"Der Rächer" or "The Avenger" is a West German film from 1960 and I am not sure what it is with the statement of Dutch being the first language here on IMDb. The version I watched was in German and I am fairly certain that this is also the original language. The director is Czech-born filmmaker Karl Anton and here we have one of his most known works. This is mostly because it is an entry from the successful Edgar Wallace film series and this movie from over 55 years ago is actually one of the longest films from said series as it runs for over 95 minutes. It is in black-and-white like all the early entries. The cast includes some known names like Drache, van Bergen and Kinski who played in several Wallace films, especially Kinski and Drache were really prolific. As for Drache, I see him as fairly charismatic, but I am not sure if he could convince me with his range and if I see him on par with Fuchsberger for example or Tappert. Anyway, the action here is centered around a killer who keeps cutting off people's heads and who is not necessarily an enemy of the police men here as he also killed one of theirs this way, but it was one who was corrupt and a spy. But murder is murder and so he has to be caught and maybe you can already guess too the way he gets caught in the end or what happens to him. There is always some subtle humor to these films and this one here is no exceptions. For example on one occasion, Drache's character makes a joke about someone else losing his head and with the summary I gave you earlier you understand the reference. But still I must say it is not as funny anymore today as it may have been back then and I also feel the humor here really relies on the dramatic/crime plot working and it almost never is interesting to that regard, never edge-of-seat material. But this can be said about almost the entire Edgar Wallace film series and I have seen almost all of them by now. If you like the other films, you may enjoy this one too. I personally don'd see it as quality filmmaking though. Not recommended.
Review of The Avenger
