User Reviews

This is a black-and-white adaptation of the Edgar Wallace novel, which was made shortly before the Nazis claimed power in Germany. The film runs for only little longer than an hour and is probably not even half as known the version which was made a couple decades later. The film has no less than three writers and three directors. Maybe too many cooks spoil the broth as this movie really leaves a lot to be desired. The cast is not entirely unknown. Lovers of old movies may have heard of Lissy Arna and Paul Hörbiger's family is still present in movies today (Tramitz, Christiane Hörbiger). Another actor from this film played a major character in "Casablanca" a couple years later. People in "Der Zinker" keep talking about getting "verzinkt" all the time, the problem is only that it is not clear at all what they mean. The verb just isn't common in German today anymore and the only context when it is occasionally used is for cheating during playing cards as far as I know. The crime story here is fairly forgettable in my opinion, but I liked how this film used comedy occasionally to lighten up the whole atmosphere, for example with the guy finishing sentences for another. Also the soundtrack (which was done not too long ago) was very playful. And you get this very common camera position when you don't see the killer, but you see another character interact with him, sometimes also a possible suspect. And frequently in these scenarios, the guy you see gets killed, just like here near the end by poison. All in all, I wasn't too impressed with this film. There are many 1930s movie which are better.