A lot has been written about the leading Krimi/Giallo ladies like Karin Dor, Karin Baal or Edwige Fenech, but looking into the lives and works of the lesser known "starlets" that starred in the european trash movies of the 60ies and 70ies often shows another, more complicated and interesting side: These were women who stood on their own and made their way by using the rules to their advantage instead of trying to change them.

Laya Raki

One of them is Laya Raki. Why her? Well she co-starred in "Die Nylonschlinge" which is part of the EC Dietrich Strangler-Krimi-Cycle and by researching that movie I suddenly realised what an interesting person Raki must have been.

1. The Origins

Back from Moscow, Adolf
Althoff presents "The Tiger
on the Horse" - oh dear.

Her mother was circus-artist Maria von der Gathen who, through her marriage with Adolf Althoff 1939 became part of the very well known German circus dynasty of the Althoffs. Before that, in 1927, she was in relationship with another circus artist Wilhelm Jörns, so Laya was born as Brunhilde Marie Alma Herta Jörns on July, 27th 1927 in Hamburg.

Her mother and step-father tried to hide and supply jewish artists during the holocaust, employing them under aliases in their circus-company. Although collegues and Laya must have been aware of this, they all kept their mouths shut so that they survived the Nazi-persecution (and the war itself) to testify. The Althoffs were honored as "Rightous amongst Peoples" by the Israel state in 1995.

Actress La Jana,
early idol of Laya,
she died 1940 in the war.

Laya always wanted to be a dancer. The stage name Laya Raki came from her admiration for the dancer La Jana ("The Star of Rio") and her preference for raki, the oriental whisky. Nowadays I often come across those circus-artists that made it big in the neighbouring movie-world. They seem to be a special breed, extremely disciplined, you never hear them complain or lament about the hardships of their trade.

Starting off in front of occupational forces in 1945 to earn money with her risqué dance routine, she quickly became a household name in the off-limits bars and varietys that popped up shortly after the war (shortage of men and work did their thing).

From 1947 onwards she caused a stir with dance performances in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and other major cities. Her appearance in Berlin in 1950 became the talk of the town.

The same year, the East-German DEFA film company gave her a small role in the movie The Council of the Gods. The Berliner Morgenpost critic wrote enthusiastically that she had a real talent for dancing and that her expressive face had an astonishing range of nuances.

On her wedding 1957 with australian actor
Ron Randell, they stayed together until his
death in 2005

Still in 1950, the REAL-Film press department presented her as a new discovery for the film The Third from the Right.

In it she appeared dancing the rumba with two stars on her nipples, which was still considered scandalous at the time. Similarly sparingly dressed, she also danced in Marriage for one night and another film.

In "The Seekers" (1954) there is even a topless scene with her.

She was easily a worldwide burlesque sensation in the 1950ies and possibly the highest paid of them all. In the mid-50ies she obviously went through some prosthetic operations.

She went to England and then to Hollywood to take lessons in acting and in 1962 she was able to get a steady job in the british TV-series "Crane" for over 30 episodes. The series was filmed on location in Morocco and presented retired playboy "Crane" as adventurer/investigator. Raki's role was that of his assistant and manager of his beach bar.

Laya (to the left) is some kind of assistant

Still in 1962 she recorded her 7" single "Oh, Johnny, hier nicht parken" (the meaning translates as "Oh Johnny, don't let it stay in here") which featured the first ever fake-orgasm on a record, and - of course - was object in some lawsuits.. well, judge for yourself....

Man must she have been fun to be around...

2. The Krimis

In between the "Crane" episode-shootings she must have found time to appear (and her dance routine, which - no sex please, we're british - she was not able to perform in "Crane") in three lesser known but nevertheless interesting KRIMIS.

a. Die Nylonschlinge (1963)

How exactly Erwin C. Dietrich got her into his ultra-cheap Wallace-ripoff is not known. Sadly we cannot ask him. But here she plays - ahem - a burlesque dancer whose routine we see twice. The movie takes its time to show us the complete set with the camera just moving away in time for the bra-removal. In the following shot, a double runs through the set.

The character Laya plays also is some kind of witness so we get a little bit of acting from her too.

The movie was (considering the ROI) good business, so Dietmar Schönherr, star of "Die Nylonschlinge" decides to do his own - even cheaper - AUSTRIAN Wallace- Rip-off called:

b. Das Geheimnis der roten Quaste (1963)

Laya here plays (of course) a night-club dancer who gets killed after one performance. There is not much to say about her here as all we see is her rehearsing the dance, then dance, then being dead. Her voice is dubbed.

While already in Austria, she gets her Husband to come down and do a movie with her too:

c. Das Haus auf dem Hügel (1964)

I have no indication if the "Red Tassel" did some money, but shortly afterwards, the austrians tried their luck by trying to create their own KRIMI series based on the pulp-crime character of Kommissar Allan Wilton. Problem here was that these crime novels were not distributed outside of Austria and thus Allan Wilton was completely unknown to the German audience, making this, from the start a very niche enterprise.

This is kind of odd as the producers Walter Hössig and Robert Lach (Hoela) normally operated from Germany. Lach, though was from vienna and it seems like Raki was actually co-financing the film, thus having muscle enough to have her husband play the lead role.

Laya Raki of course is reduced to throwing her boobs around, but behind the scenes she is able to get the lead role for her husband, Ron Randell, so this is a rare opportunity to see them both on-screen. If you ever get the opportunity to watch that movie....

Although already scripted, a second movie "Das Rätsel der schwarzen Locken" (The Mystery of the black curls) was not made as there was no financial backing.

ooh, cats, I always wanted to have some kitty-
pictures in my blog

After "Crane" stopped in 1965 she finds it hard to get another role, now approaching 40, her usual mixture of exoticness and eroticisim is sadly out of date. She gets the occasional small roles here and there and moves to California, obviously going for real-estate with her husband Ron who occasionally trips back to his native Australia for some minor TV and stage appearances.

She stayed with him in Los Angeles until his Alzheimer's caused death in 2005 but re-married in 2009, this time the vice president of Lockheed Aircraft. (Good for you Laya!!).

In December 2018, a few months after the death of her second husband, Laya Raki passed away peacefully at the age of 91. What a life.

She had no natural children and was buried beside her first husband.

I have to say that I tremendously enjoyed investigating her life. There never seemed to be a dull moment with her and she seemed to be a genuinly tough, kind, loyal, hard-working, beautiful women.