Approaching the Grindhouse Phenomenon - what exactly is a "Grindhouse"?

Yes, we all know the term and we think to know what it means. But basically, all we know is the term "Grindhouse-movie". This refers to those movies shown in shabby cinemas to an uninterested crowd of hobos, dealers, homeless, prostitutes, trenchcoat-men and adventure-seeking juveniles like me. 

But what exactly is a Grindhouse, and how does it differ from a Cinema. 

Well, let's dive into this:

With the advance of 35mm-prints, movie reels became big and heavy. Rolled up, they would be too clumsy to handle. So big and heavy that it was impossible to lift and project a full-length feature at once. It helped that movies were split up into acts, like theatrical plays. So basically the movie was split into 3 acts (prime movie) or 2 acts (B-movie) roughly of the length of 30min each (hence around 60min for B-Pictures and 90min for A-Pictures).

Two, I said!

Yes, you needed 2 of them!

Because of this, if you use only one projector, you have to stop the "transmission" and give the audience an "intermission" where the projectionist has to unload the first reel and to upload and fiddle in the next reel. If you use 2 projectors and aim them at the same screen you can switch between the two reels and if you were a good projectionist, hardly anyone would notice. To give signal to the projectionist, when to start the second projector, small triangles were cut out of a frame in the movie, showing up as a white triangle on the upper right side. Sometimes the ends of those reels were damaged, then usually a projectionist would burn a hole with a cigarette into the print in the appropriate frame (refer to John Carpenter's phenomenal "Cigarette Burns" for more info on that subject). 

Basically that meant that each 30 minutes, the projectionist had to be ready to change the reels, and in between he would do the rewinding of the first reel and so on. Basically, he was busy the whole film long.

Only the plates, not the projectors

The German Willi Burth then thought of two things, why not project the reels from the horizontal, and is there a way to run them all through one projector and do you need to rewind it? These are three things. I know. Well he came up with the "Platter System" that looks like this: 

Going horizontally of course means that the movie has to be brought into the vertical positon for projection wich of course would stress the material, esp the surface that held the colors/the image. Now you could project even bigger formats like 70mm.

The movies were still distributed to the cinemas in 3-7 reels, but by taping them together and using a complicated system of angular feeders a movie could be projected in a near-endless loop.

All the projectionist now had to do was to switch the thing on and off and switch the plates. And thus, the multiplexes were invented, where one projectionist could operat up to 4 platter-systems at once.

Of course this damaged the films, As the picture is just a chemical sunstance ON the Film, not IN it, it would wear off.. Taping the reel-endings together too. But still, we are not in a grindhouse. 

The grindhouse was one (or one room in multiplex) cinema where they showed one movie basically 24/7, where you could enter when you wanted and leave too. The movies played there were low on plot and technique but high of "entertainment": A middle aged man in trenchcoat would have his cinematic desires satisfied after 20-30 minutes, so every 20 minutes, there had to be a stimulus. 

The movie print absolutely did not like this kind of handling and wore off. Basically at the end of 2-3 weeks the print was unusable, which is why only the cheapest prints (at the end of their lifespan or cheap movies made especially for those movies) were shown.

And that, I might close, was a grindhouse. 

I am not familiar with the legal workings in other countries. In Germany however, it was illegal to show pornography in a cinema, but legal to show in a club. A club was defined through the amount that was spent on beverages and cigarrettes. So the work around was that with each ticket, beverages or cigarretes were sold which made up 51% of the bill, to be consumed inside the cinema. 

Jess Franco, the walking death of Eurocrime (Part VI): The Case of Dr. Mabuse

   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 had delivered the "Akasava" on time, had sheltered the money put into "Deadly Avenger" by Tele-Cine and now obviously the last of Arthur Brauner's investment opportunities had quickly to be made into celluloid, Dr. Mabuse.

This leads us to "The Vengeance of Dr. Mabuse" or "Dr. M schlägt zu", the semi-inofficial entry in the Dr. Mabuse series. Semi-official because the original holder of the rights, CCC-Films, never used the name on this film. And in the german dialogue, Dr. Krenko, the main villain, is only subordinate of an unspecified "Organisation". Anyway, the movie had already been sold to the partners as "Mabuse" movie and so you get the name in basically all foreign versions of this movie.

