User Reviews

A nine-year-old girl catches a glimpse of a violent quarrel between her mother and a strange man. Minutes later the mother gets murdered. The child is now the only one who knows what the murderer looks like...

In "Der Mörder" a lonely child gets pursued through Vienna by a determined killer. It's a pleasantly watchable black-and-white "Krimi" with an interesting plot. The young child actress is quite able and convincing.

Vienna is widely celebrated for its pastry. Judging by the voluptuous blonde who's the culprit's girlfriend it's certainly got a superior quality of crumpet...

While not particularly deep, "Der Mörder" should be made into required viewing for policemen having to deal with the minor descendants of victims. The movie features at least three major mistakes to avoid. From a more general viewpoint I would also venture to suggest that it might not be an entirely productive idea to start a fire in a subterranean tunnel system, but who am I ?

The only other review on IMDB at the time of writing is titled "a child on the run." That is exactly right. Little Claudia spends pretty much the entire film literally running!

I was reluctant to watch The Killer with the Silk Scarf, since I'm no great fan of films featuring children in lead roles. But since I couldn't find anything else that appealed to me, I went ahead and watched it. And I loved it! Colour me shocked.

At it's heart is Claudia, a 9-year-old who witnesses the murder of her mother (played by Helga Liné, one of my favourite giallo/horror actresses of the 60s and 70s) and then has to evade not just the killer but also the police, who she fears will put her into a care home. But she also wants to expose the former to the latter, so she can't just run far, far away.

Claudia is played by Susanne Uhlen, who must have been only 10 at the time of filming, and she does a great job. You really feel for Claudia when she weeps over her mum's death and, even if you know that she'll surely be all right, you're still anxious every time the killer gets near her. Incidentally, Susanne's mother was Gisela Uhlen, a very beautiful and talented German actress who I happened to see in some Edgar Wallace krimis just a week ago. I guess acting talent runs in the blood.

We also follow the police investigation into the murder, which is led by Erwin Moll. Moll (played by Folco Lulli, who would sadly die just four years after the film came out) is probably the most sympathetic detective you'll see in any of these productions. He has as much concern for Claudia's well-being as determination to catch her mother's murderer.

The story is well written and engrossing, being exciting without ever becoming totally unbelievable. The police work, in particular, comes across as very realistic. I do wonder, though, if the method shown for ridding the sewage system of rats was actually a real thing.

Me being me, I can't end without mentioning the killer's girlfriend, Wally. She may have a rather unfortunate name but, physically, she has been blessed to the extreme. Smoking!

A sultry, ultra-voluptuous 8 stars.