Women in Krimi (IV): Laya Raki (1927-2018)

 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.

around 1955

On the cover of the british "TODAY"
magazine

Double A side with the french version 
"Faire L'Amour" on the other side.

A more introverted picture

Oh come on, this is an official still for the austrian
movie "Haus auf dem Hügel"... .oh those austrians

The movie novel to "House on the Hill"

With her husband, Ron Randell

There is even a duochromatic 3D 
magazine out there....

Get those Green/Red glasses out! (pre-operation)

Gerald Flood (to the left) and Laya on the set of Crane

Early model shoot (pre-op)

Women in Krimi (III): Ingrid Steeger (1947-2023)

Unknown photo-models were often put into minor "sexy" roles in the Wallace-like Krimis. Their fates show remarkable similarities and even more remarkable differences. Very few stayed in the movie-business, even fewer made it big. Others just dropped out and I had/have a hard time finding them.

So I start with something easy (for me): 

Ingrid Steeger

Ingrid Steeger was some kind of cultural treasure in Germany. Everybody knew her. Clothed and naked. She made the transition from 8mm BDSM loops to a well booked stage and TV actress and certainly was an often invited celebrity. Few people know that her voyage in the movie industry started with two Edgar Wallace Movies. She died in 2023.

Born April 1st 1947 in war-torn Berlin into the not-so-ideal familiy of PTSD soldiers, returning from POW-camps, women raped by russian soldiers and kids playing in minefields she is basically both neglected and abused throughout her childhood. Having to live in one room as family in a bombed- out city, does not help either.

Predictably bad at school, the only way out of this greyish nightmare that is Berlin in the 60ies are the newly opened discotheques where she and her older sister Julia become regular visitors  and due to her unusual combination of being both boyish-slender and buxomesque, a well photographed motive for the reporting newspapers.

Ingrid, having won a bauty contest - but not the
car.

First nude shoots bring her to the attention of Horst Wendland of Rialto who explores the possibility of bringing their Edgar Wallace up-to-date with fresh female faces and bodies. They give her and another model - Heidrun Hankammer - their first roles in the ill-planned and ill-executed "Gorilla von Soho", which  stars Uschi Glas.

In Gloria's Club, she is a barmaid and is seen in two short segments. In the first one she comes in with a tray, walking down the stairs. She hits the behind of the male model with that tray and walks on.

In the  second scene she just serves Whisky.

But nothing came from "Gorilla" for Steeger and after that movie she gets some minor roles here and there and basically does everything needed to survive. 

One BDSM-loop survives.

Erwin C. Dietrich, always looking for loose girls had had considerable success with snatching Hankammer from Rialto and her starring-role in "The Colonel's Nieces" 1968. 

He gives Steeger the starring role in "Me, the Groupie" (1970), a sleazefest of epic proportions, depicting her "scandalous" journey from a young, innocent girl to a drug-infested, sex-crazed groupie. 

A cautionary tale, told to the fullest extent  (including black masses and rape) by Dietrich, of course.  Steeger later wrote in her autobiography "And I think it's marvelous" about the real rapes that happened to her during that time which makes watching her "play" being raped very uncomfortable. A huge hit. And obligatory viewing for every sleaze fanatic.

Completely harmless scene from "Ich, ein Groupie"

When the "Report" movies get big shortly afterwards, she becomes a star. Alongside hundreds of young women, ready to strip off their clothes, she stands out, becomes a recognizable face and name in the cycle. Both obedient and feisty, she attracts a lot of men eager to exploit her. Naming the sex-movies she was part of and even the star would be too much for this blog. 

I counted 24 report-style movies in the span of 18 months.

Erwin C. Dietrich, of course, is riding the wave too and produces his "Underage Seductresses" series starring Steeger. Later he would recut the movies and redistribute them under different names to further make profit from her new found fame after she had become a TV-star. Steeger was not too happy, cutting him out of her autobiography and just giving him one line as "this swiss guy that recut one of my movies".

