UM NULL UHR SCHNAPPT DIE FALLE ZU - Peter Thomas - "Jerry Cotton's Day Out" (1966)

There's a lot of fishy stuff going on here! A German film made in New York, and as far as I can tell, "Um Null Uhr Schnappt Die Falle Zu" was never released in America, so I do believe it was originally shot in English and dubbed into German, and if all that isn't basackwards enough, 87% looks like it was shot with Green Screen mixed in with a bunch of stock footage!! It is truly a marvel to behold, and the music by Dungeon superhero Peter Thomas is amazing, constant, and changes from scene to scene! Cheesy, Sleazy, Fat, and Greasy!! J, E, R, R, Y, C, O, T, T, O, N! Yeah!!!

No hesitation here, this film starts off with a Bang, and I'm not talking about Joy!!

I couldn't find on the credits who was responsible for spell checking!! I imagine that's one thing they'll pay more attention to when they bring Jerry Cotton back to the big screen later this year, and hopefully, they'll come up with a better title than "The Trap Snaps Shut At Midnight!"

Here he is, the man of the hour, George Nader as agent Jerry Cotton! George had a pretty amazing career! Signed and screwed by Universal, because they already had enough good looking guys, George was often given secondary roles, and spent a lot of time living in his best friend and lover, Rock Hudson's shadow! He started off in cowboy movies, starred in "Robot Monster," did a shitload of TV shows including a 25 episode run as "Ellery Queen" in '58 and '59, followed by 36 episodes of an ongoing role as Dr. Glen Bartok in "The Man and The Challenge," followed by yet another 36 episodes as Joe Shannon on a TV show called "Shannon," before landing this Jerry Cotton gig.

This is kingpin Larry Link portrayed by prolific German actor Horst Frank! Larry likes to lounge around in this wet room with his cigs, drink, and remote-controlled boat, get massages, and yell at his gang! It's really cool the way he chooses to talk to some person through one of his men, even though the subject he's talking to, is only a few feet away!

This is The Larry Link Gang, composed of Ricky Cooper as Pal, Allen Pinson as Harry, and Alexander Allerson as Husky! Allen Pinson also had a great career as a stunt man before passing away in Visalia, Ca. almost exactly 4 years ago!

It looks like they spent a goodly amount of the budget on Jerry's Jag!! Probably had a rental agreement that forbade the use of the vehicle on any actual roads!

Heinz Weiss had the ongoing role as Jerry's fairly useless partner, Phil Decker through thick and thin!!

It was a gentleman named Lawrence W. Butler came up with the concept of chroma key back in 1940 for the motion picture "The Thief Of Bagdad" starring Sabu, and ended up winning an academy award for "Best Special Effects!"

Lawrence went on to do everything from "The Giant Claw" to "Robinson Crusoe On Mars!" Green Screen aka Blue Screen has been used to create remarkable effects over the years, and these days, any 13 year old kid can do it at home, and tonight's feature is an incredible example of what you can actually get away with, using the process!!!

This whole Jerry as window washer scene is a freakin' gas, and Larry's hoods are starting to get a little uptight!!!

"I said, Beat it!!!"

All I can tell you about the Jack Palance with a bleach blonde wig lookalike Ricky Cooper, is that he was in a total of 5 flicks, and besides playing Pal(They say it Paul), he was Jeff, Ben, L'Américain, and Charlie! Monika Grimm as Ruth Warren makes this two shot complete, especially with that 'Garlic UFO' shaped lamp in the background!

Monika Grimm also had a short stint in the German girl group "The Sweetles," a Beatles tribute band that had a 1964 top forty hit in Germany, with the single "I Want A Beatle For My Birthday."

The lovely Dominique Wilms as Maureen, sells Larry her plan as he is attended to, by one of the guys!!

I just can't resist a good pinball shot, and can you believe that score?!?

Do you really believe there's a windshield in this car???

Larry's gang catches up with Jerry, and Boy, is he in trouble now??

But they still need Jerry alive, so they just tie him up instead of shooting him, and he manages to excape by burning through the ropes binding his hands with a cast off cigarette butt!

Amazing stunts are possible when you know how to use chroma key combined with rear screen projection to your advantage like these folks!!

My buddy in Berlin, Lord Litter, hipped me to the whole Jerry Cotton phenomena, but it was a bummer, because I could not find anything that wasn't region 2 until recently finding out that Sinister Cinema had released 3 or 4 titles that are quite decently priced. I'm going to get a couple more, and you might want to consider it yourself! Time's running out!!!

DIE RECHNUNG - EISKALT SERVIERT - Peter Thomas - "Tip Not Included" (1966)

If you like movies that are ridiculously absurd as much as I do, then the whole series of Jerry Cotton movies is made to order for you! "Die Rechnung - Eiskalt Serviert" or as it was released in English, "Tip Not Included," is the fourth in the series, and is just as good as the rest!

Once again, the music in "Tip Not Included" was composed by the master of maestros, Peter Thomas! I'd like to see every TV show and movie that Peter has written the music for! I'm sure all 158 are worth the time just to hear whatever amazing score he came up with! The man is a true genius! Here's just a tantalizing and tasty morsel of what he came up with for this film! It's some of the theme, and the song from the club scene, I'm not exactly sure who is really singing!

