Another enjoyable Edgar Wallace krimi. Definitely one of the creepiest, with young Klaus Kinski slithering around in a wild animal emporium and french-kissing tropical snakes. It's all set in a dank, slushy London winter, where an arch-criminal called The Snake is avenging himself using blow-dart-propelled venom. There's also a bibulous old lady who loves lurid murder mysteries, the indispensable Eddie Arent as an eager reporter who plays invisible ping-pong, a cigarette-smoking stuffed deer, and a couple of those signature point-of-view trick shots from director Vohrer. The pace is a bit stodgy and the Squeaker doesn't seem to be involved much at all -- it sure doesn't resemble the older British version. The Sinister Cinema tape for once features the original intro with the author's name violently spelled out in bullet holes.
8 Reviews
Kinski's Show
jrd_7328 January 2017
The Squeaker usually ranks toward the top of Rialto Film's Edgar Wallace adaptations. The film is good but somewhat overrated. A criminal known as The Snake is killing witnesses with a gun that shoots snake venom into the victims. The identity of the killer is fairly easy to determine, but that is not really the problem. The Squeaker feels talkier than usual and less interesting than some of the best entries in the series. It is, however, a reasonably entertaining watch though.
Fans of the series will appreciate the actors changing up their roles. Series regular Siegfried Schurenberg takes a break from Sir John, the Scotland Yard Chief to play a newspaper publisher baffled by his paper always missing the big scoop. This might have something to do with having Eddi A-r-e-n-t (take that auto-correct!) as a reporter.
As good as these actors are, the film belongs to Klaus Kinski. The actor appeared in many of these adaptations, but he often had a superficial role. Kinski's physical demeanor did not lend itself to casting him as the main villain because the audience would easily guess he was the villain just by looking at him. Thus, often, Kinski played a sleazy witness that would be bumped off or the villain's henchman, which technically he plays in The Squeaker as well. The difference is that, in The Squeaker, Kinski is given more chance to shine. Almost all of the film's best scenes belong to Kinski, from the opening heist of the black mamba, to playing with a pet boa constrictor, to disposing of an unwanted body, to silencing a witness (in a clever way), to the ending shootout, Klaus Kinski owns this film. Fans of the actor should definitely take note.
Fans of the series will appreciate the actors changing up their roles. Series regular Siegfried Schurenberg takes a break from Sir John, the Scotland Yard Chief to play a newspaper publisher baffled by his paper always missing the big scoop. This might have something to do with having Eddi A-r-e-n-t (take that auto-correct!) as a reporter.
As good as these actors are, the film belongs to Klaus Kinski. The actor appeared in many of these adaptations, but he often had a superficial role. Kinski's physical demeanor did not lend itself to casting him as the main villain because the audience would easily guess he was the villain just by looking at him. Thus, often, Kinski played a sleazy witness that would be bumped off or the villain's henchman, which technically he plays in The Squeaker as well. The difference is that, in The Squeaker, Kinski is given more chance to shine. Almost all of the film's best scenes belong to Kinski, from the opening heist of the black mamba, to playing with a pet boa constrictor, to disposing of an unwanted body, to silencing a witness (in a clever way), to the ending shootout, Klaus Kinski owns this film. Fans of the actor should definitely take note.
The squeaker
coltras3511 February 2023
Scotland Yard investigates a series of murders where the victims have died by snake venom poisoning.
A rather convoluted plot, which has random scenes that don't quite gel, also much of the film had dialogue and lacks excitement. The plot never really catches fire either; nor is the mystery all that engaging, but it's still mildly distracting, mainly due to some stylistic touches and bizarre POV shots - a character eating a carrot - from the inside of his mouth, Klaus Kinski playing a weird character who likes to kidnap and kiss snakes and a murderer known as The Snake picking off his victims using a dart gun dipped with venom. The second half is better than the first, but it's nothing remarkable.
A rather convoluted plot, which has random scenes that don't quite gel, also much of the film had dialogue and lacks excitement. The plot never really catches fire either; nor is the mystery all that engaging, but it's still mildly distracting, mainly due to some stylistic touches and bizarre POV shots - a character eating a carrot - from the inside of his mouth, Klaus Kinski playing a weird character who likes to kidnap and kiss snakes and a murderer known as The Snake picking off his victims using a dart gun dipped with venom. The second half is better than the first, but it's nothing remarkable.
Decent if somewhat overrated Edgar Wallace "krimi"
lazarillo7 February 2009
Although this early West German Edgar Wallace "krimi" is called "The Squeaker" for some reason, it's actually about another colorful shadowy Wallace supervillian called "the Snake", who uses venom milked from deadly cobras in the city zoo to paralyze and kill his enemies and and anyone else who gets in his way. Klaus Kinski plays his henchman, a creepy zoo worker and the obvious but more minor villain. The Snake himself, however, could be any number of people from the colorful cast including a classical musician and society matron who drinks straight whisky for tea time, her lovely young niece, the niece's fiancée, the owner of the zoo, or perhaps even one of several police officers investigating the bizarre murders.
This movie has a few effectively creepy scenes, some good comic relief, and an effective ending. Still it doesn't compare in my mind to the classics of the krimi genre like "Dead Eyes of London", nor even to slightly less well-regarded entries like "The Mad Executioners", "The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle" and "The College Girl Murders". It was directed by Alfred Vohrer who also directed "Dead Eyes" and two of the three films just mentioned, but I wouldn't rank it among his best work. It does feature an early appearance by the late enfante terrible German actor Klaus Kinski (who would no doubt dismiss it as another "piece of sh*t", but, of course, he said that about ALL his films). Strangely, it doesn't feature Joachim Fuchsberger, who was in even in more of these films than Kinski. It does have the go-to "comic relief" actor Eddie Arentt, but frankly Inge Langen is a lot more funny as the elderly, whisky-swigging society matron.
