The Squeaker (Der Zinker, 1963)

The Squeaker (the original German title is Der Zinker) is a 1963 entry in the West German Edgar Wallace krimi cycle made by Rialto studios. This one was directed by Alfred Vohrer and that’s usually a good sign. Vohrer really understood the genre. His krimis have that little extra something.

This one was based on Wallace’s 1927 novel The Squeaker (which had already been filmed three times back in the 1930s).

The story concerns a super-criminal and informer known as the Snake. His latest victim has been bitten by an actual deadly snake, a black mamba. At least that’s how it looks.

We’ve already seen a black mamba removed from its cage in the headquarters of Mulford’s, a firm that trades in exotic wild animals for zoos and circuses. Since the man who removed the black mamba was played by Klaus Kinski we suspect he might be the murderer, or might belong to the murderer’s gang, but in a krimi you don’t want to jump to conclusions.

Inspector Bill Elford of Scotland Yard (Heinz Drache) is on the case.

The press is on the case as well. Star girl reporter Jos always seem to get the scoops but Joshua Harras (Eddi Arent) who works for a rival newspaper is determined to change that.

There are those in the criminal underworld who seek to bring the Snake’s career to an end. They plan an elaborate trap involving a fake robbery.

The Snake always seems to be one step ahead of everybody.

Other murders follow. The murder methods are ingenious and invariably involve snakes. In the case of one of the murders three different murder methods appear to have been used.

The girl reporter mentioned earlier is actually Beryl Stedman (Barbara Rütting), the niece of old Mrs Mulford who owns the animal trading business. Beryl writes sensational thrillers in her spare time (thrillers packed with murders).

There’s a romantic triangle involving Beryl, Mrs Mulford’s business partner Frankie Sutton (Günter Pfitzmann) and Sutton’s secretary Millie.

There are the expected red herrings. The Snake could be almost anybody. The plot is convoluted, but in a good way, with lots of Edgar Wallace outrageousness.

The warehouse complex housing the animals is the setting for much of the action and a great setting it is. The animals do of course play a part. Snakes are not the only animals used as murder weapons. There are even secret passageways, an essential Wallace ingredient. And a few gadgets.

Heinz Drache makes a fun likeable cop hero. Klaus Kinski is as crazed as ever. Eddi Arent provides comic relief. To appreciate Eddi Arent you have to see these movies in German with English subtitles - in the English dubbed versions he’s irritating, in the German version he’s genuinely amusing and you realise why he was considered such an asset by Rialto. The supporting players are all extremely good. These movies had the cream of German acting talent at their disposal.

There’s an impressive visual set-piece which provides an exciting finale.

This was the first Rialto krimi shot in Ultrascope, a German version of Cinemascope. The combination of black-and-white cinematography and the ’Scope ratio always works well.

Style matters in a krimi and this film has the characteristic krimi style which goes so well with Wallace’s stories. Realism doesn’t matter very much - these movies exist in their own universe which isn’t Germany and it isn’t England and it doesn’t really coincide with anything in the real world but it’s a fun and intoxicating place to visit.

The Squeaker is a fine example of an early period krimi and it’s highly recommended.

The Tobis DVD presentation offers both English and German language options, with English subtitles for the German version. The transfer is up to their usual very high standards.

The Red Circle (Der rote Kreis, 1960)

The Red Circle (Der rote Kreis, 1960) was the second of the West German Edgar Wallace krimis made by Rialto.

Not as outrageous as the later krimis but it's stylish, well-crafted, well-paced and wildly and deliriously entertaining.

My full review can be found at Cult Movie Reviews.

The Trap Snaps Shut at Midnight (1966)

The Trap Snaps Shut at Midnight (Um Null Uhr schnappt die Falle zu) was the third of the West German Jerry Cotton crime thrillers. The Jerry Cotton movies were not wildly dissimilar in style to the hugely popular Rialto Edgar Wallace krimis but were more action-oriented and had a harder edge. The Jerry Cotton movies were set in the United States and were obviously influenced to some extent by American crime thrillers.

The Trap Snaps Shut at Midnight gives the viewer a sense of excitement right from the start. The opening titles are stylish and accompanied by wild crazy music, then it cuts to a huge explosion and then to a truck with warnings plastered all over it that it contains explosives. It doesn’t just contain explosives, it contains enough nitro-glycerine to blow up half a city.

The truck is ordered to turn back, to get away as fast as possible from a raging fire in a chemical plant. Then the truck gets hijacked. Why would anyone want to steal nitro-glycerine? We will soon find out.

It’s all part of a plan for a very clever heist, a spectacular jewel robbery. That’s a problem for the New York Police Department but they’re more worried about that huge shipment of nitro-glycerine which has now disappeared. The F.B.I. is called in.

