User Reviews

Not bad 1960 West German made, English-dubbed Edgar Wallace mystery thriller. Someone is lobbing off heads of assorted people and sending them to the police. Along for the ride is a movie company that defaces the property of the location where they're filming, a dotty property owner, a diva actress, a perverted rich guy, and his brutish servant. The servant, YOU HAVE TO SEE. A native African who was ferally raised, covered in hair, and un-nerving to the nth degree. Dressed in coveralls like he was a simple-minded gardener, he looks like a cross between Bigfoot and I don't know what. Actually he's the highlight since a large part of the movie sort of moves sluggishly along. The last half hour picks up some. The Sinister Cinema DVD-R is, I believe, the only version available at this time. The quality is not terrible but not great. At times it's OK but other times it is somewhat dark and hard to see. Recommended for fans of the genre.

Movie set set story of a villain who is removing the heads of his victims and leaving them in boxes to be found. Good thriller is a bit too leisurely for much of its first hour where a great deal seems to happen but nothing seems to get done. It's a lot of looking into red herrings and such. Its not bad but it isn't until the second half that the film really starts to move. It's a good but unremarkable Edgar Wallace adaptation. I've seen the film twice now, and I liked it better the firsts time when I was distracted doing things while it was on, I suggest you do something similar. It's of note for fans of Klaus Kinski since the normal manic actor plays some one seeming restrained and bookish.

This early krimi is once again adapted from the works of Edgar Wallace although less horrific and atmospheric than some later additions to the genre. Heinz Drache plays a detective called in to investigate when a figure known to the authorities is found dead, his head by the roadside in a cardboard box! Drache's investigations lead him to a film set, where he romances a pretty young extra and tangles with a mysterious aristocrat living in the area. The film is a little bogged down in an overwhelm of dialogue early on but soon gets into its stride in the second half, and it builds to a nice gothic climax. Watch out for the ugly racism rearing its head throughout, however...

"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.

In The Avenger, a killer is slicing the heads off of his or her victims, then sending them right to Scotland Yard, which seems pretty ballsy.

This pre-giallo was directed by Karl Anton, who made the 1957 German remake of Viktor and Viktoria and based on the 1926 Edgar Wallace novel of the same name.

The Executioner, the killer of this story, has been sending packages of those disembodied heads from different locations, along with letters taunting the police. When a Scotland Yard employee is one of the victims - who all seem unrelated - Detective Mike Brixan of Special Branch is called in.

There are just a few clues, like the black sedan seen at the scene of the crime and that two letters are offset in every letter The Executioner writes. Those letters match a script being written for a movie, which means that the murderer just might be one of the cast or crew.

Ingrid van Bergen, who plays the niece of one of the victims, has a giallo-like real life, as she shot her lover, money broker Klaus Knaths, dead and served five years of jail time, being released for good behavior, at which point she went back to acting.

You should also keep an eye out for a very young Klaus Kinski!