1985 Grindhouse Nights in Munich's Stachus Kinocenter PART I: 16th Nov

This is my personal grindhouse experience. Living in Munich in 1985/86 I was privileged to find out that in the run-down Stachus Kinocenter with its 4 movie theaters, they would hold "long nights", grinding down the most worn-out prints of whatever movie they had lying around (and Munich was one of the capital of European trash cinema). So I went there and spent the nights between hobos and whores, junkies and middle-aged men in trenchcoats. They started at 10 pm and went on till 4 a.m. providing more than one customer with a fairly cheap place to stay. It was 12 DM (around 4 US-$ that time) for 12 movies. So I sat down and watched them all, uncut. Usually I swapped theatres if one movie was too bad. 

So here are all 12 of them, that I was able to see:

1. Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (USA 1976)

Cinema 1, 22:30 Todesduell auf dem Highway 

It's Wonder Woman Lynda Carter making every schoolboy's dream come true to star in this skin-n-crime flick about a country star wannebee who winds up in a Bonnie and Clyde situation. 

Verdict: GEM

2. She (USA 1984)

Cinema 1,  00:15 S.H.E. eine verrückte Reise in die Zukunft

What have we got here. This is actually a new movie, going straight to the gutter. This must have bombed terribly. Today, this must be b-movie heaven. Red Sonya's Sandahl Bergmann going all in in a very, very bad movie. Problem is, the producers actually thought it was good and gave it a big-time treatment. This ended soon here in this run-down theatre in front of a lot of people who could not care less. 

Verdict: GEM

3. Deadline Auto Theft (USA 1974-83)

Cinema 1, 01:45 Auf dem Higway spielt die Polizei verrückt

Rehash of the 1974 movie "Gone in 60 Seconds" about the cat-and-mouse game between an LAPD Officer and a serial car thief. Emulating Jess Franco, the director used the best (and most expensive) scenes of the first movie and shot some new material around it. Who can blame him. 

Verdict: GEM

Let's switch to Cinema 2, where they start off the evening with.... tata:

4. Man-Eater / Grim Reaper / Anthropophagus I (Italy 1980)

Cinema 2: 22:15 Man-Eater, der Menschenfresser

Yes, there it is. I saw it. On the big screen. It acutally was big and actually a lot of people came in to watch it. It was uncut. I was there. Oh man. 

All of those complaining about the film did not see it in a cinema. I was actually scared and I thought it was a pretty well made movie. Maybe it was my young, impressible mind, but I still hold that movie in high regard. I never watched it again though. It could only become worse. I did see the Andreas Schnaas remake. That was bad.

Vertict: ALL TIME CLASSIC

5. Death Force (USA 1978)

Cinema 2: 23:45 Ein Mann wird zu Killer

I did not have to look it up as I still remember that film. It's about a vietnam vet who shoots off heads with his shotgun when the local incestbreed back in good old bible-belt mob him (or was it the mafia and he owed them money???). Always tried to get it in the very memorable german dub, but obviously this market is far too niche (like!!).

Verdict: SOLID and up for a rewatch before I die.

addendum: Now I watched the original trailer and I am very sure that this is not the movie  I saw. .... I have to dive into this. Maybe they switched films without notice... hmmmm.

6. The Retrievers (USA 1982)

Cinema 2: 01:30 Zum Töten abgerichtet

With a german title going: "Conditioned like dogs to Kill", one would  have expected more. I have 0 remembrence of this film. And even the IMDB is not very helpful. It's about a guy who joins some kind of special forces and kills targets. eh?  

Verdict: USELESS

Time to hop over to Cinema 3 where they reuse the old Hongkong MA Films for their really, really final run (the copies were actually VERY bad!)

7.  The 18 Bronzemen (HK 1975)

Cinema 3: 22:00 18 Kämpfer aus Bronze

Nowadays looked upon as some kind of semi-classic, but honestly, I could not care less. The usual stuff with fake beards and fake fights. 

Verdict: Forgettable

8. The Return of the 18 Bronzemen (HK 1976)

Cinema 3: 23:30 Die Rückkehr der 18 Bronzekämpfer

More of the same, this time even cheaper. They did not even try to look as if they cared! But cudos to the curator of this exquisit evening, you got all 3 installments (of the same movie....) in their correct order.