CCC-Films today  do have an own "Jess Franco" category in their "classics" department (so it is "Karl May", "Dr. Mabuse", "(Bryan) Edgar Wallace" AND "Jess Franco" (!!!) on their official website!) and there it is complete with all foreign titles referring to Dr. Mabuse. CCC-Films too give the original working titles as "The Man who called himself Mabuse" and "Mabuse 70". 

Official CCC-Films archive-card for Dr. M

The Franchise:

You know him. Let's make it short. Based on a pulp-novel, the first two silent adaptations of Dr. Mabuse by Fritz Lang are absolute milestones of crime-cinema and if you've not watched them by now... come on. There is NO excuse.

Dr. Mabuse is a crime-lord in the booming black markets of defeated germany, he has the power of mind-control and uses various disguises for his deeds. He tries to found an international organisation with the money gained by his crimes. 

Aim of the stories and of the first movies is to show how rotten the capitalistic society was. These are highly political films, with the third, the talkie "Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse" actually replacing Mabuse with Hitler, the movie cannot be released and director Lang went to the US on a long vacation until 1950....

Let's play word-memory: Black Market / Crime Lord / Mind Control / Defeated Germany/ Better World/ International Organisation

CCC was founded by Arthur Brauner AND Joseph Einstein who was THE DON of Berlin's black markets after WWII. And Arthur Brauner only gets the licence for filming by the american occupiers under the obligation to re-educate the defeated german people with internationally produced movies and all will life in a better world. 

I do NOT make these things up. I just draw the line between the dots!!

No wonder, Brauner was keen to do a Mabuse film. He obtained the rights and even got Fritz Lang to do a fourth movie (The 1000 Eyes - which is not based on an original Mabuse story but rather on the very obscure "Mr. Tott kauft 1000 Augen" (transl: "Mr. Deass buys a 1000 eyes" by Jan Fethke, written in Esperanto!!!!!! and published in German 1932)). 

Before Lang decided to do "1000 Eyes", the first Mabuse script was a direct sequel to "Testament" called "Vengeance of Dr. Mabuse" (sic!), so this script is around since 1954!

After that, Lang does not want to do another one, so Brauner just takes the usual suspects of Krimi-entertiainment through 5-6 more movies, including a team-up with Bryan Edgar Wallace. All have a certain SF-element in them and gadgetry ("invisible rays") and Mabuse is using super-advanced technology. The last one as a thinly veiled James-Bond wannebe. 

Please note that after 1933's "Testament", the real Dr. Mabuse is actually dead, only his spirit is set free in the world and through mind-control he now controls subordinate "master-criminals".

You might be wondering why the figure for the french release of "Death Rays" is missing. As the CNC only records the top 30 of each month, some movies drop off the charts unnoticed. I would assume a figure somewhere between 200.000 and 250.000 would be a sensible suggestion.

The series has a steady but stable decrease in ticket sales and did well in foreign markets, obviously due to the prestigious name. Brauner stopped 1964 after "Death Rays of Dr. Mabuse" but with over 1.200.000 million tickets sold, this was still going strong. He had cut down his BEW-franchise the same year but that last movie "7th Victim" at least had had very low box-office returns. 

I do not see a reason for Brauner stopping the Mabuse-Franchise commercially. Getting in lots of co-financers from foreign fiefdoms (ha!) the financial risk was not big and Spain was virtually begging him to finally produce "Die Rache"/La Venganca, a scipt that had been lying around since before the 1st Mabuse film...

Maybe Brauner wanted to get out of the B-movie bracket that the BEW and Mabuse-Films had been. From 1965 to 1968 he would do big budgeted color-scope movies that did cost a lot of money like the Nibelungen-Remake, Kampf um Rom (A Fight for Rome) and 5 oriental Karl-May extravaganzas with whom he tried to fight the Rialto-Karl-May-Western success. 

All of these were intended to make Brauner, who - basically - had been a smut-peddler, an honorable man. Kampf um Rom was the biggest budgeted german movie up to this point but failed to reach the 1.000.000 ticket sales that the last Mabuse easily had trespassed. Brauner later fumed that he could have "produced 10 Wallace movies with the money spent on Fight for Rome". So he was regretting pulling out of these franchises and maybe decided to get back in again with Jess Franco on his side. 

