The Thesis: Every Eurocrime-Franchise that Jess Franco touched, had to be buried afterwards. Basically his movies are the sleazy epitaphs of once-well-regarded serials and characters: the last chance to squeeze some money out of an already dead topic.
Jump to each chapter HERE
Jess Franco's quick style of filming gave Arthur Brauner a lead in producing the first Edgar Wallace Movie after "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" had done surprisingly well inside the "Bryan Edgar Wallace"-bracket. Quickly "Akasava" was put out, but here is where the Edgar-Wallace franchise for Brauner ended. The only way to capitalise was, of course, using the "Bryan Edgar Wallace" name that belonged to Brauner's CCC-Filmkunst-production company.
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Proudly presenting the new "Giallo"
by Bryan Edgar Wallace, the
ultraviolent and highly successful
"Strangler of Blackmoor Castle" / Strangler
with 9 fingers/ Würger von Schloss
Blackmoor (No. 2) |
The Franchise: Boy oh Boy. What in the world have I gotten myself into? This is the unwanted bastard-child of the EW-series, a frankensteinian abberation of a movie series. Let's try to make this short:
After Arthur Brauner (CCC-Filmproduction) had tried to compete with the original Rialto EW-Series with "The Curse of the Yellow Snake" in 1961 (and failed), he found out that there was a cheaper way to give the people that dearly needed EW-kick. He quickly purchased the rights to the futuristic spy thrillers (and the name) of his son, Bryan Edgar Wallace and put out a very low-budgeted first one in 1961 ("Mystery of the black Suitcases...") and made profit.
Good.
Now he went all in and starting with "The Strangler from Blackwood Castle" the following 3 movies easily were X-rated, with heavy violence and topless nudity.
They are now available as uncut and restored 4K scans and I was really surprised on how close to a giallo "The Phantom of Soho" and esp. "The Monster of London City" come. Much of the nudity and violence had been cut for the foreign releases and were not to our disposal since they ran theatrically in Germany until 2024.
He even put out a BEW/MABUSE crossover, surely written by Bryan Edgar Wallace.
After the Krimi-craze had faded out in 1965, Brauner stopped producing these krimis. Basically that was the end of the short-lived BEW-franchise (That would be movie no. 6 "The Seventh Victim" see below).
So in 1969, when "Double Face" had bombed as EW-Krimi for Rialto, actually everything went quiet on the Krimi-front.
In June (!!!) 1970 Brauner released a movie he had co-produced by a young italian director called Dario Argento (No.7). Brauner decided to use the BEW-franchise again, although the movie was based on a story by Frederic Brown. "Das Rätsel der schwarzen Handschuhe / The mystery of the black gloves / The Bird with the crystal plumage'" did better than Rialto's "Double Face" and given that this was a summer-movie in a year with desasterously low attendance figures, it was a very good business choice.
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This is exactly what you think it is: A bird with the Crystal Plumage, in 1963s
Phantom of Soho! |
Horst Wendland, head of Rialto was pissed that his biggest competitor, sleazemanoid Arthur Brauner had actually the last say in EW and decided to do it once again, going for "Die Tote aus der Themse / The dead woman from Themse River/ Angels of Tower", which would be a "true=german" last EW-picture. Brauner, trying to beat Rialto once more, bought Jess Franco from Harry Towers, complete with the EW-rights to the Sanders-Franchise and VERY quickly produced "The Devil came from Akasawa", which could be released one month before(!!) the Rialto-Film. Sadly, though, distributor Constantin had decided that it was not possible to have two EW-movies distributed at the same time and Brauner had to go to a minor distributer instead (that's what Brauner said....).
(Are you still with me?) - BTW, I have a post on which movies were in which franchise
HERE
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1. Death packs a suitcase
2. The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle....
3. The Mad Executioners
4. Phantom of Soho
5. Monster of London
6. The Seventh Victim
7. Bird with the Crystal Plumage
8. Cat o'nine Tails
The figures for 9. (Four Flies), 10. (Deadly Avenger) and 11. (The Ertuscan)cannot be obtained as of now (1972 is strangely missing in the statistics.....) |
Arthur Brauner, eager to duplicate the success of "The Bird with the crystal Plumage" had "ordered" Dario Argento to replicate this movie. Which he did not, "Cat o'nine Tails" is a much more sombre affair and not the sensationalist flick Brauner had hoped for. He sold his rights to left-overs-reuser "Terra Filmkunst" which at least could distribute this movie inside the BEW-Franchise with Constantin-distribution. It was a flop (No.8 see chart), as Brauner had predicted. The third movie was unceremoniously buried and not released as part of the BEW franchise (and not distributed by Constantin) - that one was "Four Flies on Grey Velvet". It was, however announced as BEW-movie in some press releases.