VERDICT: Even more forgettabel remake of a forgettable Film

9. Wan fa gui zong yi Shao Lin (HK 1976) 

Cinema 3: 01:15 Das Erbe der 18 Bronzekämpfer (The Heritage of the 18 Bronzemen)

The German movie poster reads: "After the unreachable successes of .. 7. 8. .. a new highlight". Eh well, not. Really. I really sat through them all here again to find out what I've been missing. But not a lot. I felt cheated. 

VERDICT: Three out of three are bad.

Let's see what wonderful fare they offer us in the cosy cinema 4:

10. Les Plaisiers Solitaires (F 1976)

Cinema 4: 23:00 Das Erste Öffnen Junger Lippen

What a way to start of the evening in Cinema 4. While I was in CIN2, enjoying Joe's classic tale of what not to do on a lonely island, here you get an absolute classic French Porn Movie directed by all-time best director Francis Leroi. It's about 3 women experiencing frustrating sexual encounters with men before they decide that sisters can do it with themselves. The German release comes close to being a fraud: The title translates as "The first blossoming of young lips". There are NO young lips here and I sincerely doubt that it is the first opening of those lips on screen. Naah, can't fool me, canya! Besides this the film poster depicts Goddess Christina Lindberg (of Thriller) who maybe saw a filmroll of this movie stacked up in a van going candidly over the alsacian border between France and Germany (I try to establish a connection here... see?), but is NOT in this movie. 

VERDICT: If you've seen one, you've seen all. But do we care?

 

11. Fascination (USA 1980)

Cinema 4: 00:30 Schüchtern aber scharf wie Oskar

Ron Jeremy, Candida Royalle,  Veronica Hart, Sharon Mitchell, shall I say more. This is actually a GOOD movie with the added value of having the best stars of 70ies adult movies on top of their game.

I stumbled late into it as I had watched 5) to the end and then tried myself on the 18 Bronzemen. But this really blew me away. With both hands cuffed behind my back I recently rewatched it. This is a good movie. 

I really tried hard to get the german movie poster, but failed...

Verdict: GEM

12. The Beautiful Girl Hunter (J 1979)

Cinema 4: 02:00 Exzesse im Folterkeller

Well it was late, I was tired, didn't want to go home, so I just kept sitting in Cinema4 and had NO IDEA  what to expect. Boy oh Boy. 

This very sick japanese movie about the sideeffects of being raped by one's father during boyhood and developing a very unhealthy fascintaion for the holocaust (that actually was cut out of this movie in Germany !!!) is seen to be believed. 

I was actually annoyed by the constant black bars hiding what I wanted to see, but nevertheless my eyes were glued to the screen. The movie was so worn out that it looked like something out of "Emanuelle in America". and could have passed as "snuff"(thanks for censorship!!) I do remember it vividly and I know it is a classic. But I refuse to watch it again a) for the bars and b) I don't want to ruin my memories.... 

Verdict: SPEECHLESS

So here it is. See you next time. 

Edgar Wallace is alive and well in .... Hamburg

You surely will not know it, but still, as we write the year 2024 AD, Edgar Wallace Krimis are produced in Hamburg. 

Hamburg is the German city most famously linked to the Edgar Wallace movies as the production company Rialto Film had its offices there. Furthermore, the Hanseatic and Saxon heritage make Hamburg the ideal (and cheap) stand-in for London, thus making it the de facto Edgar Wallace Krimi location.

In 2003 the IMPERIAL theatre on the St. Pauli Reeperbahn opened as a "Krimi-Theater", specialising in the works of Edgar Wallace and Agatha Christie. With 300 seats, this is reasonably sized and the productions have a high value. It is kept clearly in the "Miss Marple" and "Edgar Wallace Movies" tradition, even in the advertising. 

The plays always run for one season with around 100 shows

So far these productions of Edgar Wallace Krimis have been made:

„Das indische Tuch“ (2004), „Der Rächer“ (2004), „Der Hexer“ (2005), „Der Unheimliche“ (2006), „Der grüne Bogenschütze“ (2007), „ Der schwarze Abt“ (2008), „Der Engel des Schreckens“ (2009), „Die seltsame Gräfin“ (2010), „Der unheimliche Mönch (2011), „Die toten Augen von London“ (2013), „Der Zinker“ (2015),  „Der Frosch mit der Maske“ (2018), „Die Tür mit den 7 Schlössern“ (2020), "Die Blaue Hand" (2023).

