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!

PEPITO AND THE MONSTER / Cinematográfica Roma - 1957

Here's a rare little flick about a young boy who witnesses the disposal of a body by a magician and his brutish assistant, but the police do not believe his story. So, he seeks to find the evidence on his own. Pepe Romay was a popular child actor who appeared in several movies as the character of Pepito. The monster is the magician's brutish assistant and even appears in a gorilla suit at one point.

I have a sound clip with some creepy and swinging sounds for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our monster cave, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's... PEPITO AND THE MONSTER!

Anyway, Pepito is a little busy-body who sneaks into a theater to catch a magician's act.

Lo and behold, Pepito is chosen from the audience to participate in a very special trick!..

And, gets sawed in half to the delight of the crowd (and, Tabonga).

Another magician shows up to find out why his tricks were being used in the act, and, gets a dagger in the back for his effort. The brutish assistant takes him away.

You'd scream like a little girl, too...

If this guy was chasing you around with that big knife!

Pepito's family's a bunch of amateur sleuths who dress a little on the weird side...

The swinging tunes in the sound clip are being swung to by these teens. The band responsible for the music in this scene is 'The Rockets.'

In order to solve the mystery, Pepito decides to go undercover and so dresses up like a mysterious Asian Prince!

Again, what the Hell's up with fifties Mexican fashion?!.. Holy cow, Batsman!!

Pepito searches for the monster's whereabouts and ends up spending some time with him! Notice the decapitated head in the top photo.

Here, the monster and Pepito's friend have a tug of war over him, wonder who wins this match?.. Eegah!! will be here tomorrow with another treat, jus' fer ya'll... Yee-Hah!!

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!!