User Reviews

Co-writer & director Franz Josef Gottlieb & Janne Furch have adapted the Edgar Wallace thriller "The Yellow Snake" as the basis for their tediously paced but serio-comic outing "Der Fluch der gelben Schlange" with Joachim Fuchsberger, Warner Peters, and Pinkas Braun. This black & white, 97-minute Krimi casts Fuchsberger as its protagonist Clifford Lynn. He is the bodyguard of Joe Bray (Fritz Tillmann) and sets out to thwart his evil half-brother St. Clay (Pinkas Brau of "The Hunchback of Soho") from leading a revolt in China and Hong Kong. It seems that Bray had adopted Lynn as his other son. St. Clay aspires to forge together a revolutionary movement once he has the legendary Yellow Snake relic in his fist. Composer Raimund Rosenberger's quirky, electronic musical score will get under your skin, while "Old Shatterhand" lenser Siegfried Hold contributes some moody cinematography that creates a sinister air of suspense. Fuchsberger is his usual charming self as he tangles with Chinese assassins galore who kill their victims with elaborate Asian themed knives. St. Clay's henchmen steal and then lose the golden reptile encrusted with jewels. Basically, it boils down to a game of hot potato with the Yellow Snake exchanging hands at intervals. Meanwhile, Lynn romances both Joan Bray (Brigitte Grothum) and Mabel Bray (Doris Kirchner), but ultimately he sets his sights on Joan. At the same time, the audacious St. Clay plans to use the Yellow Snake relic to rally his army because a legend says whoever possesses it will triumph over all adversaries. In the middle of this fisticuffs laden fracas, one of Lynn's friends, Samuel Carter (Eddi Arendt of "Lady Dracula"), steals the shows as an eccentric collector of Chinese antiquities with his hilarious comic relief performance. Of course, this Teutonic thriller is dubbed in English and set primarily in Great Britain. Not the best of the Edgar Wallace adaptation, but essential for any Edgar aficionado. One surprise that sticks out is a knife that lands unexpectantly in the back of an unsuspecting victim.

"Der Fluch der gelben Schlange" or "The Curse of the Yellow Snake" is a West German black-and-white film from the 1960s. There were German films from around that era that had color already, but the early films of the Edgar Wallace trilogy do not. This one here will have its 55th anniversary soon. Ateasily over 90 minutes, it is longer than most of the Wallace films from back then. The writer and director is Austrian Franz Josef Gottlieb and he adapted several other Wallace works for the screen in the 1960s. This period was probably also the most successful and most defining of his career, even if he was still pretty young at this point, namely in his 30s. He went on to make many many more films, some of which are still known today as they are from the time when Karl May, soft-core and trash movies were very successful. But back to this film here: We have an animal in the title, a color and something that sounds like danger and with all these components, the title is the epitome of an Edgar Wallace film title, even if this film is far from the most famous Edgar Wallace films as we perceive them today. On the contrary, you rarely find one here on IMDb with a lower rating than 5. And I can understand why. Then again, I am generally not the greatest fan of this era of German crime movies. The known names (mostly Fuchsberger of course) attached to this project cannot elevate the very mediocre (sometimes even weak) material. It is not a racist film, but not a good one either. I give it a thumbs-down.

Joachim Fuchsberger and Brigitte Grothum together for the second time in a row and the third time in five films? When I saw their names in the opening credits I actually stopped the video and went to check online if they were actually married in real life and just wanted to work together as much as possible. But that wasn't it.

So, Grothum's third appearance and the third time that someone's trying to force her into marriage. Something of a recurring motif, eh? This time it's her uncle forcing her to marry someone she's never even heard of, let alone met. Naturally, she's distraught - until it turns out to be Fuchsberger, even with his stubble.

Yep. Apparently, having a stubble was considered something akin to a crime against humanity in 1963 London. Even if you looked like Joachim Fuchsberger, a 2-day growth would make ugly people call you ugly and respectable women would rather commit hara-kiri than countenance marriage to you. Grothum, who knows she's destined to get with him in her every incarnation until the end of time, is visibly relieved when he shaves it off.

Oh, and because she no longer needs to be forced into marriage with Fuchsberger, Grothum ends up with his half-brother trying to force her into marrying him instead. So four times.

Anyway, enough of that, how about the rest of the film? Well, it was something a bit different, but not in a good way. Rather than trying new ways of doing old things, the makers have simply stripped out most of those old things. So we have no hidden mastermind, no mysteries to be solved, no secrets to be discovered. Those elements can be present even without a policeman hero. The plot is therefore minimal and can be expressed as "Fuchsberger must stop his evil brother," which plays out as "beautiful girl and ugly ornament go back and forth between Fuchsberger and brother." Pretty unexciting.

P. S. Can anyone explain to me why Fuchsberger brings with him to London the very thing he knows his brother needs in order to start a war?

Story of a cursed jeweled snake that when has the potential to make the possessor invincible. The snake is hidden in a burial crypt in a pagoda in Hong Kong. When thieves try to steal it, killing someone in the process, the owner knows that a great evil is in the land. Sending his son to London to marry, despite his protest of wanting to stay and find the men behind the attack, the battle for the snake heats up. In London the son meets his half brother, a rich man who is half Chinese, who has designs on the snake. The battle between the brothers becomes a struggle for control of the world. This is a yellow peril story that is more akin to a Fu Manchu story then the mysteries that are the norm in the Edgar Wallace series. Actually it isn't surprising since Wallace was the man who came up with the story for King Kong, so a tale of high adventure is right up his alley. This is a very good little film, not just because it breaks with the conventions of the rest of series, nor just because it's a ripping yarn, but the film is unique in that while all of the characters are likable, most of them are not wholly nice. Our hero is roguish and almost rakish, his father is willful and clearly possessing a past of darkness, his brother is charming as well as villainous, the heroine is at times almost mousy, her sister a bit too self centered, and the girls' father is a shady business man who will do anything to keep himself afloat including offering up the girls. No one is spotless, except perhaps for the hero's antique loving friend. It's an interesting group of people and it makes the film have a great sense that anything can happen at any time. More than worth a bowl of popcorn and a soda.