"Die Seltsame Gräfin" was published as 2CD audioplay also in 2014.

List of all Krimi Films ranked by German ticket sales

 

The following list shows all german Krimi-films with their date of release, their ticket sales and the rank they had in the corresponding year's chart. I might have missed one or two, they will be added later.

The definition of Krimis is a vague one. I tried to start with Rialto's Edgar Wallace series although one could argue it all started with "Kriminaltango" a crime/comedy/musical made a year before that was a huge success. Furthermore the movies should have been (co-)produced by a german/austrian/swiss company and should at least star one better known german actor and of course should have been marketed in Germany as "Krimi". Thus, the "Kommissar X" and "Jerry Cotton"-series, though hugely successful and also dealing with crime prosecution, are left out as they were marketed as "spy" movies.

If you want to know more about the different Krimi-franchises, click HERE.

Blue: 1st update

Red: 2nd update 

Green: 3rd update - Update Comments and insights HERE.

The mystery of Solange's green pin

Massimo Dallamato's  1972 masterpiece - The Hybrid-Movie that killed the Edgar Wallace Krimi Cycle.

Is it a Krimi? Is it a Giallo? Is it a police-procedural movie? Or just the perverted product of an unhinged movie director? Well, if you know "Cosa avete fatto a Solange?"  and the consecutive movies of Dallamato, you know it's all of them.

"What have You Done to Solange" is one of the standout Giallos from the golden age. But only few know that it's core it is a bona fide Edgar Wallace Krimi. Rialto, the company responsible for producing those actually had wrapped production up in the late 1960is only to be surprised by the competitor's (CCC Filmkunst) labelling of Dario Argento's "Birld with the Crystal Plumage" as a (Bryan)Edgar Wallace film. That movie made good money (though it had fewer ticket sales than german-produced Krimis) as did "Double Face" that  Rialto had produced already in Italy. 

Not to let the market be dominated by CCC, Rialto quickly went into the production of several Krimis, two of them in Germany and two of them in Italy. 

One of them, based on an original Krimi screenplay was "Solange". As usual Rialto just took an old screenplay, changed a few things here and there and updated it to the modern taste.

Well, here's the plot: 

 

College Girls are murdered as they have secret relationships with their professors.

 The plot is more or less taken from the 1967 Edgar Wallace Krimi "Der Mönch mit der Peitsche" (The College Girl murders) sans electronic gadgetry and of course the Monk with the Whip. I advise wholheartedly any admirer of Solange to get that movie...

After the ROI success of "Double Face",  and "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" (600.000 ticket sales with a minimal co-production investment) German Edgar-Wallace-Distributor Constantin Film handed several treaties over to their italian partners (Clodio Cinematografica and Italian international Film) to produce them as Edgar Wallace Movies. But instead of a 50/50% production (Double Face), the germans only wanted to come up with 30% of the production costs. 

There were 4  treaties, written bei Edgar Wallace veteran Herbert Reinecker were all to include the title of an Edgar Wallace novel, but besides that were unrelated to his books. Those unfinished treaties were handed over to the italian partners:

"Das Geheimnis der grünen Stecknadel"(Mystery of the Green Pin)  / "Clue of the new Pin" (original novel title) - That would become "What have you done to Solange?")

"Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Rose" (Mystery of the the black Rose)/ "The Bleeding Butterfly". That would become "Una farfalla con le ali insanguinate"  - "The Bloodstained Butterfly".

"Sieben Gesichter für die Mörderin" (Seven Faces for the Murderess)/ --- /later became "Sette volti per l’assassino" and later "Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso" "Seven blood-stained Orchids"

"In der Dunkelheit des Schreckens" (In the Darkness of Terror)/ which might have become "Qualcuno l'ha vista uccidere" 

The original treaty of "Das Geheimnis der grünen Stecknadel" was updated by Constantin and then shoved over to Dallamato who had been chosen to direct. Dallamato (as "Max Dillmann") had previously worked for german producers and seemed the right choice. His german filmed Krimi "Das Geheimnis der jungen Witwe" (Black Veil for Lisa) had been very successful. 

