DER MÖNCH MIT DER PEITSCHE - Martin Böttcher - "The College Girl Murders" (1967)

Let's go ahead and end this week of SB nonsense with something from the master, Edgar Wallace. I'd be willing to bet that Edgar wrote more stories about sadistic bastards than anyone, because that's just the way the guy worked! Tonight's bad guy has an alligator pit, and that makes for an automatic inclusion into the SB Club, so in order not to damage you any further with my dull diatribe, here's Edgar Wallace's "The College Girl Murders"!!!

The hot and cold image of a red conehead with a whip in a graveyard sets the tone for the whole film, just so you know it's not going to be anything close to a normal ride!

So let's see, a lethal gas bomb in a hymnal!

Now that's some very serious bad gas!!

I'm pretty sure that killing innocent girls in church with lethal gas is going to get you ranked up there in the top ten sadistic bastard category real fast!!

On the left we have the almighty Siegfried Schürenberg as the classic Sir John, and on the right we have Super Dungeon fave Joachim Fuchsberger as Inspector Higgins!! Somehow you have to figure out a way to see all of Joachim's movies! He was great in "Room 13" as Johnny Gray, and here as Inspector Higgins, he chews gum through each and every scene, and is brilliantly cool about it all the way!!

100%, that's one hundred percent Edgar Wallace! You got your eyeball peephole like what's behind the green door, and a boss with opulent taste, and aberrant weapons of sneaky attacks from guys sent out by the C.S. boss that he sneaks out of prison in the garbage to do his 'dirty' work!!

This might just be THE best still I've ever captured!! Wallpaper City!!! I just reset mine! I think it's time to bow down to cinematographer Karl Löb real quick! What vision!

There's a lot of crap going on in the world, so just let one fly! Primal therapy, it works, but just don't freak out your neighbors!!!

Most of the time Joachim is pretty laid back and calculating, but he can get tough when he needs to!!! I have no idea why he didn't get the Best Actor Academy Award for this film back in '67! There is no justice in the world!

One great shot after another, and one last thanx to killer director Alfred Vohrer!

The music from this incredible film is once more composed by the German master, Martin Böttcher, another one of those guys prolific beyond imagination, and the titles that he composed for just go on and on and on!! It seems like the German composers are always right on the money with that perfect blend of swing and tension, and this film is just one more fine sample of that, and what you can find on Netflix if you start digging around in the corners deep enuf, but don't get too excited, because there's only a couple of Edgar Wallace titles there, but until somebody brings out the 113 disc Edgar Wallace box set, we'll have to live with what we can get!!

THE EDGAR WALLACE MYSTERY THEATRE - "The Malpas Mystery" (1967)

 

"It's Another Saturday Night And I Ain't Got Nobody" except Edgar Wallace, and I'm good with that! 

This week's Saturday Night Special is episode five of "The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre" from 1967 titled "The Malpas Mystery."

 

The show opens with a woman being released from prison. The women is named Audrey Bedford and was played by Maureen (The Deadly Game) Swanson.

Maureen retired from acting when she married into royalty in 1969.

At least she's not alone, because she has a not so loving stepsister named Dora, as played by Sandra (Devil Doll) Dorne. Dora's housekeeper was played by Catherine (Curse Of The Werewolf) Feller.

At first Audrey is rebuked by her stepsister, but is then welcomed when said sister gets a call.

So the two sisters go to a party where there are stupid rich people that need to be taken advantage of!

Mr. Malpas is a creepy dude who lives in a run down flat!

This guy has some pertinent information for him that's for sale!

 

Yeah, well, it doesn't exactly work that way, and the informant disappears never to be seen again until they fish his body out of the river.

This is the scary looking entrance to Malpas' place.

Up the stairs and into a weird room where Mr. Malpas shines a bright light in your face so you can't see him!

Anthony (Captain Midnight) Bate is the constable who put Audrey away, but he's also falling for her in a big way now that she's out.

Allan (The Trygon Factor) Cuthbertson is Lacey Marshalt, the neighbor of the mysterious Mr. Malpas. He's also a scoundrel and Dora's boyfriend. He's always complaining that Malpas is strange, and there's always weird noises coming from his flat.

Not very many people in this story, or actually almost any Edgar Wallace tale, are who they pretend to be.

A seemingly dead Lacey is found in the room of Malpas, but he's not really dead!

Dora pretends to be Audrey in an effort to chisel some money out of Audrey's Dad who hasn't seen her in 20 years.

