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THE
STRANGLER OF
BLACKMOOR CASTLE
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7
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4 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Film
Review by
Troy
Howarth •
DVD
Review by
Brian
Lindsey |
A
mysterious strangler stalks the mist-laden grounds of Blackmoor
Castle, and it's up to an intrepid inspector (Harry Riebauer)
to unmask the culprit...
In
1959, the release of Rialto Films' Edgar Wallace adaptation
The Fellowship of the Frog let
loose a flood of Wallace adaptations. Collectively known as
krimis, the films form an important link to the development
of the Italian giallo film (important early titles like Mario
Bava's Blood and Black Lace and
Dario Argento's The
Bird with the Crystal Plumage were co-financed with West
German funds, and the latter was even marketed as a full-blown
krimi in the German press), and like those wonderfully lurid
thrillers they have developed a passionate fanbase of their
own. By the early '60s, however, competing companies lured away
some of Rialto's staff (including Frog
director Harald Reinl and stars like Klaus Kinski) to make Wallace
pictures of their own, before branching off to adapt some stories
by the writer's prolific son, Bryan Edgar Wallace. (A note or
two about the Wallaces, with acknowledgment to Wikipedia, before
we proceed: While he is best remembered today as one of the
writers of the original '33 King Kong,
Edgar Wallace was, in his day, a best selling scribe on the
level of Stephen King. His murder mysteries were immensely popular,
and adaptations were soon mounted on stage before inevitably
hitting the silver screen. Far and away the most noteworthy
of the early film adaptations is the popular Bela Lugosi vehicle
The Dark Eyes of London [aka, The
Human Monster, 1939], itself later remade by Rialto in 1962.
Wallace passed away in 1932, leaving his son, Bryan Edgar, to
carry on his legacy into the 1970s. Bryan Edgar dabbled in screenwriting,
as well, and his name would carry enough weight among mystery
buffs to ensure a series of films adapted from his stories,
too.)
The
Strangler of Blackmoor Castle (1963) is one of the last
in a brief series of Bryan Edgar Wallace adaptations produced
by Artur Brauner for his CCC Film Corporation. These films are,
on the whole, more grim and downbeat than the sometimes tongue-in-cheek
Rialto Wallace pictures, but they clearly didn't find as much
popularity with audiences. While the Rialto films have a sense
of stylistic continuity, the CCC films are more random and variable.
They also lack the consistent use of character actors which
give the Rialto films the feeling of a stock company of players
— while competently cast and performed, those familiar with
the Rialto movies will likely find themselves missing the likes
of Kinski (as the fishiest of red herrings) or Eddi Arent (Teutonic
comic relief, usually cast as doddering Englishmen). Even so,
Strangler emerges as one of the
best in the series — and a film worthy of inclusion among the
best of the Rialto Wallaces.
In the hands of director
Reinl (the heir apparent to the great Fritz Lang, at least in
the eyes of Brauner, who would entrust him with the continuation
of the auteur's Dr. Mabuse series), the film moves at a good
pace and has plenty of style and atmosphere. Reinl can generally
be described as derivative — be it of Lang or of Mario Bava,
as in his Eurohorror pastiche, The Torture
Chamber of Dr. Sadism (1967) — but that's not to say
that his films lack appeal. They don't pretend to aspire towards
being Great Art, but they do function as Solid Entertainment.
Strangler shows him in very good
form, and he attacks the material with rather more ferocity
than he would in his sometimes tepid Rialto krimis. The absence
of overt comic relief certainly helps, and it also deserves
to be noted that he knows how to milk the most out of the various
suspense sequences. There are a few surprisingly gruesome touches
along the line, too, and if the final reveal feels a bit trite,
the journey to it is more than engaging enough.
Production values
are quite slick, with Ernest W. Kalinke's black and white cinematography
offering some memorable imagery. Oskar Skala's electronic soundtrack
isn't as insanely imaginative as that of Peter Thomas for the
Rialto krimis, but it functions well enough in context. The
cast performs gamely, as well, with the lovely Karin Dor (You
Only Live Twice) making for an attractive femme fatale and
Harry Riebauer doing well enough as the square-jawed hero. All
told, the film is well made enough to appeal to the uninitiated
while offering enough Gothic atmosphere to win over the jaded
krimiphile -
T.H.
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Region 1 Land we're stuck with the Alpha Video edition of Strangler.
Known
for their eye-catching cover art and crappy A/V quality, Alpha
at least does a better job than usual here —
and the disc's
only 8 bucks. The transfer is mastered from a moderately worn,
fullframe 16mm print; since the film's original AR is 1:66, compositions
aren't unduly compromised. All in all, despite the generally soft,
sometimes slightly fuzzy visuals, it's fairly watchable. (The
blown-out opening credits look the worst.) A faint humming is
occasionally present in the flat, muffled audio track, although
the English-dubbed dialog is always clear enough. This title could
really use a decent R1 release, preferably one offering a German
language track with subs. -
B.L.
12/13/08 |
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