But back to 1970:
Brauner still tried to cash in quick and dirty on the EW-Franchise and while he was at it, why not let Jess Franco shoot another one, using the old script that was already used for the very first BEW movie (that no-one remembered). After the mess that "Akasava" had been (storywise) he himself now reworked the script together with Franco and told him exactly how to shoot the movie.
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| Looks much better in b/w |
Furthermore, Rialto, the OG EW did very well, selling their movies to national TV where they kept the nation glued to the small screen (The german word for this is "Straßenfeger" - "Street Sweeper" as nobody was outside when these movies were shown on TV).
And so we get a second-hand Bryan Edgar Wallace movie, done on the very cheap, by Jess Franco, who had to shoot basically for TV. The original aspect ratio is 1:1.33. Although shot in color, this movie looks splendid in black and white - at a time when most tv-sets still were b/w (in Europe).
Case opened: Der Todesrächer von Soho
Ok, here it starts already. How shall I translate this title? It could mean:
a) The Avenger of a death from Soho b) The Avenger of multiple deaths from Soho
c) a-b) in/of Soho d) The Avenger of DEATH (like "The Avenger of the Grim Reaper") in/from Soho
e) The Deadly Avenger from/in Soho f) Dying Soho's Avenger
aaahhh. I go with "Deadly Avenger of Soho" but basically "Todesrächer" does not exist as a word in German, it is simply made up to sound good. And it is in no relation to "The Avengers"-series which was not as popular in Europe as it was in Britain.
That was called "With Umbrella, Charme and Boulder Hat" in Germany, therefore making it very unlikely that the "Rächer=Avenger" had anything to with it. The two words "Tod" and "Rächer" had been very common in german spaghetti-western titles, so I assume this is the train of thought to go with.
The plot: A mysterious killer kills wealthy men by masterfully throwing knifes at them. Before that, though, he makes sure that they already have a packed suitcase standing there (for their travel, you see?). Ultra-hip Inspector and successful crime-writer try to track him down. And if you've seen the first Colombo-episode (that one by Spielberg), you know right from the start who the killer is and for who he does the killings.
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Black Shadows, Black Suitcases, the broken world
of Soho's Deadly Avenger |
This is as simple as a script for any giallo and it definitively passes as hibero-giallo, if I'd show it to someone unfamiliar with the EW-series. But only men are killed (what a disappointment), the music is a copy of a rip-off of "Peter Gunn" (double disappointment) and the women keep their clothes on (triple disappointment for a 70ies JF-Giallo!!!!).
This is a tv-movie or a direct-to-video fare. Everything here cries out "cheap!!!"
Everything? Let's check the milestones:
1. Script - an old one, already filmed?- check
2. Music - modern, already used in two movies the previous year? (including the deliriously good and Vohrer-directed post Edgar Wallace film "Perrak") - check
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Man, even the poster looks
suspiciously cheap... |
3. Cheapest filmstock - no lenses. 1:1.33? - check
4. Cheap location - Spain, of course.... or was it Portugal?
There has been some kind of controversy about this subject, as Franco had told Brauner later that the movie was shot in revolutionary Portugal and that it was basically impossible to produce invoices/receipts. Brauner later demanded the money un-accounted for back fearing that Franco had diverted it to his own Liechtenstein-based company (nothing of course could be furthest from the truth, we know). The CCC-archives also state Spain as location.
The license-plates on the featured cars could be portuguese, but also british ones, both of them having the white/silver on black in 1970. But checking "uncontrolled" cars in random street scenes, these are obviously the unmistaken square black on white license plates of spanish cars. Evidence admitted. Spain it was.
5. Wallace-typical-SFX like fog ? - Naah, let's hange some gauze over the lense, that will do for TV - check
6. Wallace Stars - yes but those who basically don't know where the next job comes from - check
7. Few locations - Police Room, Living Room, Stage in a bar (which suspiciously looks like the other side of the Living Room), Castle-Room. - check
8. Be sure to avoid a cert 18/x rating, otherwise it cannot be sold to tv - the quick nude shots account to max 30 seconds and can very easily edited out of the movie ..
The tone of this movie is dark, noir. It is made with care and even Franco's cameraman obviously - for a change- was sober. It looks like a film made in therapy. And considering that this is the movie Franco directed after his muse had died (previous chapter), one can understand. This is not a care-free affair like "Akasava", even if the german dubbing tried to put some fun into the dialogues. I already wrote about his use of stark contrasts and shadows. This is visually a good neo-noir movie.