Lots of drinking, lots of smoking, and lots of mystery, and the guy you can thank for it all is my good friend Lord Litter in Berlin, just because he knows how much I dig Edgar Wallace.

I'm telling you, if you like good music, he provides more of it today than anybody I know on his radio shows!

Try it, you'll like it, and that's a guarantee!

DAS GASTHAUS AN DER THEMSE - Martin Böttcher - "Mekka Twist" (1962)

Anybody who has read this blog at all knows I dig a good mystery, but one thing that's not a mystery is that Edgar Wallace is, in my humble opinion, consistently about the best at it, and tonight's installment, "Das Gasthaus An Der Themse" and/or "The Inn On The River" is no exception!!

This shot and the Martin Böttcher theme song pretty much sets the tone for the whole film! Reminds me of Spike Jones, and what's up with that squiggley little trumpet? Wild!!

Whiskey runners and harpoons don't mix!

Released on my birthday in 1962, the sleepy innocuous title "The Inn On The River" should have really been dubbed "The Sleazy Bar And House Of Ill Rupute On The River" and you would have a better idea of what kind of place this really is! It's called "Mekka" and the owner, Nelly Oaks is kind enough to do the entertaining herself! Nelly is singing a little ditty entitled "...Besonders In der Nacht."

Talk about rockin'!

Edgar Wallace regular Elisabeth Flickenschildt has the part of Nelly, and this is the only time she sang in all of her 100 marvelous performances!

Joachim Fuchsberger as Detective Wade is the master of the Cheshire grin, and once again the man responsible for getting to the bottom of this new string of murders committed by a person known only as "The Shark!" Da Dum!!!

Do you recognize this unscrupulous and scroungy looking character? It's Klaus Kinski as whiskey smuggler Gregor Gubanow!! Dungeon icon Klaus is looking particularly dapper in this role!

Big Willy takes over for the musical interlude, and I swear Nelly is flipping Detective Wade off as she exits the room!

Detective Wade is also kind of sweet on Nelly's stepdaughter, Brigitte Grothum as Leila Smith, and a has an incessant need to question her, even down in the cellar, and if he has to go down a coal chute to get there!! Brigitte has worked steadily in Germany, up to and including last year!

I know you've seen big eye shots before in your life, but this is one of the better ones!

Just try and imagine Klaus Kinski spying on you! Pretty creepy!

I was actually looking at this still, and I couldn't remember what I found intriguing about it, but then I spotted it! Every Edgar Wallace movie I've seen so far, has got an eyeball peeping out from somewhere, I think it's kind of a trademark like the cuckoo clock and the howling wolf during the soundtrack!

Siegfried Schürenberg always has to make an appearance as Sir John, it's mandatory!!

I aren't kidding, Eddie Arent as Barnaby, the guy perched up on the bookshelf telling his story, went on to play Sir John himself in 5 Edgar Wallace German TV movies made in 2002! Among other odd roles, Eddie was a doctor in a 1969 film called "Das Go-Go-Girl Vom Blow Up" that I found streaming on some site, but after jumping through numerous hoops I disappointedly never got it to play!

Detective Wade is just that kind of guy, that while smoking a cigarette, and asking questions, he'd still help a young lady hang her undergarments on the clothesline!

It's the old finger in the back trick, hand over your gun, I've got you covered!!

The composer for the music used in "The Inn On The River" is one of our favourites, Martin Böttcher!! We've featured Martin here many times for his superlative work on such titles as "Das Phantom Von Soho," "Das Ungeheuer Von London City," "Creature With The Blue Hand," and "College Girl Murders" among his 113 composing credits! Martin is still around, and has spent the last 20 years composing music for two German TV shows, "Forsthaus Falkenau," and "Pfarrer Braun."

Here's a decent shot of Rudolf Fenner as Big Willy, the bouncer and accordion player, that you can attribute to the keen eyes of Director Alfred Vohrer, and Cinematographer Karl "Frontal" Löb!!

"Let's twist again like we did last summer!" - Chubby Checker

Dropping by to question Big Willy's old lady the wigmaker, makes for a surreal scene!

"The Shark" has been very busy! After he turns his victims into human shish kabobs, he exits the scene via the underground London sewer system!

Edgar Wallace tales have a tendency to go all kinds of different directions tossing the blame towards every character, and then ending up somewhere completely different!

Finally, "The Shark" is caught robbing a safe!

Oops! Imagine that, they got the wrong guy, now who would have figured that out?

No, although a lot of suspicious fingers were pointing at Klaus, he's not "The Shark" either!

Can I get away with the 'pull my finger' gag one more time? Stay tuned and find out!