The Living Corpses of Dr. Mabuse (1971)

A curiosum inside the "Mabuse"-franchise is that  Berlin-born Gordon Hessler's "Scream and Scream Again" was marketed as "Dr. Mabuse" film in Germany in 1971 (!). This could only have been done if Artur Brauner had sold or sub-licensed the rights to the name at that point. "Scream and Scream again" boasts the magnificent german title of "Dr. Mabuse's Living Corpses"

"Dr. Mabuse's Living Corpses" movie did not fare too bad just edging inside the year's Top 100 movies with around 500.000 tickets sold, still beating "Cat O Nine Tails" by 100.000 tickets. 

I have already checked into this anomaly very deeply and found some very interesting facts but that will be something for the future.... just trust me: 

Scream and Scram again IS a real Mabuse-film!

Obviously there was still flesh on the rotting corpse of Mabuse.

Case opened: Dr. M schlägt zu ("Dr. M strikes") / Vengeance of Dr. Mabuse

-or-

Plan 10 from Dr. M

Translation of the german title is NOT "strikes back" it is "strikes", "Strikes back" would imply that this is a sequel, while "strikes" does not. Furthermore, the german movie title for the 1960 french Eddie Constantine movie "Ca va etre ta fete" was "Lemmy Caution schlägt zu=Lemmy Caution strikes" althogh this was not a Lemmy Caution movie. Check out the first installment of my series for the Jess Franco - Lemmy Caution connection. And yes... the movie title game is NOT incidential. These titles, I have learned are like a code, but more on that in my "Scream and Scream Again Post"....

Obviously A. Brauner had fun too, rewriting the script for the german version, our supervillain is called "Dr. Franco" (script), although in the actual dub he called Dr. Cranko/Krenko 

Plot: This is as bad as it can get. There is virtually nothing here except that it is something about a device used to get a deadly weapon and therefor we have to kill/kidnap some people which our trusty Andros - the one from Franco's "Secreto del Dr. Orloff "(1964) does (Andros here looks stiched together...so he is obviously one of the superhuman "living corpses" that Dr. Browning had created in "Scream and Scream again"....). 

Andros, still crazy after all these years

"Secreto del Dr. Orloff" was relased as "Die Lebenden Leichen des Dr. Jeckyll" (Living Corpses of Dr. Jekyll") in Germany. See what I mean with the name-game?

I tried to try. I tried to care. But I could not help it. This is Plan 10 from Dr. M. 

Man. It sucks, in a big way. 

If you really, really want to see some Dr. Mabuse in it, maybe it is from the "Chemiker Null" novel but this is just about stealing secrets from a scientist. So not much flesh in here.

The problem is that it did not need to. Photography is fine to stunning (with some occasional lapses) but acting and script are below the lowest par on every level. This feels like an Ed Wood movie. I honestly do not know what Franco tried here. A complete lack of stars  doing their least to hide their desintrest. This is all ridiculous but not in a funny way. 

I am aware that post-modernists in the 70ies tended to make fun of the old heritage, but this is an insult. Mabuse always had a social commentary, crime evolving out of capitalism and disproportion of wealth distribution. This here is just a Orloff/Monster on the Campus copy with no meaning at all.

Charades, charades.

As with the movie, the title and the distribution, the actors play charades. Siegfried Lowitz, who had already played in a Dr. Mabuse movie and was a staple face of the Krimis but no-one to draw crowds, here has to play a completely different character  (Prof. Dr. Orloff (!)) for a day (maybe less - obviously he owed this to Brauner as he had he had dropped out of the movie business in 1965 to work exclusively for TV).  Lowitz dubbed himself too in this movie, which would mean that a theatrical release was planned. Overall the dubbing, though done by professionals (the german actors here dubbed themselves), seems rushed, as if there had not been any second takes. 

The actors behave as if they do not have a clue what's going on and frankly I believe them. I'm with sheriff  Thomas who intentionally does not get at all what this movie is about. 

It does not help that Brauner again uses the same score he had already reused for "Deadly Avenger", taken from previous year's sleaze-crime-fest "Perrak". This whole thing just feels wrong. 

Original spanish artwork by the  co-producers. There is no german original filmposter.

Original spanish artwork by the 

co-producers. There is no german

original filmposter. 

Franco had held back this movie for over a year before handing it over to Brauner, for reasons unknown. When he finally could lay eyes on the product he had produced, Brauner was said to be furious. Instead of using the script given to him, Franco had just made another Orloff-movie.

It could well be that Franco had used the money given to him by Brauner to remake his own "Secreto" and then just delivered that in an audacious move that quickly ended the collab.

