User Reviews

The Mad Executioners actually has two seemingly unrelated plot lines. The first involves a powerful, but secret society operating outside official channels that has set up its own court of sorts. They hold trials, render verdicts, and carry out sentencing. Their cases seem to focus on criminals who have slipped through the loopholes of the regular system. But even though these criminals are quite guilty, Scotland Yard tends to frown on hanging people. The second plot line involves a serial killer who dumps headless corpses around London. A desperate detective decides to use his girlfriend as bait. But can he get to her before she becomes the next victim?

Based on my limited experiences with these German-made thrillers, I would say The Mad Executioners is about average. When the film focuses on the secret trials and hangings, it's very good and quite interesting. The opening trial scene, for example, is very creepy with the unknown hooded judges and the foggy Thames hanging sight. But when the movie focuses on the serial killer, it doesn't work. The secret lab, for example, seems silly when compared with the serious tone of the rest of the movie. Not that cutting off someone's head isn't serious, but the serial killer's methods are overly elaborate. Until they converge in the end, these two disparate plot lines feel as if they're from different movies.

Another big plus for me is the soundtrack. The Mad Executioners has that jazzy, smokey score that I've come to expect and enjoy in these krimis. The music sets just the right tone.

While I've yet to find a German Edgar Wallace movie that knocks me off my feet, I think I'll keep looking. So far, I've found these movies enjoyable enough in their own unique way.

A band of hooded men have formed a court and they are exacting justice upon the criminals who have escaped the reach of the law. The sentence they exact is death by hanging. Using the hangman's rope from the Scotland Yard Museum they leave their victims hanging from various locations with a file detailing the case against them pinned to the body. Scotland Yard is stumped and have assigned their best man to break the case. Meanwhile another fiend is on the loose, one who is neatly severing the heads of young women. The bodies are found the heads are not.

Made in Germany as part of the Edgar/Bryan Wallace series that ran through out the 1960's this is an atmospheric popcorn movie. This neat little thriller is based on Bryan Edgar Wallace's book The White Carpet. I'm not sure how much of the story is there or how much has been changed but whats on the screen is a really diversion. Say what you will about a plot that has two halves that really don't belong together, the movie manages to keep them both interesting. The film is heavy on mood and atmosphere with the dark night time photography making what ever German city this was filmed in seem like London in the fog. The look of the court of the "Executioner of London" is suitably creepy especially with all of the men decked out in black hooded robes (shots of the court in the trailer are what drew me to the film). The solution is probably not something you're going to work out completely, then again you really won't care since the film moves along at such a good clip it just carries you along.

If there is any flaw in the film its that the two halves of the story never really seem to belong together. Its not giving anything away to say that the plot threads to cross but its a bit too neat and makes it feel almost contrived.

Highly recommended for those dark and stormy nights or afternoons when you want to slip away into the foggy streets of London.

The Mad Executioners is a solid but flawed film.

The plot's terrific and the ending's pretty neat, problem is that you're not invested in the characters enough. Which is also part of why the ending works. That and it makes his decision to let his girlfriend be bait a bit more understandable, but still stupid. Ann getting in the car with them following on foot, really stupid. John walking right up to the doctor with his gun pointed at him and the doctor with a knife, incredibly stupid. She tries to buy time, but just goes along with everything. Obviously don't drink the tea, say you don't drink tea and don't go down into the lab, come on to him or something. The hooded executioner scenes don't work that well because they're grabbing unknowns and the hangings aren't shown. It gets better as it goes though.

How about that, then? I was prepared to write off The Executioner of London as plodding and stupid, but the twists at the end made me re-evaluate it, and that's the mark of good plot twists.

The revelation that the idiot journalist, who I thought was just supposed to be a poor copy of Eddi Arent's characters in the Wallace Sr. Films, was actually an undercover agent justified that he was always so well-informed and in the thick of things.

And the revelation that our "hero" policeman was the Executioner explained his willingness to, first of all, bring a civilian along to look at a decapitated body, and then, second, allow her to undertake a ridiculously dangerous mission acting as bait to lure in the killer. I'd like to think he was purposefully, but indiscernibly, pushing his lovestruck female friend into offering herself for this foolhardiness.

I still don't understand why the doctor was also involved in everything and acting, to all intents and purposes, like a fully-fledged policeman, but I'm a big admirer of the actor, Harry Riebauer, so I can let that slide.

More puzzling is how the the other doctor, the crazy old medical revolutionary, was able to apparently so easily pick up all these young women and get them to come back to his place. Then he wasted his golden opportunity each time by killing them. Oh well, I guess first dates can be difficult.

Extremely pleased that Maria Perschy's ravishing but badly lacking-in-taste Ann was saved, despite her best efforts, from ending up coupling with what must be the world's most boring lead.

So, score raised from a mundane 5 stars to a very respectable 7 by a good, surprising ending. I suppose they do say that all's well that ends well.

"Der Henker von London" or "The Mad Executioners" is a west German movie from 1963 and as this one is already over 50 years old, it is still a black-and-white film. The director is Edwin Zbonek, who is not too well-known anymore today, but some people may still have heard of Robert A. Stemmle who adapted the novel by Bryan Edgar Wallace. And the latter is the son of Edgar Wallace, who followed in his father's footsteps and is responsible for this mix of crime, drama and horror. The lead actor is Hansjörg Felmy and he is also still somewhat known today and movie buffs from Germany may be familiar with his name and also with Dieter Borsche and Werner Preiss. Sadly, this decent cast did not result in a quality movie in my opinion. The premise isn't bad about a group of vigilantes who killed (alleged) criminals, but the longer this 90-minute film runs, the more is loses focus I felt. At the end, I did not really care for anybody anymore, let alone the action and plot. This one does not stand out compared to other Wallace films (and there are quite a few), but then again i have never been a fan of these anyway. I f you like the Rialto films more than I do, then maybe you will even like this one. I give it a thumbs-down though. Not recommended.