DER RÄCHER - Peter Sandloff - "The Avenger" (1961)

Post 2201, no wonder I can't think straight anymore, and movies like tonight's feature aren't going to make it any better any time soon!! Welcome back to The Dungeon, and the ball of confusion known as Kriminalfilm, Kriminalroman or just simply Krimi Films!

Tonight's Saturday Night Special is titled "Der Rächer," or depending on what language you choose, "The Avenger,"and is a classic Krimi Film! Most Krimi movies were either based on stories written by Edgar Wallace, or stories based on stories inspired by the writing of Edgar Wallace! With what I've seen happen to Marvel and DC comics in my lifetime, I'm predicting there's going to be a major resurgence of Edgar Wallace adaptations in the not too distant future! Some day the name of the all but forgotten Edgar Wallace is going to be a household word known to everybody as it well should be!
The title song written by Peter Sandloff is either really poorly reproduced or the greatest piece of drunken music ever written! The music actually slurs!!

"The Avenger" opens with these two ladies opening a  box they see get tossed out of a car!

This guy's face looking back at them wasn't exactly what they expected to find inside the box!

I truly love this short scene where Siegfried (Too many Krimi movies to list) Schürenberg as Major Staines is deciding what to do about all the recent beheadings in the area while his secretary nods off like the next victim of the executioner!

Time for Heinz (Der Zinker, The Indian Scarf, The Mysterious Magician, Psycho-Circus, The Brides Of Fu Manchu) Drache as Detective Michael Brixan to step in!

Together maybe they will figure this mess out!!

The Benefactor has run an ad in the local newspaper, so if your life is a mess, and you want to bail, he is there at your beck and call! There can be peace for every lost soul, unfortunately, while he is experienced, he is not licensed!

Time to cut to the requisite exotic dance number!

 The sweaty guy enjoying the show is a gentleman known as Sir Gregory, who besides being a slimeball, is a major suspect because he has a very large sword collection! Sir Gregory was played by Benno (Raumpatrouille) Sterzenbach!

  Sir Gregory's only real friend is his dedicated man servant Bhag who he saved from some jungle Hell hole!

Bhag was played by heavyweight boxer Al Hoosman, who had a professional boxing record of  32 wins, 13 losses, and 3 draws according to BoxRec.com. They claim he was born in 1920 and died in 1968, but IMDB says he was born in 1918, and died in 1968, so Al was either 48 or 50 when he passed on! Born in Waterloo, Iowa, sometime in the 50's he moved to Germany, and was in quite a few films as guys with names like Hassan, Bonga, Tarzan, Pyles, Duke, etc. Al, like a couple others in "The Avenger" was also in the classic film "Town Without Pity" made in the same year and shot in Germany!

Then there were also the two main female characters, the lovely blonde on the left Ingrid van Bergen as Stella Mendoza, and the equally charming Ina Duscha as Ruth Sanders! Ina called it quits after 9 movies, but Ingrid has over 100 acting credits and is still active today! Great contrast in the top photo, with the blonde in a dark dress, and the brunette in a light coloured trench coat!

Nice shot of Ingrid in what I think is a 1957 Corvette! I'm sure somebody will correct me if it's a 58 or 59! It would also be my guess that it was red!

No, not done yet, because perennial Dungeon weirdo fave Klaus Kinski is in there too!

Call it intuition, but I'd be willing to bet that consummate artiste Klaus really enjoyed playing this part!

 I forget what the total head count was, but it was pretty high!

Just for the record, this is what you get if you do a Google image search for Der Rächer poster!
When computers start making all the decisions in life, I do believe the world is going to be an even stranger place to live!

RAUMPATROUILLE - Peter Thomas - "Hüter Des Gesetzes" (1966)

 

Guten Tag und Willkommen im Dwräyger Kerker!!