From the title "Dr. M" it is clear that Brauner did not want to use the "Mabuse" license he had optained from N. Jacques. Putting it on the movie would have cost him 1000 DM in license fee, which would today amount to around 2000 US-$ maybe even more. As a business man he would  have calculated the costs against an additional income through the use of the name. And having no star-power (or anything else) to lure people in, he  simply let it be. Maybe he was even fearful of Fritz Lang, the man who co-created the movie character of Mabuse together with Norman Jacques back in the 20ies. I don't know.

On an interesting note, although Jacques did own the rights to his creation it is said that Fritz Lang and his then-wife Thea von Harbou (Metropolis) held similar rights to the movie-character of Dr. Mabuse which meant that he had a say in forthcoming movies with Mabuse. But there is just one source about that.

That decision must have been made early as the original german opening titles have the new name properly displayed. Brauner obviously did not want or could not use the name here. 

Does it matter? No. This movie has nothing to do with Dr. Mabuse.

If the premiere of this movie actually took place on Dec. 26 in Berlin's very cosy Capitol Theatre I  expect that half of the audience would have walked out. I am not aware of the ownership of this theatre back then, but I would not be the least surprised that it belonged to Brauner somehow and that it was just just a test-screening and no official premiere as no poster or other material proving a german release is available anywhere.

This movie release was so rushed (Board of Censors certificate on 20th Dec!, "release" 26th Dec) and then buried that suspicion arises. Cooperation with Jess Franco was abruptly terminated and the release of the last BEW-franchise movie "The Etruscan kills again" was on Dec .31st of 1972.

Brauner stated that "he never had any problem of any kind at any time with Jess Franco" but Franco did not touch German soil in 1972 and for some years later...

In the 1990s, when Dr. M finally appeared on the surface in Germany, the heirs to N. Jacques sued Brauner  for using "Mabuse" on this film (yes, they sued him for the 1000 DM). The court however ruled in Brauner's favour that the Mabuse license option had not been drawn on this film.

So it is officially (and court-proven) not part of the Mabuse-franchise. 

The spanish version, which is significantly different though, was marketed as "Vengeance of Dr. Mabuse", the old title that already had been sold to the spanish market in the 1960s on the script with the same name, that was not used in this movie.

Verdict:

Acquittal

Did he kill "Mabuse" off? No, because the movie in question is not a "Mabuse" movie. If it were, though, Franco surely would have killed Mabuse as profitable franchise once and for all. This is more in the vein of his relapses on "Fu Manchu" and "Edgar Wallace" -- too meaningless to have any impact at all.

Parole violation: Hm. As this is an Orloff-movie and Orloff is a creation of Franco himself, of course he came back to him a 1000 times. But Franco never trespassed the line and used the Mabuse-tag somewhere. So here he behaved himself.

Cliffhanger: I don't make these things up, I just draw the lines between the dots. And one dot is a certain "Dr. M", who is not the fictional character of Dr. Mabuse but a real-life person/villain/crime-lord that actively pushed the low-budget german cinema industry over the edge in 1972. Certain things make sense, like Franco not setting a foot into germany from the end of 1971 and Brauner, clearing it all off in Dec. 1972.... but you, my dear readers have to be patient. This will still take me a year or so to fully research this complex situation.

Questions remain: 

Why did Brauner stop Mabuse in 1964 although returns were not bad at all?

Why did AIP shoot two obvious Mabuse movies while co-producing "De Sade" with CCC? (yes, two!)

Why did the METROPOL (name of the theatre of "Invisible Dr. Mabuse") distributor call Gordon Hessler's Ninja-epic "Pray for death"  "1000 Eyes of the Ninja" in Gemany???? 

Man, I am curious... I will tackle all of these questions when I get back to "Scream and Scream again", but for now, let's continue our journey:

Jess Franco did not set a foot an German soil after 1971 and purely coincidentally sleazemonger EC Dietrich had just retreated to  neutral and tax-havenly Switzerland. So after a brief stay in France (and lots of accumulated depths by Franco) both teamed up to try to feast on another film-series. Next time we have:

Jess Franco vs. The Strangler

Here is a list of the books I used (besides many, many websites with singular information):

Peter Osterried's big format, colorfully illustrated
Hardcover from 2011 is complete with stunning photos.
A bit lightweight on the actual background of the moves.
All Dr. Mabuse movies are covered. Essential.