He reworked the treaty and here the German version and the Italian Versions of "Solange" begin to differ.

This Krimi/Giallo hybrid has the complete Krimi-cast of Fuchsberger, Baal and Glas (who were in the orginal College Girl Murders) and basically is the last step of Gialli incorporating the Krimi.

So as with "Double Face", two different cuts of this movie exist, one as Edgar-Wallace-Krimi and one as a Giallo. Even today these different cuts are promoted differently in Germany.

Das Geheimnis der grünen Stecknadel proved to be very succesful with a total of 1.100.000 tickets sold, putting it into the german Top Twenty of 1972. By comparison "Double Face" had only sold 600.000 tickets and so with less money and man-power, more profit had been made. Interestingly, Argento's "Bird with the Crystal Plumage" had been advertised in Germany as Wallace-Krimi and had only sold around 700.000 tickets on its release.

Similarly "Seven blood-stained Orchids", now published under the Edgar-Wallace-Title "Das Geheimnis des silbernen Halbmonds" (and prior to "Solange") sold 900.000 Tickets.

In the same year, the last fully german produced and made Edgar Wallace Krimi "Die Tote aus der Themse"  ("The Body in the Thames" (again recommended viewing!)) sold 1.400.000 tickets, but given the investment, the ROI was much less, as there was virtually no foreign market income. 

Business-wise it was a sensible step to put more and more money into the italian giallo-machine as it returned more profit for less work. 

But why the very profitable franchises of "Edgar Wallace", "Bryan E. Wallace" and "Dr. Mabuse" were all shut down in 1972 is a very, very interesting question I surely will be concentrating on in the future.... 

The Krimi franchises - an overview

The Edgar Wallace Krimis and Spin-Offs

From 1959 to 1973 around 100 films were produced in Germany that would be labeled as "Krimis" or more precise "Grusel-Krimis" (Grusel cannot be correctly translated, it describes the (pleasant) sensation of being excited by being scared - it is etymologically related to the english words "grisly" "grue" "cruel" "gore" "creepy"). Here's a quick overview of the movies for a start.

You can see them all on my complete KRIMI-list including all movies that can be labelled as such  HERE.

Prelude: The Father Brown Cycle 

The most successful Krimi movies of them all are basically never mentioned: The Father Brown movies based on GK Chesterton's crime novels about a catholic priest solving murder mysteries in the british countryside. These novels still prove very popular today with numerous tv-series adapations.

Shortly after Rialto had put out "Der Frosch mit der Maske", the first of these movies was released "Das schwarze Schaf" (The black Sheep), starring the biggest post-war(and war) german movie star of them all: Heinz Rühmann. This was one of the biggest movies in 1960, by far outgrossing the EW-movies of the year. The basic krimi-principle is the same however, scary, wacky crime entertainment with german locations standing in for the original english ones. Here the script is very tight, and Rühman plays on top of his form, making this THE standout-krimi of them all (sorry Rialto).

Two years later the follow up "Er kann's nicht lassen" (He cannot let it be) again with Rühmann as Brown actually becomes the highest-grossing german crime movie of all time. This one is even more moulded as sensationalist crime movie with a villain showing up in scary disguises. No wonder, in 1963, everybody (and their cousins) were producing krimis in Germany. 

The cycle got a belated finishing movie with (tata!!!) Lucio Fulci's "Abenteuer des Kardinal Braun" (Adventures of Cardinal Brown), again with Rühmann in the lead, but a far cry from any krimi or giallo experience.

A. Official Edgar Wallace Krimi Movies 

German 34 Blu-Ray Box with nearly all Rialto Productions

In 1959 the danish film producer Preben Philipsen acquired the material of an unfinished Edgar Wallace movie called "The Mark of the Frog". He decided to go south of the border to Germany to let Horst Wendland (owner of Rialto Productions) find a director to shoot additional footage to bring the movie to a full running time. Wendland hired director Harald Reinl for this job. Watching the daily rushes, Wendland decided to re-film the movie in it's entirety, something he can persuade Philipsen to do. This movie turns out to be a success, though not as big as some would make you believe (No. 40 in 1959 year-end charts). Thus, "Der Frosch mit der Maske" is born. Wendland aquires most german rights to Edgar Wallace Mystery novels (not the adventure novels). 1960 then saw the krimi-genre emerge as such, the two Rialto EW-Movies again do good business as does the independently produced "Der Rächer" and the first in the german "Father Brown" series all hit the Top 40 in this year's attendance list.