Ace G-Man Jerry Cotton (George Nader) is assigned to the case. To add to the Bureau’s headaches there’s race against time aspect. The nitro is frozen. When it thaws it will become highly unstable and it’s almost certain to explode. It could take half of Manhattan with it. And if the news gets out there will be a panic which could be more dangerous than nitro-glycerine.

The heist had been planned by a small-time gang with ambitions but now a big-time gangster, the very nasty very crazy Larry Link (Horst Frank) has involved himself.

There’s also a dangerous blonde, naturally. She’s Maureen (Dominique Wilms), she was part of the gang that pulled off the heist but now she has plans of her own.

It’s not just a race against time, it’s a race between the F.B.I. and Larry Link to get hold of of that nitro-glycerine. It’s not clear what he would do with it if he did gain possession of it but it’s bound to be bad news.

It’s a fun ride with plenty of action along the way.

There’s definitely an attempt to capture a gritty feel but combined with an outrageous almost comic-book style plot and 1960s pacing and freneticism.

The nitro counter on the wall in F.B.I. headquarters slowly counting down the hours until the nitro blows is a nice touch.

Another nice touch is gang boss Larry Link’s apartment, with a wading pool with an office chair sitting in the middle of the pool. Larry sits in the pool and plays with his toy boats. It’s the kind of thing you could only get in a 1960s movie.

George Nader makes a fine square-jawed hero. Dominique Wilms plays Maureen as a bit of a femme fatale and she does a fine job. It’s Horst Frank however who steals the movie as Larry Link - charming, sadistic and totally deranged.

Peter Thomas was responsible for the music. It’s over-the-top insane and sometimes completely appropriate but I liked it - it gives the movie even more of a 60s vibe.

There’s a lot of rear projection and some use of stock footage but that was par for the course in 1966 and unavoidable in a modestly budgeted movie. And it’s done quite well.

The action scenes are effective.

The recent German DVD boxed set contains all eight Jerry Cotton films and the English dubbed versions are included for all of them. The 16:9 enhanced transfer for The Trap Snaps Shut at Midnight is acceptable but not great. The movie was shot widescreen in black-and-white although the last few movies in the series were filmed in colour.

The Trap Snaps Shut at Midnight is a treat for fans of 1960s German pop cinema. And 1960s German pop cinema really is tremendous stylish occasionally crazy fun. Highly recommended.

The Violin Case Murders (1965)

The Violin Case Murders (AKA Tread Softly, original German title Schüsse aus dem Geigenkasten) was the first of the eight Jerry Cotton crime thrillers made by Allianz Filmproduktion in West Germany and distributed by Constantin Film. The Jerry Cotton movies were similar in some ways to the hugely popular Rialto Edgar Wallace krimis but with more emphasis on action and with a harder edge. Being ostensibly set in the United States rather than England also gives them a distinctively different flavour.

American actor George Nader played ace FBI agent Jerry Cotton with German actor Heinz Weiss in the sidekick rôle as Phil Decker.

This movie hits the ground running. There’s a brutal murder using a machine-gun hidden in a violin case followed by two more equally brutal murders. The murders take place during the course of two robberies. One robbery takes place in Pasadena in California and one in Chicago but when the FBI gets a phone tip-off indicating that the crimes are linked it becomes a federal case.

The tip-off came from Mary Springfield. She’s found out that her sister Kitty is mixed up with gangsters, and those gangsters are pulling off major robberies with violence.

Jerry Cotton gets just enough information out of Mary to provide a lead. It involves a bowling alley near Grand Central Station and a bomb. It’s a race against time and Jerry has to infiltrate the gang by posing as an alcoholic hoodlum. Why an alcoholic? Well I guess there’s a sort of reason for it and it lets George Nader have some fun.

Jerry discovers the gang’s plan but stopping them won’t be easy and there’s a complication which means Jerry has to go lone wolf. He can’t let his boss at the FBI know what he’s up to. Jerry has reasons for his action but it could put his career in jeopardy if it goes wrong. That’s assuming he survives which is by no means certain. He’s taking big risks.

This is a heist movie. The heist is not overly complicated but the focus is mainly on how it plays out in practice and that’s where this movie shines. Things go wrong for the gang but they go badly wrong for Jerry Cotton as well. It seems like the gangsters are going to slip through his fingers.

This is a pretty violent movie for 1965. There’s no blood or gore but there are some shockingly cold-blooded killings.

The pacing is pleasingly brisk. Jerry Cotton has little time to spare for romance. He’s dedicated to the job and he’s hardboiled all the way through.

George Nader makes a very satisfactory square-jawed action hero. Nader had had moderate success in Hollywood in the 50s but by the 60s he joined the small army of American actors and actresses who found that Europe offered much better opportunities.