This is edited by one Solveig Wrage, a semiprofessional
publication but with lots of real archival material. If
you want to know who wrote what to whom and when, then that's the
book to go for, very lightweight on the "why" and simply
nonchalentely omits all non Lang/CCC movies.

Good english language overview by Holger Haase,
basically summarising all you need to know. Excellent 
value for the money asked by amazon kindle.
Holger got his own, worthwile blog here:
https://krimifilm.blogspot.com

Top 10 Gruselkrimis (and a definition)

Krimi is the short and diminuitive form of Kriminalroman or Kriminalfilm.

Here we are talking about movies, so it's short AND diminuitive for Kriminalfilm.

A Kriminalfilm is a "Film that depicts crime" of course as a movie and not as a documentary.

A documentary on crime would be called Kriminaldokumentation and NEVER Krimi.

A Krimidokumentation, however, would be a documentary about Krimis (either books or movies).

Now as with the Giallo, foreign scholars seem to come to the general understanding that EVERY italian movie that deals with crime in WHATEVER form would be called Giallo. Thus, people are calling the supernatural "Suspiria" a Giallo, which it is not. It is a horror film using giallo-elements - but basically it could never be published inside the giallo-book-bracket. 

It is not my job to define the Giallo, italians should do that. Back to the Krimi:

As I wrote above, Krimi is also diminuitive, which means "entertaining".. So the krimis will be not  heavy movies that make you dispair. It is made for your entertainment, not education.

The Goldmann Krimis with their distinctive RED color,
hence, red was often used in krimi titles

A serious movie would never be called Krimi but Kriminalfilm.

Eg. "It happened on broad daylight" is a Kriminalfilm. This one's serious, written by a nobel-prize winning author, directed and played by award-winning actors who don't give you the slightest idea of irony or sensationalism. It is tough as nails and will leave your soul drained like "Deliverance" - and no one would call that an adventure movie.

The "Krimi" is lighter, made by the entertainment industry, normally with less money, not-so-good-actors, and has a dose of self-irony.

This "Krimi" still could deal with anything from murder to bank robbery to abduction, theft, financial crimes (that would be a "Wirtschaftskrimi" - "Economic Krimi").

The Edgar-Wallace (and copy-) films however have a special tag. The foggy London of Jack the Ripper, the Castles of the old an vicious aristocracy, multiple murders out of greed, fortunes that vanish and cannot be found. These mystical krimis, meant to tingle the sensation of fear - and who are the precursor of  the Giallo are called 

Gruselkrimi

This is how these movies were and are called in germany. If you would say to somebody, "I've watched a "Gruselkrimi" yesterday", people would clearly think of an Edgar-Wallace-style movie.

Still, on amazon.de these movies are marketed as "Gruselkrimis"

A pulp Grusel-Krimi
"The Lady with the
Dead Eyes" written by 
"Dan Shocker"!!!

The word "Grusel" is related to the english word of "grue", "gore" and "crimp", basically to have goosebumps from the slight sensation of fear. It's not horror, it's a more delightful and surfacial experience. Thus the "Gruselkrimis" don't go too hard on the audience, they're just there to give you entertainment and excitement. 

The Edgar-Wallace-Krimis became synonymous with that term although some of them are simple Krimis and not Gruselkrimis (like Traitor's Gate).  Long lasting pulp-fiction novel series took this moniker and at the beginning they were like the BEW-movies, unruly bastards of Edgar Wallace novels. By and by, the horror element became supernatural, but still a crime had to be solved....

Horst Wendland, the man responsible for the EW-Krimis defined the movies like this in an interview:"People should feel safe to get scared. A girl should cling to the arm of her boyfrend, but when they walk home together, she should not be afraid."

The best Gruselkrimis ranked (ranked by scariness): 

I should include "Blood and Black Lace" as it was marketed as Gruselkrimi and was 30% produced by the german Monachia. I do accept however that it is the blueprint for the "Giallo", so I just concentrate on the "pure" Krimis - the giallo-factor shows how close the movie comes to being a Giallo.

I should include "The Red Queen Kills 7 Times", produced and shot in Germany, this is as close as you can get to a Krimi/Giallo blend. 

10. Das Gasthaus an der Themse

Overall-Movie-Score: 7

Grusel-Factor: 3

Giallo-Factor: 0

High on entertainment, one of the best Edgar Wallace movies, lots of atmosphere and a tight plot about a smuggler organisation where said inn is the front.

Not very scary though but so good that it makes the list and is preferable to the more goofier "funhouse" films like "Hound of Blackwood Castle". 

