, if only he can figure out why a certain person had to die.

We have our suspicions of several characters but scriptwriters Manfred R. Köhler and Herbert Reinecker offer enough misdirection to keep us uncertain as to the identity of the villain.

The 1960s was a golden age for German popular cinema. The Edgar Wallace krimis were hugely successful and the Kommissar X eurospy thrillers were very popular. The Jerry Cotton movies had a different flavour. They were aiming at the feel of hardboiled American crime movies of the 50s and they achieved that feel reasonably well. Jerry is a two-fisted action hero and he’s like an unstoppable force of nature.

The Jerry Cotton movies put the emphasis on tough-guy action. Murderers Club of Brooklyn has countless well-staged fight scenes and some fine imaginative action set-pieces.

George Nader was perfectly cast as Jerry. He had been groomed for stardom in Hollywood in the 50s but it was a stardom that he never managed to achieve. Doing the Jerry Cotton movies was a sound career move. As usual Heinz Weiss plays Jerry’s partner Phil Decker although in this movie Phil mostly just manages to get himself into trouble.

The strong supporting cast includes Dagmar Lassander as Jean. A couple of years later she starred in the superb Italian psychedelic erotic giallo The Frightened Woman (AKA The Laughing Woman).

Peter Thomas, who also provided the music for so many of the German Edgar Wallace krimis, contributes a characteristic quirky crazy score which gives the movie an extra 60s vibe.

German popular cinema of the 60s was all about style and this movie has plenty of that commodity, as well as abundant energy. All done on a modest budget.

Murderers Club of Brooklyn is fine entertainment. Highly recommended.

It’s included in the German Jerry Cotton DVD boxed set which includes the English dubbed versions. The 16:9 enhanced transfer is extremely good.

I’ve reviewed several of the other Jerry Cotton movies including Tip Not Included (Die Rechnung – eiskalt serviert, 1966), The Trap Snaps Shut at Midnight (Um Null Uhr schnappt die Falle zu, 1966) and The Violin Case Murders (Schüsse aus dem Geigenkasten, 1965).