This is another German-language Edgar Wallace movie from the 1960s, over 50 years old, and as in some others of these Heinz Drache plays a main character. The cast is pretty good in general. Clarin, Uhlen, Junkersdorf and Aren't are known names to German audiences and the rest of the cast are all pretty experienced as well. The standout here, however, is Klaus Kinski before his big breakthrough and it is already easy to see from this film why he became such a big star. He only really fills one niche, which is people with disorders of any kind that always have a touch of insane with them, but he fits these characters better than pretty much anybody else.
The film runs for clearly under 90 minutes, is in black-and-white and has a fairly simple premise. A rich man is killed and all his relatives come to inherit a part of his wealth. However, the deceased included in his will that they have to spend six days and nights at his place and so they do. And one by one of them get killed, usually after showing their true colors and threatening (members of) the group. A simple, yet entertaining premise. Side-question: What's with their testament by the way? And you can guess yourself which member of the group the killer is. As always with these films, it's not the most obvious choice. Not at all. Alfred Vohrer was one of Germany's most known filmmakers back then. The writer has a decent body of work too, worked a.o. on the multiple Academy-Award winning "The Sound of Music". The film ends with a pretty spectacular finish. It's not really logical all in all, but still interesting to watch and one of the best German Edgar Wallace films in my opinion. Recommended.
The film runs for clearly under 90 minutes, is in black-and-white and has a fairly simple premise. A rich man is killed and all his relatives come to inherit a part of his wealth. However, the deceased included in his will that they have to spend six days and nights at his place and so they do. And one by one of them get killed, usually after showing their true colors and threatening (members of) the group. A simple, yet entertaining premise. Side-question: What's with their testament by the way? And you can guess yourself which member of the group the killer is. As always with these films, it's not the most obvious choice. Not at all. Alfred Vohrer was one of Germany's most known filmmakers back then. The writer has a decent body of work too, worked a.o. on the multiple Academy-Award winning "The Sound of Music". The film ends with a pretty spectacular finish. It's not really logical all in all, but still interesting to watch and one of the best German Edgar Wallace films in my opinion. Recommended.