DER FROSCH MIT DER MASKE - Edgar Wallace - Fellowship Of The Frog (1959)

One thing I'm not even close to getting tired of is Edgar Wallace movies! I don't think I've seen a bad one yet, and "Der Frosch Mit Der Maske" is no exception!! Literally translated as "The Frog With The Mask," but that's one of the few titles it's never been released as!

The version readily available today from Sinister Cinema is called "The Fellowship Of The Frog" which is actually not a bad title since there's about 300 guys in this Frog Gang of robbers and murderers!!

The leader of the gang is called a frog for apparent reasons, and he is one mean and treacherous son of a gun, and pretty handy with a cutting torch to boot!

A Detective from Scotland Yard named Higgens tries to infiltrate the gang, but gets a little too antsy during the bust, and gets the froggy tables turned on him in no time flat!!

Betray the frog, and pay the price!! Higgens got a big dose of poison gas! What an idiot!!

Dungeon all-star Joachim Fuchsberger has the role of the American Richard Gordon, rich guy and part-time amateur sleuth! So far, I think I've seen 10 movies with Joachim in them, some day, I hope to see the other seventy-one. He's only been in three movies the last decade, but is in a TV movie scheduled for release in 2013 called "Live Is Live II: Später Geht's Nicht"

Time out to just sit back, relax and enjoy this cool shot!!

Fritz Rasp has the role of the mean old bastard boss Maitland! Fritz's career went all the way back to 1916, and in 1927 he had the role of  "The Thin Man" in the classic silent film "Metropolis," and in 1932, he was in a film called "Die Vier Vom Bob 13!"  How'd you like to work for this dour character??

If you wanted to be a member of the fellowship, it helped if you already resembled a frog a bit!!

The Lolita Club...........where men are men, and frogs are frogs, and there's no room at the bar  for little boys!

On hiatus from Andy's Gang,....... Froggy The Gremlin is the master of ceremonies at The Lolita Club!!

The main entertainment at "The Lolita Club" is none other than Lolita herself played by Eva Pflug who performs the ultra-cool "Nachts Im Nebel An Der Themse" which was written by Karl Bette, Theo M. Werner, and Hans Billian! The rest of the music in the movie was composed by Willy Mattes and an uncredited Peter Thomas!

Walter (Long Legs, Long Fingers) Wilz as Ray Bennet is being set up as the patsy by the secret frog society! The simpleton dumbass really thinks Lolita has a thing for him!

Maitland the Boss also owns The Lolita Club, although it's hard for him to enjoy anything. He's joined here by his right-hand man, Jochen (The Mysterious Magician) Brockmann as Philo Johnson!

The mysterious gentleman on the right is Carl (The Torture Chamber Of Dr. Sadism) Lange as John Bennet, stern father of dumbass Ray! He tries to get Ray to go back home with him, but Ray's not having anything to do with it! On the left is the maître d Everett as played by Ulrich (Lady Dracula) Beiger!

All the Frog members carry the mark of the frog on their wrist, so they are pretty much done for when they get busted like this!

The maître d Everett gets shot by the frog, and the rap gets pinned on Mr. Innocent Ray Bennet!!

In typical Edgar Wallace style, it's bad news for Ray Bennet when he finally finds out what his Father does for a living!!

Ray Bennet's sister Elfie von Kalckreuth as Ella has also been having her own problems with the frog!

Despite being an exceptionally tricky guy, the frog's whole world starts unraveling and spinning out of control!

The frog is such a maniac, he even fills his trusted accomplice Lolita full of holes!!

In the end, Richard Gordon and Eva Bennet stroll off together to live in his mansion happily ever after with his man-servant and best friend James, as played by Edgar Wallace stalwart Eddie Arent, trailing behind!!

DER UNHEIMLICHE MÖNCH - "The Sinister Monk" (1965)

 

It's a Sinister Saturday Night Special down in The Dungeon with another Edgar Wallace tale of woe, "Der Unheimliche Mönch," oder auf Englisch................................

 

 

........."The Sinister Monk!"

 

"We know where to find him, it's right about here, in London some place!"

And this would be the him in question! This is a story of cold-blooded murderer, and what happens after a young girl is murdered in a famous English boarding school.

 "The Sinister Monk" has an all-star cast that includes:

Harald (The Brides Of Fu Manchu) Leipnitz as Inspector Bratt, the man who has to untangle the whole mess!

 

Perennial Dungeon favourite Karin Dor is Gwendolin Gilmore, the girl who inherited the money, because of course, there has to be a girl who inherits the money, and a seriously nasty family who all want to get their mitts on it!

"The entire country lives in terror. The newspapers call the mad killer "The Sinister Monk."

Siegfried (The Mysterious Magician) Lowitz is the villainous Sir Richard.

Ilse (The Curse Of The Hidden Vault) Steppat is Lady Patricia.

 

Hartmut (Überfahrt) Reck is the sniveling Ronny.

Uta (The Oblong Box) Levka is Lola.

Rudolf (The College Girl Murders) Schündler is the eccentric mask making in house artiste!

Dieter (Curse Of The Blood Ghouls) Eppler is Sir William. 

There are a lot of Sirs in this film, but not many gentlemen!

"Who is "The Sinister Monk?"

Siegfried (Room 13) Schürenberg is back as Sir John, a role he would play for at least six more movies after this. "The Sinister Monk" was also the last of this series of Edgar Wallace films that was in black and white.

Und..........Last but not least is Eddi Arent as Smith, who if I counted correctly was in eighteen of these Edgar Wallace masterpieces!

 

Let us not forget the man who wrote this show, Mr. Edgar Wallace!

And his Co-star, the man who wrote the score, the always astounding, Maestro Peter Thomas!

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!