Where did he get those black gloves? They're awful!

9 Das Würger von Schloss Blackmoor

Overall-Movie-Score: 5

Grusel-Factor: 6

Giallo-Factor: 3

This is about a drug-smuggling operation and takes place on the road between a manor and a club. That's all. Multiple protagonists of this drug-trafficing band are being killed by a killer with only 9 fingers.

The BEW-cycle had to be harder than the family-friendly EW-cycle. Here already things are being switched up as we get to goodies like an on-camera beheading. The story is a bit muddled and does not move along too well between the set-pieces. The score is the first time anyone used purely electronic music in a soundtrack. Even the 60ies bar plays strange bleeping proto-EDM. Worthwile.

Naa, that's not the way to hang up a clothesline. If, by chance, a motorcyclist would use
this bridge...

Poor Karin Dor. In each of her husband's (H. Reinl) 
movies, she's being bound, gagged, tortured (even
in the westerns!!!). Happy marriage, this must have been.

Lame imitation by some italian "fancy" director. Pah.

8. Der Grüne Bogenschütze

Overall-Movie-Score: 7

Grusel-Factor: 5

Giallo-Factor: 2

Not very scary, more like a masked avenger movie about a wealthy american "businessman" who buys a british manor without showing any remorse (!!!). Now the Green Archer is going to haunt him. 

This one stands out due to strong performances in the cast and tight direction. And of course, Gerd Fröbe is in it. The german uncut print has a nipple-slip by Edith Teichman when they are about to get drowned in the cellar. I don't mind.

Obviously green, he is. In the later Wankker-spoofs they dubbed
him with the voice of Kermit. Which makes him even more scarien.

7. Die Blaue Hand

Overall-Movie-Score: 6

Grusel-Factor: 6

Giallo-Factor: 3

This is one of the many Alfred Vohrer "Funhouse"-movies. All featuring the same props (same skeleton, spiders etc.). I could list 5 more here and they are fun, but not really scary to anyone older than 12. This one here's a bit different as it is already clearly influenced by the giallo/BEW style. The first Edgar Wallace to be filmed in color, it looks glorious. 

Kinski, obviously being scared by his own reflection in the steel.

In this fancy copy, she too is scared by her reflection, but this time shot through a reflection. Clever.

6. Der Henker von London

Overall-Movie-Score: 7

Grusel-Factor: 6

Giallo-Factor: 3

Interesting departure from the normal Wallace-stuff. This is about a veiled organisation of monks setting up secret courts in a London graveyeard and sentencing criminals to death by rope. Very striking imagry and a good reflection of self-justice. Typical Fodor script (The Head) we get a mad scientist doing strange things to blonde girls' heads in his cellar.

Strong performance by Felmy. And starlet Maria Perschy (of Five golden Dragons ia.) never looked hotter.

Krimi AND Courtroom-Drama. It does not get better than that....

... except, that it does. See... he's an evil scientist doing "research" in his cellar...

5. Das Ungeheuer von London City

Overall-Movie-Score: 7

Grusel-Factor: 8

Giallo-Factor: 8

The spirit of Jack the Ripper seems to be very much alive in 1960s London as a series of brutal slayings by the Monster of London City has Scotland Yard baffled. In a macabre coincidence, a new play about the famous murderer is about to become a major West End hit… and the leading man is rapidly becoming the prime suspect! This is as close to a giallo as you can get with brutal murders shown in first person perspective (he's actually ripping the women up with a razor blade!!), a golden-gloved murderer. All set in foggy Berlin .. .eh London.

Hm, I wonder what will happen to her? This is something I do not understand.
Professionals would never work in a street where there is so little traffic.
I mean, where do the customers come from when there is
virtually no one there for miles to witness anything..... 

Hm I wonder what will happen do her? Na, fooled you, this is from the stage play about
"Jack the Ripper"... Naaaa, fooled you again. See ... .there is an empty parking lot 
outside...

This is from the uncut 4k scan. Remember, this came out 4 months before
"Blood and Black Lace" and certianly earned its X certificate...

4. Das Phantom von Soho

Overall-Movie-Score: 8

Grusel-Factor: 6

Giallo-Factor: 3

Very strong Bryan Edgar Wallace movie, featuring a bird with a crystal plumage, scary Elisabeth Flickenschild, bare-breasted striptease scenes, grisly murders of revenge. Ain't gonna lie: there once was a bunga-bunga-party on a boat near the Akasavainian coast. Not all came back. And now the "Phantom" (in creepy disguise) kills them all. Very, very good movie and though not as "giallo" as No. 5, this is by far the better movie. Essential viewing. 

