DER HENKER VON LONDON - Raimund Rosenberger - "The Mad Executioners" A Bryan Edgar Wallace Film (1963)

 

Welcome back to The Dwrayger Dungeon Saturday Night Special: Edgar Wallace edition!

Tonight's feature's original title was "Der Henker Von London" (The Executioner Of London) and was made in 1963, and released in English in 1965 as "The Mad Executioners!" It was written by Edgar Wallace's son Bryan Edgar Wallace, a fine mystery writer in his own right! The killer music right out of the Peter Thomas school of cool was written by a gentleman whose name has never come up here before, Raimund (The Crammer) Rosenberger! Here's a tasty slice of the title and a bit from the side show  "Mad Executioner Review" at an amusement park in the latter part of the film!

I love this movie! It's really two movies in one that converge in the end! One part of the film is about a group of hooded vigilantes who go around acting like judge and jury, and sentencing a bunch of bad people to death by hanging! They don't feel like waiting around for the Justice Department to take care of things, so they just do it themselves! The other part of the movie is about a madman going around beheading young women and discarding their bodies around different parts of London! Here's a great shot from command central at Scotland Yard! What's bugging Scotland Yard the most is that all of the Mad Executioner's victims have been hung by a rope from their own museum that keeps mysteriously getting stolen again and again, each time it is needed!

In the middle of this shot is Hansjörg (Brainwashed, The Man Who Sold Himself) Felmy as Inspector John Hillier! He was working both cases, but he took himself off the Executioners case so he could focus on the murders since his Sister was one of the victims! By his side is his girlfriend Ann Barry as played by the beautiful Maria (No Survivors, Please, Horror OF The Zombies) Perschy! To Ann's left is Rudolf (Island Of Lost Men, Skin To Skin) Forster as Ann's Father, retired judge Sir Francis Elliott, and the guy on the other side looking at the other guy is Rudolf (Dr. Crippen, Freitag, Der 13, The Invisible Dr. Mabuse) Fernau as Jerome the Judge's butler and closest confidant!

I do believe this is one of the most interesting compositions I've seen lately!

There's something eerie and extremely foreboding about men in black hoods that still resounds loudly to this day! So much, that I almost didn't feel like writing about this! Seriously though, these guys are really nothing more than trash collectors getting rid of a bunch of human garbage stinking up the community!

What appears to be a streetwalker is actually Chris (Kiss Me, Monster, Sadist Erotica) Howland as Tom Jenkins aka Gabby Pennypacker working undercover! Chris provides the bumbling comic relief character!

Here's a look at the side show act at the amusement park you can hear in the sound clip, and what a show it is!

The killer has been picking up young ladies at this one particular place, so Ann Barry has volunteered to help catch the slimy bastard, as he's known to be attracted to blondes!

Curiously enough, two of the guys watching, Ann walk by some headless statues! That's the kind of story this is!

The creepster is Dr. Phillip Trooper, a real pooper scooper! He lures the young gals to his pad that is filled with all kinds of fascinating artwork from all over the world! He'd be a pretty neat guy if he wasn't such a freak!

Spooky Dr. Trooper is played by Harry (The Strangler Of Blackmoor Castle, The College Girl Murders) Riebauer! He's got some serious hangups!

As it turns out, Scotland Yard didn't do such a great job of tailing Ann and Dr. Trooper, and now he's drugged her, and talked her into checking out his lab even though she tried to escape and the door was locked!

Dr. Trooper, as mad as he is, is also a skilled surgeon, and has a real Frankenstein plan of putting a live woman's severed head on top of that living, breathing plastic body he's built! It's all for the good of mankind of course, and all the murdered girls were nothing more than lab rats to him!

Finally, just in the nick of time, John Hillier and Scotland Yard close in on the crazed killer, but as they are driving him off to the hoosegow, the drivers decide to take a little detour.........

.............And the call goes out to all the Executioners! Time to show up, we've got a live one who needs to go!!

So it's at this point that the two stories meld together in seamless perfection, and The Doctor pleads his case to a deaf jury!

I'm not telling you the end, because this is an Edgar Wallace story, and that just would not be right, but do remember this, don't look back!!

"The Mad Executioners" is available from those fine folks at "Sinister Cinema," and you can also find it on Amazon for a pittance, and I doubt it would a decision you would regret! It also streams on Amazon for $1.99! You really can't go wrong!