Record Cover of one of those awful fake-hit-song
LPS where semigifted studio-musicians rerecorded
the original hits without telling you. This still happens,
on youtube, but at least you don't have to pay for it.

In 1972 she gets a role in the last "real" Rialto EW-Krimi "Die Tote aus der Themse", of course mostly clothes-free.

She actually has a name here: Kitty. She is a nude model, working for the Photographer David Armstrong, played by Vadim Glowna.

Reality is not so much different for her, going through the wild life of hippidom with the dark sides of abuse and rape occasionally happening to her. 

In 1973 she caught the attention of Michael Pfleghar, a bigtime TV director who is looking for a german Goldie Hawn and a new plaything for himself. In the role of Gaby, the unhinged daughter of the "KLIMBIM" (something loud, fancy, shining and completely unnecessary maybe "Flitter Flutter" would be an approach of a translation) family, she becomes a national celebrity. The "Klimbim" series about a completely anarchic and dysfunctional family runs for 5 seasons and has guest stars like Jerry Lewis, Karin Dor, Curd Jürgens, Maria Schell, Dietmar Schönherr and Horst Buchholz.

Gaby making it big on the cover
of Germany's biggest (and only 
relevant) youth culture magazine.

Meanwhile her personal life is dominated by Pfleghar and cocaine is her run-to "little helper". After "Klimbim" she still works for Pfleghar in a series called "Two heavenly Daughters" with Iris Berben, who became a big movie producer in her later years and coincidentally had started as actress in Edgar Wallace Krimis too.

Iris Berben, Ingrid Steeger and Theo Lingen

Finally freeing herself, she is offered a steady stream of occasional roles in german TV-productions and does a lot of stage-touring in the early 1980s.

Her personal life stays troubled as she obviously has a habit of falling for the completely wrong men. Reading her autobiography, this is a an endless series of physical and mental abuse, breakdowns and and complete personality drainage. One would like to shout at her: "Wake up, Girl. Get a farm and raise chicken." But even that fails.

The list of lovers is endless as she is a trophy. Simple as that - and was not able or willing to get out of this role.

Re-enacting her Role as Gaby in the later years
in Sesame-Street, to the right is Liselotte Pulver

The later years see her struggling to get a steady income, writing and selling multiple memoirs that show a passive-agressive streak, maybe she thought her misfortunes would boost sales or maybe she was that way... As of now, her last book "Meine Mannschaft" (My team of men) in which she just talks about her numerous lovers and nothing else can be bought as overstock: 2000 units for 500 EUR/US-$.

She finally has got to move in and live with her older sister but steadily refuses to become part of the burnt-out-stars cycle of endless humiliating shows, admirably.

She died in 2023, making, for the last time, national news.

Late 1980s

1980s

Czech Poster for "Dead Girl from the Themse"

The Klimbim-Family whith Elisabeth Volkmann,
another "Report" veteran who later worked with
Fassbinder

"Housewife-Report", here already co-starring with
Elisabeth Volkmann

With Horst Wendland 1979

Winning the "Miss Filmfest" competition. 

Klimbim Family Reunion ca 2000

"Fly Me", the title song of "Two heavenly daughters" 
was sung by her

In "Klimbim" she sang a lot.
Most notably "And then I slit my dress and 
think it's marvelous" becomes a hit.

Totally and utterly politically incorrect
advertisment for "Rolo" the candy-roll...

How to easily watch german krimis in english

 Through one of your comments I detected a very simple method to watch a movie in SPOKEN english even when there is no dub available. A lot of lesser-known KRIMIs are out there on youtube but without subs or dubs. Now this is no problem anymore.

I tried a short clip from "The Green Archer" I have used AI to translate it to english:

I have used the AI-Tool BLIPCUT : https://videotranslator.blipcut.com

Sure it takes a while: Here is the result:

I am aware that the AI was not able to differntiate between the two actors. In the full version, you get the complete dialogue as script and can chose which voice should speak which lines.