Eager to cash in, Rialto then puts out 5 EW movies in one year, establishing a franchise that would last the next 10 years.

B. Official Bryan-Edgar-Wallace Movies, produced by CCC-Films

Bryan Edgar Wallace was the son of Edgar Wallace. So CCC acquired the rights to his name and his works (he was active as sf/crime writer) to produce their own competetive series. Although the first Dario Argento "Das Geheimnis der Schwarzen Handschuhe" (The Bird...) was produced under the BEW-franchise and profuced reasonable box-office returns, the follow-up "Die neunschwänzige Katze" (The Cat..) was handed over to the competiton at Terra films, but was, strangely enough, still marketed as official part of the BEW-franchise (can anybody please explain?)."Vier Fliegen auf Grauem Samt" (Four Flies..) was not marketed as part of BEW and not co-produced by CCC. The last film to be marketed under that franchise was  "Das Geheimnis des Gelben Grabes" (The Etruscan kills again), this time again co-produced and distributed by CCC.

C. The Weinert-Wilton Cycle

Ludwig Weinert (Louis Weinert-Wilton) was an austrian born german living in Prague who wrote successful crime novels before WWII. He died 1945 after the war in a czech concetration camp for to-be-expelled germans. These movies were co-produced by the distributor of the original Edgar Wallace movies, Constantin Film. Available in one box with 4 movies on blu-ray too.

D. Erwin C. Dietrich's "Strangler" series

Always trying to cash in on everything sleazy and sensational, swiss movie maverick Erwin C Dietrich sought a quick way to establish himself in the German and European markets. Having tried and failed to establish his own "Wachtmeister Studer" Krimis in Switzerland, he now acquires the munich-based "monachia" to produce for the Constantin Filmverleih (who already distributed the Edgar Wallace Krimis). This does not work out as planned as Constatin decides to go with the Weinert-Wilton movies. CCC is not interested in him either. And finally, he does it on his own. All the krimis somehow carry "The Strangler" in one of their many international titles, so let's call it "The Strangler" series.

I would like to add that EC Dietrich produced two more "Krimi"-related movies, the 1972 "The Red Queen Kills 7 Times" and 1975 "Jack the Ripper". Even his 1974 Jess Franco movie "Downtown" could added here. 

E. Stand-alone-films that were supposed to start their own, competing, cycle

Some studios and distribution companies tried to establish their own KRIMI-Cycle, using well-known authors that were published in the same publishing house as Edgar Wallace.

 As the original poster-art of the movie showed the book cover (the German Ullstein-Krimis were red instead of yellow), it seemed like a  good idea, simply to treat other authors in the same way, in the case of Weinert-Wilton, this had proven to be successful, so why not try it with others?

Well, in the end, they did not prove to be successful, so they remained one-off krimis.

ed: "Victor Gunn" actually is Edwy s. Brooks, but his books were exclusively published under the V. Gunn name.

You can see the all on my complete KRIMI-list including all those one-offs HERE.

F. The Sidekick: Dr. Mabuse 

In 1922 Fritz Lang made two movies about "Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler". A highly intelligent mastervillain who controls the black  markets and tries to achieve world domination. A huge international hit and influental and NOT AT ALL a simple Krimi. Basically this movie does not belong here. Neither the successor, "Testament of Dr. Mabuse", made in 1933, that basically replaces Mabuse (who is dead) with a megalomaniac possessed by his spirit. Needless to say, a mad megalomaniac (who may or may not have killed his female cousin to cover-up their incestous love affair) came to power in Jan 1933 in Germany, so that movie was not released until 1945....

The 2nd series started off with the 4th Lang-directed movie, "The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse"- based on a novel by a different author, the name was just dropped on the movie by producer Artur Brauner who had obtained the rights. A pattern was established, gadretry became part of the series, it went into sf-mode, not unlike James Bond. That is why, although it looks and feels like a krimi, this series is basically eurospy. 