As always, here's George Nader as F.B.I. agent Jerry Cotton! He's a mean, lean, investigating machine!

THIS.................................................. You get the shaft, but the tip's not included!

Back stage at the wrasslin' matches, a bunch of thugs with colorful names like Caruso and Happy hang out making plans, while Mary the moll does her nails!

I don't know why, but I find these two shots fascinating! I really think I was born to be an architect!

Depending on which version you're watching, Yvonne Monlaur is club torch singer named either Violet or Phyllis! Lovers of Hammer horror will recognize Yvonne from her roles in "The Brides Of Dracula," "Circus Of Horrors," and "The Terror Of The Tongs!"

Here's the plan! Explode the armored truck carrying the goods, and while masked in a cloud of smoke, transfer the stuff to an ambulance hidden in a truck and flee the scene unencumbered!

Time for Jerry to catch up with the gang at the Catch as Catch Can show at the Catcher Center!

Pretty odd, some 47 years later, the Exide battery corporation just filed for bankruptcy last month!

Birke Bruck as the steamy Mary was Doris in "Shock Treatment" and worked steadily right up until 2007 in TV and the movies! Her little shower scene was pretty hot for 1966, and you have to love the fact that she took a shower with her glasses on!

This was Horst ("Whiskey And Sofa," "Gorilla Gang") Tappert as Charles Anderson! Gee, and I thought he was the boss! Guess I was wrong!!

Ride 'em cowboy! Jerry hitches a ride on a helicopter to show off more of the green screen technology that was fundamental in the making of  most of the Jerry Cotton films! You can get all the Jerry Cotton movies on Amazon or directly from Sinister Cinema for a pittance! I can't think of a better way to waste your hard earned cash!

DIE WEISSE SPINNE - Peter Thomas - "The White Spider" (1963)

Bug Kudos to Sinister Cinema for bringing out the series of Edgar Wallace films, "England's Master of Mystery & Horror" at a very reasonable price, and for including titles like "The White Spider" which even though it isn't an Edgar Wallace film, or English, it falls into the category of "And Others He Inspired" quite nicely!

No strangers to the strange world of Edgar Wallace, director Harold Reinl, and writer Egon Eis are able to spin this tale of a mad makeup artist as well as the master himself!! Harold Reinl also directed "Room 13" and the three best Jerry Cotton Movies! Mystery movies just don't get much better than this!!

A staple in German films of this era, Dieter Eppler shines like a bald diamond as the multi-faceted, and multi-faced Summerfield! Eye patch AND sunglasses at night, now that's a wild cat!! Summerfield is a very bad dude, and besides car crashes, he also has a penchant for cable and hangings!

Karin Dor as Muriel Irvine, the tortured widow left behind, made a successful transition from German to U.S. film, with her roles in Alfred Hitchcock's "Topaz" and Ian Fleming's James Bond vehicle, "You Only Live Twice."

Is the little white spider good luck or is it bad luck? Muriel's husband dies in a fiery car crash as he was leaving The Club, but what's really behind the whole thing?

The Germans have their own special ways of dealing with employees that they have a disagreement with!

Meet Horst Frank as Kiddie Phelips, one of the most devious henchmen you don't ever want to meet. He looks harmless enough, but he is a vicious killer! Last time we saw Horst was as crime boss Larry Link in the classic Jerry Cotton feature, "The Traps Snaps Shut At Midnight!"

The last, but definitely not least major player in "The White Spider" is yet another Dungeon iconoclast, Joachim Fuchsberger as just plain ole Ralph Hubbard!

Ralph is literally up to his ears in trouble as the smartass ex-con trying to help Muriel sort out all the problems after her husband's untimely demise!!

The music for "Die Weisse Spinne" was composed by one of the Dungeon's major musical heroes, and all around nice guy, the masestro Peter Thomas! Peter's work is always just one step above the rest, driven by boundless imagination and unpredictable jazzy scores. Besides everything else, he wrote the music for "Raumpatrouille" the German Space Patrol, The Jerry Cotton films, and a score of Edgar Wallace movies. Just a couple of titles we may have never mentioned before are "To Hell With School," "The Mysterious Magician," and "Face Of The Frog!"

Kiddie and Summerfield have a brief disagreement, and Summerfield quickly shows Kiddie who's the boss with one of his cable lasso tricks!

Ever want a cheap but very effective scary ass Halloween mask? Well, don't forget about the old silk stocking over the head routine, it always looks freaky!!

There's also a very mysterious force being emitted by the authorities, and even the local law enforcement can be subject to intense interrogation!

I can't count high enough, so I don't know exactly how many different personas Summerfield takes on during the course of the film, but I'm pretty sure it's more than Tony Randall in "7 Faces Of Dr. Lao!"

Here's even a couple more, let's hope he got paid salaries for each different character, it would only be fair!

In the film "The College Girl Murders," I wrote that Joachim Fuchsberger was chewing gum throughout the whole movie, in this one, I think he's munching on something about half the time! What a great character!

Joachim is the only one smart enough to carry wirecutters around with him!

I'm not sure exactly who to credit for set design, but isn't this a wild amalgamation of objects? There's a skeleton, a Balinese carved mask, a poster of a polka trio, and Lord only knows what else just for starters!

In The End, this whole amazing film gets a most deserved standing ovation, kinda like when CREAM reunited, it's an all-star ensemble!!