Mind you, this was created from the original in about 5 Minutes. Here is the original clip:

The service costs 40 US-$ per 90 minutes, but I think that prices will go down eventually. Furthermore maybe a group of people will share the costs as AI generated content is always public domain.

No, I don't get any money for this....

And YES, AI IS SCARY!

Addendum: I thought about listing all the krimis available on youtube for you. But that task is maddening as I am not sure which movies are accessible where and where to use a VPN. Furthermore those links don't last long and I cannot update them. I would advise you to check my LIST OF KRIMIS and look for them on youtube under the german original title. There are a lot of them out there.

KRIMI definition and sub-genres

 The german KRIMI movie genre generally describes german crime movies that were produced mainly from 1959-1972 that have cheap production values, are highly entertaining, surreal and even funny. Around 100 were produced in that time. 

A new german magazine for crime literature
If you want to read it: HERE

In Germany, Krimi stands for either crime-related movies or books. It is the abbrevation AND diminuation of either "Kriminalfilm" or "Kriminalroman". The diminuitive character means that their purpose is to entertain, not to educate. 

Sensationalist
german "True-Krimi"
magazine

Outside of german-speaking countries, only the Edgar-Wallace related Krimis are defined as Krimis. This follows the same pattern as Giallo. Certainly an Edgar Wallace Krimi would be advertised as Giallo in Italy and vice versa.

Let's find out which features make a movie unmistakably "Krimi" : 

Color or B/W: The more popular Krimis are in B/W and stylistically go back to the Film Noir which goes back to Expressionist Cinema which, of course, was a germanic thing. In retrospect, the black and white Krimis just "feel" more krimi than the color ones (of which there are much fewer as it was much more expensive to produce them) and the "Eastmancolor 3-Strip" films feel more "krimi" than the "Technicolor"-movies. The Technicolor-movies feel more "real" and coincidentally belong more to the gialli.

Indoor/Outdoor: The unique feel of the Krimis is given to fact  that most of the indoor-shooting took place for nearly all of them at CCC-Studios in Berlin which basically means that EW/BEW/Mabuse/ Films all had the same lighting and overall look to them.

The timeframe 1959-1972 is fixed by Rialto's output of Edgar Wallace Krimis, starting in 1959 with "Der Frosch mit der Maske" and ending 1972 with "Das Geheimnis der grünen Stecknadel". It is very odd that such a date is set. Nobody would think of setting the timeframe for spymovies according to MGM's James Bond cycle. Nobody would define  "Gialli" as being only produced between 1963 and 1976...

Then we got the setting. This is a surreal England as portrayed in the popular Miss Marple movies starring Agatha Rutherford with scary old ladies and spleeny husbands, preferrably nobility. In that, of course, the Edgar Wallace movies owe as much to Agatha Christie as they owe to EW. Out of budgetary reasons, germanic towns have to stand in for London, mostly Hamburg and Berlin but Munich as well as Vienna and Zurich or Welfian Hanover.

Joachim Fuchsberger was the male star of the 
Krimis, Karen Dor the female one.

Creepyness and humour. The Krimis were desingned to be as creepy as humerous, sometims silly. "The indian scarf" is the best example. Not only being basically an Agatha Christie movie, but it also boast the serial killings of the later gialli and a very ironic ending, trying to release the audience with a smile (which in this special case backfired).

A Scotland Yard Whodunnit. Typically, though not always the case, the killer is not known to us and will be revealed at the end. And it is Scotland Yard that investigates, sometimes there is an independent investigator (PI or simply boyfriend of damsel).

Gimmick-Killer. He's a monk, a nun, a priest, a skeleton, you name it. Sometimes.

Add to this to the existing definition by  HG Steinbauer, published on his "Krimihomepage":

1. German etc. (Co-) Production

2. Sensationalist/Outragous crime-plot

3. Recognizable German actors

4. Set in an idealized England, but shot mostly in a german country..

5. Comic-Relief character

6. Good vs. Evil and no in-between

7. Hero saves/gets girl in peril

Now let's have a look a the sub-genres:

A. "Edgar Wallace Style" Krimi: As described above, ideally based on a published Krimi (book), best if it was published in the "Goldman" Krimi-book series with its recognizable red covers. Those movies tried to mimic the style of the original "Rialto" - Edgar Wallace movies.