G. The official TV-Series

In 1994, german TV station ordered two series from Rialto, the original Edgar Wallace movie producers. They were decidedly designed  to make them part of the official EW-Krimi-Cycle Thus 7 feature-length and lavishly produced TV-movies were filmed, and a lot of old Krimi veterans show up. Eddi Arend takes over the role of "Sir John" in a few of these movies.

Most of the movies severely miss the old wacky-scaryess of the EW-films. And although they tried hard, somehow this looks more like a stage-play by inhabitants of a senior residence than a modern TV-series. The episodes do have a value as to find out, why they exactly fail to capture the audience's attention.

The second season, though filmed in 1998 was not aired until 2002, and then without much ado on RTL's substation RTLII. (Although the first one "Schloss des Grauens" (Castle of Terror s02e01) is pretty good...)

S01e01-03 and S01e04 can be purchased as part of the official Rialto-EW-DVD-collection (#9), S02e02-05 as #10.

H. Spoofs: The Wankker Cycle and the OTTO TV-series

In 1994 one of the most popular german comedian OTTO was inspired by the strange  RTL-TV reboot Edgar Wallace series and decided to buy the rights to the EW-films and cutting them together into 13 comedy episodes (each 25 minutes), with himself digitally incorporated into the new gags. Altough critically flamed, the series proved to be a considerable success. 

Annoyed by OTTOs handling (or butchering or even corpse-grinding) of the EW-Films, notable film-critic and comedian Oliver Welke approached film companies with a new EW(spoof)script called "Der WIXXER" (based on a radio-show he had produced since 1994) (transl.:The WANKKER (sic!)). The script proved popular and the resulting film was a huge success, opening at No. 2 and staying in the German movie attendance top-ten for 10 weeks. The tag-line was "The Wankker is coming .... -on- your screen".

 By incorporating veteran Wallace actors and respecting the original humor of the series this is a movie to be added to every EW-Library. The film's success let to a sequel "Neues vom Wixxers" (News of the Wankker) which was still successful but less inspired (although not bad in a long way). Interestingly Joachim Fuchsberger, who played in the first EW-Movie in 1959 and the last in 1972 (and was the actor with most appearences in EW Movies) has a cameo here too.

Fuchsberger (right) on the set

From Proto-Giallo to Star Wars, how Oskar Sala changed the world of movies - or - How "The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle" was the first movie to have a fully synthezised soundtrack

From Proto-Giallo to Star Wars, how Oskar Sala changed the world of movies (or not)

- or -

How "The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle" was the first movie to have a fully synthezised soundtrack

See, I might be wrong here, but viewing "The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle" I was intrigued: Here we have a movie score that completely discards all natural instruments and had them replaced by electronic music. This must have been audacious in 1963 and so the journey starts: Was this, litlle known Krimi-Proto-Giallo actually the first all-out electonically scored movie??? Well, let's find out. but first some data:

"Der Würger von Schloss Blackmoor" (accurately translated as "The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle") is a 1963 Krimi-oddity, produced in Germany. As some of you might know, the german KRIMI-cycle was the direct precursor of the Giallo, as the Winnetou-movies were to the Spaghetti-Westerns. The Krimis were basically very loose adaptions of crime novels by Edgar Wallace but with a formularic approach: 

A fairy-tale Jack-the-Ripper English setting, heritages, inspectors and a good dose of odd humour - and always with the same cast of actors (Karin Dor, Klaus Kinski, Joachim Fuchsberger) and a very jazzy/experimental score usually by Peter Thomas. 

That formula seemed unbeatable in the early 60ies and so a lot of german production companies followed the early Edgar-Wallace successes with their own KRIMIS (most notably: "Blutige Seide"/"Blood and Black Lace" Co-Produced by GLORIA-Films who put in their own star Thomas Rainer) such as The Weinert-Wilton Krimis or the Francis-Dubridge Krimis. 

German Top-Producer Alois Brauner (CCC-Film) tried to cash in by obtaining the rights to an unclaimed Edgar Wallace Book: Der Fluch der Gelben Schlange (The Curse of the Yellow Snake). Trying to compete with the A-level original Edgar-Wallace movies by the Rialto Company, he hired the same actors and had some lavish sets built. Otherwise he tried to cut costs, using only a few minutes of a fully orchestrated score, with the rest being recorded by electronic music pioneer Oskar Sala who had just scored (sort of as there is no real score) Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS. 