The OG Bird with the Crystal Plumage

Cheap italian imitation. It's actually not a HORNITUS NEVALIS 
but a  GRUS CORONATA. Never buy a Rolex at an italian flea-market. I say.

3. Der schwarze Abt

Overall-Movie-Score: 7

Grusel-Factor: 6

Giallo-Factor: 0

Looking for the hidden family fortune, the black abbot turns up and kills everyone. A bit on the talky side but the first showing of the masked killer in his very unhandy disguise. I may be biased here, but as a kid I was scared s-less. So were friends of me whose walk to/from school could be abridged by walking through the nearby monastir's garden. After watching this movie, for years they took the longer walk through the streets back home......

Black Abbot waiting for "Blacky"  
(Blacky being the real-life nickname for Joachim Fuchsberger)

"He's got a cousin, you know. He's called: The Monk with the whip".
And, know what, he's the one who did THAT to Solange
read about it HERE

2. Das indische Tuch

Overall-Movie-Score: 8

Grusel-Factor: 8

Giallo-Factor: 8

When a wealthy man dies, his avaricious relatives look forward to inheriting all his money. However, he leaves a provision in his will that they all must spend a week together in his castle before they will be able to inherit anything. At the castle (which is cut off from the outside world), the relatives soon begin to be killed off one by one, each strangled with an Indian scarf. 

This is already a giallo in its purest form. First person strangulations abound, women in peril. Pervs doing BDSM suff (Kinski!!! and some unknow starlet who obviously thought a career in the movies would be fun!!!!), oedipal son mother relations. The ending is  lame, but apart from the last 10 seconds, this is a blast and I bet young Argento was deeply impressed too.

 She's having fun, she can't come to the door right now... 
Actually Kinski is enjoying himself far too much in this scene.

This is from the 1987 remake by some italian guy.
Of course he had to exaggerate.
Oh those italians!.

Mother and Child reunion.
Nothing is scarier than an evil clown and
comedian Hans Clarin
makes a best of the situation.
He's the voice of one of Germany's favourite children's cartoon characters
"Pumukl". Those kids are scarred for life.

 Of course, Flickenschild is wicked as ever - a certified nazi, A.H. personally
said she was "gifted by god".
Did not do her well after the war, so she had to go "hagsploitation".

1. Die Toten Augen von London

Overall-Movie-Score: 10

Grusel-Factor: 9

Giallo-Factor: 7

Wealthy, heavily insured men are being murdered at an alarming rate. Scotland Yard investigates and finds clues that lead to a ring of blind men, led by a mysterious “reverend.” 

The "reverend" is also master of a female delinquency institute and likes to drill holes into walls. We get scary murders, submarines, creepy groping and assaulting on women. Overall the most mean-spirited and best Edgar Wallace Krimi. This is before Alfred Vohrer thought this was all a joke and created the funhouse-style Gruselkrimis - which are not scary at all.

A delight. 

Leads Karin Baal and Joachim Fuchsberger would team up one last time in "What have they done to Solange". 

Adi Berber, pro-wrestler
 (the austrian Tor Johnson), was
featured in many krimis as
hulky but simple killer. He's the one to the left. 
The other is Karin Baal.

Adi "the Moth" Berber trying to dim the light,
to make things cozier. Sadly he forgot his razor...

See this is how it's done. 1982 remake by some fancy italian dude...

Oh, you're still here? Thank you. Let's see... Karin Dor in a Western
movie, directed by her husband....

In a horromovie directed by her husband....

Doing homework in her leisure suit... in a spy-movie
by her husband

In some other sypfilm. Not directed by her husband.
She is neither bound nor gagged nor tortured in this one....

Everybody's drooling about Barbara Steele. I should do a post on Karin Dor. She is a horror-icon and no-one aknowledges that!

Still here? Ok, here are some pulp Gruselkrimi covers...

Demonic Syringe

Cries of death from the Devil's moore

Satanas, Master of the Skeletons

you do not quit. Ok. This  is the last one. A nice interview (the man at the camera again had far too much fun at work) with Karin Dor on why she won't go nude in the movies... switch on subtitles

KARIN DOR INTERVIEW