Jerry Cotton is a pulp fiction fan’s idea of what an FBI agent would be like. This is not a movie that concerns itself overmuch with realism.

Making a modestly budgeted feature in Germany with an American setting means that considerable use has to be made of rear projection and stock footage but these elements are integrated into the movie with more finesse than is usually the case. Once the story starts to grab you you find yourself not really noticing.

Mention must be made of Peter Thomas’s music. It’s wildly inappropriate but it works and it adds to the crazy 60s euro vibe.

All eight Jerry Cotton films are included in the recent German DVD boxed set, with the English dubbed versions included. The 16:9 enhanced transfer for The Violin Case Murders looks terrific (the movie was shot widescreen in black-and-white although the later movies in the series were in colour).

The Violin Case Murders aims to provide pure high-octane entertainment and it delivers the good. Highly recommended.

Clue of the New Pin (1961)

In 1960 Britain’s Merton Park Studios launched a series of cheap crime B-movies based on the works of Edgar Wallace. Oddly enough, at almost exactly the same time the German Rialto studio launched its own very successful and prolific series of Edgar Wallace crime thrillers, known in Germany as krimis. It says much for the continued popularity of Wallace’s books that thirty years after his death his name was still considered to be a major selling point, and that both the British and German film series proved to be highly successful.

It actually made a good deal of sense. Wallace’s books had a certain sensationalism about them that made them perfect material for low-budget movies. The outrageousness of his plots was sufficient to compensate for the limited budgets.

The forty-six British Merton Park Wallace thrillers were shown on television in the US as  The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre but the films had originally been made for theatrical release.

Clue of the New Pin was a 1961 entry in the series, based on a 1923 Wallace novel. 

John Tredmore (David Horne) is a rather misanthropic figure who made his fortune in the East before returning to Britain. How he made his fortune is a complete mystery. He certainly isn’t prepared to reveal the secret and he seems to have successfully covered up all traces of his earlier life. His nephew Rex Lander (Paul Daneman) acts as his secretary. Tredmore treats his nephew with ill-disguised contempt but Lander puts up with it because he believes himself to be Tredmore’s only living relative and therefore expects to inherit the old man’s fortune.

Tredmore, who has a strong distrust of banks, keeps much of his fortune in an elaborate strongroom in his house. There is only one entrance to the strongroom and there is only one key, which the old millionaire keeps on his person at all times.

Tab Holland (James Villiers) is a popular television journalist who has, somewhat to his own surprise, managed to convince Tredmore to give him an interview. The irascible old millionaire has however assured him that he will not get any of his secrets out of him.

Both Rex and Tab are rivals for the affection of movie starlet Jane Ardfern (Catherine Woodville) and it appears that old John Tredmore has taken a rather keen interest in the young actress as well.

Also involved is a mysterious old fellow named Ramsey Brown (Clive Morton). He is an old friend of Tredmore’s, or perhaps an old enemy would be more accurate. Either way he knows Tredmore’s secrets.

All of this leads up to murder, but it is a very puzzling murder indeed. More than puzzling; it is a quite impossible murder. The body is found in John Tredmore’s strongroom. The door to the strongroom can only be locked from the outside with the key, which is as mentioned earlier the only key. The door is in fact found locked from the outside, but the key is found inside, lying on top of a table. Various theories are proposed as to how the murderer might have locked the door from outside and slid the key back under the door, but no-one can explain how the key could have ended up on the table.

Detective Superintendent Carver’s problem is not a lack of suspects, or even a lack of motives. His problem is that he cannot charge anyone with the murder unless he can explain how the murder was committed. Even the most skilled prosecuting counsel is unlikely to secure a conviction for what is on the face of it an impossible crime.

This movie is therefore more of a howdunit than a whodunit. It is not difficult to guess the identity of the murderer, and the movie does not really try to keep the criminal’s identity a secret. The real mystery is the murder method.

What makes this movie a cut above the usual run of low-budget crime films is the uniformly high quality of the acting. James Villiers was an actor with a remarkable talent for portraying rather well-born young men who were either extremely charming or extremely sinister, or more often both. He is in fine form here as the very smooth television journalist. Paul Daneman is almost as good as the old man’s downtrodden nephew. 

Catherine Woodville as the starlet, Bernard Archard as Superintendent Carver, Clive Morton as the mysterious Ramsey Brown and David Horne as the formidable old millionaire all provide excellent support.

Director Allan Davis had a rather short and not very distinguished career. He does a competent job and keeps things moving at a brisk pace which is always the most important task for a director of a low-budget movie. Philip Mackie wrote the screenplay. He would go on to have a successful career as a writer for television.

Clue of the New Pin is undemanding but enjoyable fun. Recommended.