This movie is somewhat overrated in my opinion, but definitely worth seeing if you like the krimi genre.
This movie has a few effectively creepy scenes, some good comic relief, and an effective ending. Still it doesn't compare in my mind to the classics of the krimi genre like "Dead Eyes of London", nor even to slightly less well-regarded entries like "The Mad Executioners", "The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle" and "The College Girl Murders". It was directed by Alfred Vohrer who also directed "Dead Eyes" and two of the three films just mentioned, but I wouldn't rank it among his best work. It does feature an early appearance by the late enfante terrible German actor Klaus Kinski (who would no doubt dismiss it as another "piece of sh*t", but, of course, he said that about ALL his films). Strangely, it doesn't feature Joachim Fuchsberger, who was in even in more of these films than Kinski. It does have the go-to "comic relief" actor Eddie Arentt, but frankly Inge Langen is a lot more funny as the elderly, whisky-swigging society matron.
This movie is somewhat overrated in my opinion, but definitely worth seeing if you like the krimi genre.
Enjoyable
dbborroughs15 January 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Klaus Kinski plays a creepy role in a film about a mad man using snake venom darts to kill people. This is another in the Edgar Wallace series of films and its one of the better ones with nice dark and dank black and white photography giving everything a air of mystery. To be honest I don't remember much about the film since sitting late last night watching the film the film has faded from my mind as an example of a very good mystery thats more like an old friend your too comfortable with to really notice. I don't mean that as a slap, rather a term of endearment. Recommended for anyone who likes good black and white mysteries.
7 out of 10
7 out of 10
The usual, as forgettable as most of the others
Horst_In_Translation8 February 2017
Warning: Spoilers
"Der Zinker" or "The Squeaker" is a co-production between West Germany and France that resulted in a German-language movie from 1963, which means this one is already more than half a century old. As such, it is of course a black-and-white film, but it has sound. The director is Alfred Vohrer and just like his writer Harald G. Petersson, he was among the best and most successful of his profession here in Germany back in the day. There were two big film series in West Germany and the duo worked on both of them. One would be western movies (Winnetou/OS), the other would be Edgar Wallace adaptations and while I personally do not really see much appeal or quality in either, I can somehow see why people lied these back then. In my opinion, both have not aged well at all. Now here we have a Wallace adaptation of course, at slightly over minutes one of the shorter, but still one of the most known. Nonetheless I found the watch pretty weak. It's the same problem as always with these. The comedy keeps, while occasionally not bad, keeps the drama and thriller and most of all crime aspects from getting you to the edge of your seat as it kinda hurts the atmosphere. And the actual writing of the crime story is also weak as usual. Plot twists and occurrences come out of nowhere, so we can suspect everybody at least once until the final revelation happens. I like Heinz Drache and I think he is very charismatic and has decent range, but he is clearly limited by the writing here. Same goes for Klaus Kinski, who once again plays something similar to a scapegoat, even if his character is probably more sinister in this film than he usually is. Still, he feels almost always the same in these Wallace films. Overall, it just isn't a good crime movie. I must say I had little to no interest in finding out the identity of the killer at the end and this is of course a negative deal-breaker. Watch something else instead.
Sinister video quality is excellent
rwagn19 January 2009
The Sinister Cinema DVD merits a few remarks. Sinister Cinema uses the same template for it's budget packaging (the only items that change are the film title and a small frame from the film). The film is transferred to DVD-R and usually contains a trailer as one extra bonus. Based on this I was not expecting much regarding the quality of the film transfer. Was I surprised! The transfer is struck from a beautiful widescreen black and white print. It keeps the German language titles and credits which is a nice touch. The audio is up to par with the print quality. The English language dub is also done quite well and does not detract from the original intent of the film. I say that Sinister Cinema's release is miles above the Edgar Wallace films that Something Weird Video is currently releasing. I have several and while the quality is good, it pales in comparison to SC's release. Many years ago I was a customer of Sinister Cinema when all they offered were VHS dubs. I remembered getting a copy of Spider Baby from them that also was excellent quality. Glad they haven't changed. Based upon this experience I have ordered 6 more Edgar Wallace films and can't wait to see them. Check out their website for some incredible catalog titles. I plan on backfilling my collection with more of these hard to find items.
Krimi that gets bogged down in plot
Leofwine_draca24 June 2017
Warning: Spoilers
THE SQUEAKER is one of the long-running series of Edgar Wallace movies put out in West Germany by director Alfred Vohrer, who here startles with his POV-inside-a-mouth camera trick shot early on which had me burst into laughter. As a krimi film, it's a pretty typical example of the genre, holding a few atmospherics but generally getting bogged down in a muddled and over-complicated narrative which demands close attention if you've any hope of trying to work out what's going on.
The story sees the usual detectives on the tail of a killer who uses a stolen black mamba to bite his victims. The trail leads to a menagerie and a bizarre family of quirky characters who may or may not be involved. There's also some unwelcome comic relief from a mugging supporting character as well as the reliably odd Klaus Kinski, playing a mute character always lurking around. The acting is fine and the direction effective, so it's just a pity some of the complexity wasn't jettisoned in favour of more thrills and memorable set-piece sequences.
The story sees the usual detectives on the tail of a killer who uses a stolen black mamba to bite his victims. The trail leads to a menagerie and a bizarre family of quirky characters who may or may not be involved. There's also some unwelcome comic relief from a mugging supporting character as well as the reliably odd Klaus Kinski, playing a mute character always lurking around. The acting is fine and the direction effective, so it's just a pity some of the complexity wasn't jettisoned in favour of more thrills and memorable set-piece sequences.
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