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| Official CCC-Films archive-entry for "Avenger" complete with wrong ratio... |
Apart from that, this is a very controlled affair, moving along at a slow but even pace and you can see that Franco thought about every shot in advance. All the actors give a solid performance, everybody seemed to have a good time. This is better than most F.J. Gottlieb Krimis and a very solid entrance into the series. No, it's nothing scandalous, nothing flashy, but done in a certain style and a good movie for a rainy sunday afternoon. No-one would complain.
To be honest, this movie reminded me very much of Dario Argento's "Phantom of the Opera", where the maestro tried to recapture the feeling of a silent film through static shots. I had the same feeling with this one here too.
But this movie looks like a reserve-feature, something to hold back, not to release if not necessary. This movie was not meant to be seen in the cinemas. On small b/w tv-sets, this movie works best.
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The Etruscan features some actors
that never were in the movie but
had to do their tax-declaration quickly
before the end of 1972.... |
It is no secret that these CCC-JF movies were financed as tax-shelters with very "creative" ways of accounting ..(Portugal....)
In 1972 all of these film-trusts came under scrutiny by the German IRS due to a big money-laundring scandal (more on that in the next chapter). So all the tax-shelters with dubious financing and accounting quickly had to be dissolved (= those movies had to put into cinemas at all cost before the end of the year).
Let's see :
Todesrächer von Soho (shot in 1970, released Nov. 9th 1972)
Vengeance of Dr. M (shot in 1970, released Dec 26th ,1972 in ONE cinema only!!)
The Etruscan kills again (BEW-Movie no. 11 "The Mystery of the Yellow (!!) Grave") on SUNDAY(!!!) Dec 31st. 1972 (by Brauner owned mini-distributor "Cinerama") ....
These movies were not directly produced by Brauner's CCC-Filmkunst, but rather by a very thinly disguised post-box company called "Tele-Cine", which was started with the first Brauner-JF co-production, the eurospy-parody "Lucky M." in 1966 and filed for bankruptcy right after JF and Brauner had departed ways on Dec. 31st, 1972........ so many coincidents.....
... figures? There are strangely (!!) none for these movies in Germany. I have not been able to find out exactly how many people saw them. But attendance must have been pretty disappointing. According to Arthur Brauner he already had worked on two further movies based on novels by Bryan Edgar Wallace, but Constantin distributor rejected all further proposals.
"Deadly Avenger" was not sold to TV, but kept in a closet for 10 years until it was very quickly realased on VHS after the statue of limitations had passed in 1983.....
Brauner once stated that he basically did not care which movie had the "BEW"-logo tagged on it as long as it made more money with it. And from the get go, this whole enterprise felt like cheating (not unlike the later mockbusters that used similar titles to lure audiences). So ending the BEW-franchise is not a huge loss although it put out two remarkable movies: the daring"The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle" and, of course, "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage".
Verdict: How can you kill something in 1972 when it has already been dead in 1965? It was not Jess Franco that killed the "Bryan Edgar Wallace"-franchise. It was Dario Argento with his boring "Cat o'nine Tails". Sorry to say that but I'd rather watch "The Deadly Avenger" multiple times (and "Dacula 3D" if it must be) before I waste my precious time with Karl Malden playing a blind puzzler.
Acquittal, he did not kill the franchise, but he could not ignite it again either.
Did he ever do it again? Nope, not a single Bryan in sight in Jess Franco's later work. Why should he? In 1979 he could already get the father's name for spanish productions and even if he wanted to do a movie on the works of Bryan Edgar Wallace... those rights were with CCC-Filmkunst and the books had been published in the 1950ies and were still under copyright control.
Franco stated that this was the best of his three Krimis he did for CCC and I can easily see why. I like the film and I can see him here trying to emulate Argento and Vohrer at once. Good work. I honestly cannot see anybody making a better movie for the time and the money Franco had.
Arthur Brauner was not finished with Jess Franco yet. There was still a third franchise to wrangle. The prestigious "Dr. Mabuse" series. So next time it is:
JESS FRANCO VS. THE IRS
oh
sorry
JESS FRANCO VS. CCC-FILMKUNST
nonono
here:
JESS FRANCO VS. DR MABUSE
Sources:
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A perfect book. 900 pages, big format, all color
Includes 90% of all Krimis and the pre-war
Edgar Wallace Movies too.
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The benchmark 400 pages of in-depth knowledge.
Joachim Kamp went into the archives
and had been given the documents of
many scriptwriters of the series. This is a completely no-nonsense,
nearly scientific approach to the subject.
Prime research example. Besides
Rialto, though, a bit thin. |
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This too, a benchmark. 600 pages on Jess Franco, and this
is only part 1. Big format, beautifully researched.
Top writing and very entertaining. |