For this Saturday Night Special I've got a real treat for you, episode III of that awesome 60's German TV show "Raumpatrouille!" It is not animated, there are no rodents, and it should never be confused with "Ratatouille!" The disc was donated to us by Professor Grewbeard a few years back! Not sure what the Prof is doing these days, but I hope it's some kickass music deep in the heart of Texas somewhere!

This episode of the German "Space Patrol" is titled "Hüter Des Gesetzes" which roughly translates to something like "Guardian Of The Law!"

This brainbat has developed a new robot that he's showing off to the crew of The Orion!

Seems he hasn't quite worked out all the bugs yet, and the robot attacks the audience, like some big time wrassler out of control!

Svengali seems unfazed by the whole incident!

But the crew has other thoughts!

From here on out, it's just good old fashioned German eye candy!

The music for this episode of "Raumpatrouille" was once again composed by Dungeon überhero PeterThomas! In fact, the only thing that would make this show better would be sub-titles and more music from Maestro Thomas! 

Here's a short sample of what I'm talking about!

And HERE'S the place where you can buy song downloads or copies of the soundtrack on CD, or 180G vinyl signed by Peter Thomas! This just might be your lucky day!

I love the fact that all women of the future have the same hair style!

Time to get this adventure really rolling!

"Raumpatrouille" premiered about a week after "Star Trek" first aired on American airwaves!

Here are Klaus Holm, Wolfgang Völz, Eva Pflug, and Dietmar Schönherr, the main members of the crew of the spaceship Orion in a classic shot!

     

They've been dispatched to this planet to find out what's going wrong in the mines.

I dig this tubular walkway!

The mining robots are misbehaving and revolting!

What to do, what to do? Think fast Major!

This shot looks like some kind of robotic hen house to me! I can just see the eggs rolling down that corridor into collection baskets!

What else can they possibly do than zap the little bastards!

Time to get the Hell out of there and safely back home!

As my buddy Lord Litter in Germany would always say, 

"CHEERS!!"
If you'd like to check out our past "Raumpatrouille" posts, you can find them here, here, and here!

RAUMPATOUILLE - DIE PHANTASTISCHEN ABENTEUER DES RAUMSCHIFFES ORION - Peter Thomas - "Planet Ausser Kurs" (1966)

WWW.DDD = Welcome to Weird Wednesday Down Deep in The Dungeon!

Tonight we set the controls on the time machine once again to 1966 Germany, and the second episode of the very clever and charming German "Space Patrol," - Raumpatrouille - Die Phantastischen Abenteuer Des Raumschiffes Orion!

Episode II was called "Planet Ausser Kurs," and if I can get my translation straight this time, it should be something like "Planet Off Course" or as a Google translate, "Planet Except Price!" I think we'll go with the first one!!

Regardless of country of origin, for 1966 TV, "Raumpatrouille" is, and was, a wonder to behold, and with a musical soundscape by the always amazing Peter Thomas, it rises to the level of almost perfect!

Now if I could just understand what the fuck they were saying, I'd say it was perfect! The copy I have is in German, and was donated to the cause by that fine gentleman out of Texas, Professor Grewbeard! Don't know exactly what The Prof is up to these days, but I'm sure it's something amazing!

You can't tell me that it doesn't look like this planet just sneezed!!! ACHOOOOO!!!!

Everything about "Raumpatrouille" is clean and precise high-tech space eye candy!

Yes, it's true, there will be nerds in the future! Lots of them!

Jesus, not only do I need to go back to German class, I need to take algebra over too! So what would you call a green brassiere? An Algae Bra?

Here's two 1960's classic German space chicks, in the top shot is Charlotte Kerr as General Lydia Van Dyke, and in the bottom foto is Eva Pflug as Tamara Jagellovsk!!

Dude gets burnt real bad, and the viewer is exposed to the very first use of a spray on healing band-aid!

Here's a nice shot of that Planet Except Price!

Whoa, big explosion! Wouldn't you have liked to see this shot in living colour?

When everything settles down, it's back to the home base, drinks, dancing and a whole lotta love! Baby, I ain't fooling!