The movie proved to be successful enough but meanwhile Rialto had obtained the rights to all Edgar-Wallace crime novels and had put its Edgar Wallace - cast in long-term contracts. So the option of making a "real" Wallace movie was gone ... or was it? All in all it had been a very costly enterprise, something that was not really suitable with CCC-Films. So Brauner looked for a substitute and came up with a splendid idea, that would change, quite literally, the movie-world.

See, Edgar Wallace had a son, called "Bryan Edgar Wallace", who had -  pretty unsuccessfully - tried to write his own crime novels. 

You will find them at abebooks, most notable "Death packs a suitcase", but realistically, without people mistaking the son for the father, these books would not sell. 

But here was the plan: Buying the rights to the books of the son, maybe making him write some drafts or screenplays and the desired brandname of "Wallace" could be printed on the movie poster.

Like this adaptation of "Death packs a suitcase".

Basically Bryan E. Wallace sold the rights to use his name in the movies. Whether or not he was actually involved in (some of) them remains a mistery to this day. Sometimes he is credited for the book, sometimes for reworking the screenplay, sometimes for the"idea".  Nevertheless this was much less expensive for CCC-Films.

And "Death packs a suitcase" proved to be as successful as his a-grade competitors at a fraction of the cost.

Thus, the "Bryan-Edgar-Wallace Cycle" of films was born. From 1962 to 1973 all in all 11 movies were distributed under this brand, even outlasting the original "Edgar Wallace Cycle". 

And without any restrictions but under the order to make them as cheaply as possible, true gems of genre films were produced by CCC-Films under the Bryan-Edgar-Wallace banner: How about DARIO ARGENTO's animal trilogy?

--- but that's up to another post here in the future ---  or the has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed-bad remake of "Death packs a suitcase" by Jess Franco???

 

Right now, here's my plea to give this totally unsung hero of movie-cycles the honor that it deserves!!!

So as a follow-up, CCC tried their own go at Edgar Wallace. With no book to adapt they simply put in all the beloved ingredients of the original movies into their own little tribute-film.Ok, ready? Here we go:

Foggy english landscape - check

Old english castle - check

Greedy inheritance swindler - check

Wacky english lord - check

Secret passages - check

Serial killer -check

Gruesome killings -check

Organised crime -check

Sleazy bar with back-door crime scene - check

High-Tech Door/Gate -check

Cool Scotland Yard inspector - check

Innocent, but beautiful true heiress who falls in love with Inspector - check

Hooded Killer who is disfiguered - check

Cool modern Jazz score - No, wait, we don't have that, but all our money is spent on red-hot Karin Dor, but this is more like a horror-crime-movie, right? So how about using Oskar Sala again, he can do it with his synthezisers alone, that is cool, modern AND creepy (and cheap, I'd like to add).

And so poor old Oskar Sala scores the COMPLETE movie, not only the thrilling parts, but love scenes and most notably bar-scenes as well. So here, our here walks into this seedy striptease-bar, with the juke-box on, playing that popular beatmusic -or not??? Check out the 38 minute mark on this movie.

To my knowledge, this is the first movie ever to be completely scored by synthezisers, and I mean a full score, not some novelty effects like "The Birds". But maybe I am wrong here, but I'm not wrong about this:

"Der Würger von Schloss Blackmoor" opened on the b-movie circuit in the US as "The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle" it was then quickly shown in late-night tv horror shows. Genre-afficinados such as George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg would use Oskar Sala and his synthezisers (the Trautoniums) in Star Wars and Close Encounters. Maybe they got the inspiration by watching "The Birds", maybe by watching "The Strangler".... who knows? 

I know for sure that the Star Wars Cantina Score would have been much cooler, if Sala had done it.

And: Is the movie any good? Well it was done cheaply and it shows, there are a lot of transitional moments, with some stunning set-pieces in between. It's worth watching for its gruesomeness (an actual beaheading is shown) and for the "fire-door" entrences. And of course for the score by Oskar Sala... but you knew that by now.