B. "Exotic" Krimi: Derived from the Edgar Wallace "Sanders"-Franchise, they mix exotic locations sometimes with spy activity. A "Fu Manchu" would be considered that.

C "Mabuse-Style" Krimi: Derived from the 1961 Movie "Die Tausend Augen des Dr. Mabuse", these are "Classic" Krimis but with a sci-fi touch and the aim of the criminal is "mind-control" and "world domination".

D "Giallo" Krimis: Starting with "6 Donne", most of the early italian thrillers were co-produced by the germans to sell them as "Krimis" to their audience. With the german and french movie markets dwindling quickly at the end of the 1960ies, the italians still were going strong at the BO until they caught up in 1976. 

"In the Style of Edgar Wallace",
otherwise german buyers would
be confused.

E "TV" Krimis: Yes, television was VERY quick to copy the Edgar Wallace style and produce some Krimi-highlights like "Das Halstuch" by Francis Durbridge. F. Durbridge became the Edgar Wallace equivalent for the small screen. These very well produced mini-series (each of the F. Durbridge Krimis had 4-6 episodes) absolutely have to be discovered outside of Germany. Some of them were even shot at CCC-studios like the "real" Krimis.

F "Grusel" Krimis. The scary ones, sometimes even supernatural, like "The Curse of the Green Eyes". I bet you never heard of this one.

Here is a short introduction.

The differences between Giallo and Krimi are quite obvious: The aim of the Krimis were to adress also a female audience. The target groups were young couples and thus, the girlfriend should have been not too frightened to get home. The Giallo does not care this and adresses a mostly male audience with an added south-european machismo. 

For the different Krimi movie franchises, please check THIS post.

Last words: As you might know, the germans don't get this when you talk to them about "Krimis". They would use "Edgar-Wallace-Style Krimi" or "Edgar-Wallace Epigonenkrimi" to describe these specific kinds of films.

This is original work, please refer to this blog when quoting. If you are interested in the german TV-Krimis, I wholeheartedly recommend this page : www.krimihomepage.de (translated by Google).

Yeah, ok, you want to know which 7 movies are in the DVD-box above:

1. Das Rätsel der Grünen Spinne (Mystery of the Green Spider) a musical Krimi (NO!!! Sub-Genre!!!) done by the folks that later gave us "Hotel der Toten Gäste". A curio.

2. Die Nylonschlinge.(The Nylon Noose) EC Dietrich's first KRIMI-style... eh... Krimi. Worthwhile though done on a very cheap budget. Dietmar Schönherr is a fine lead. Starring Laya Raki and her world-famous striptease routine (twice!!!) Come in folks,, come on in!!!

3. Das Geheimnis der Roten Quaste (The Mystery of the Red Tassel). "Tassel" Really. Strictly and 100% Austrian Krimistuff that was completely forgotten until this print showed up. An even greater curio.

4. Das Wirtshaus von Dartmoor (The Dartmoor Inn) is a better known EW-clone with better budget and some actual actors. They wanted to start their own series with it (based on the novel by famous crime author "Victor Gunn"who actually was a best-seller in 1964).Solid.

5. Der Nebelmörder (Killer in the Fog) started off as TV-Krimi, then became a movie to be shot in color, then became this black and white something. I have not seen it yet, so I cannot judge.

6. Der Würger vom Tower (The Tower's Strangler). Another EC cheapo Krimi, this time completely swissmade. But don't let that fool you. You won't find neither quality nor chocolate here. Adi Berber's last movie.

7. Der Spinnenmörder (The Bat / The SpiderKiller) based on "The Bat" this is a 1978 TV-Krimi, and not at all bad (ugh ...)

The Green Spider

Mystery of the Green Scorpio

Scary, Hard and Refined

The side effects of watching
too many Krimis AND
being a Krimiaut(h)or