Welcome to another edition of The Edgar Wallace Saturday Night Special down here in The Dungeon!
Tonight's German feature is titled "Der Mann Mit Dem Glasauge," or auf Englisch,
"The Man With The Glass Eye!" The music is once again produced by the genius mind of Mr. Peter Thomas!!
Right after the first victim gets stabbed, we get the oh so famous Edgar Wallace Spash, this time in, well, I was going to say living colour, but I guess in reality, it's actually dead colour! Edgar Wallace and Peter Thomas together again in colour! Now that's a combination punch that's hard to beat!!
A glass eye is left behind to perplex the authorities!
Speaking of authorities, these two are the main two guys! Working out of the
"new" Scotland Yard, on the left is the "get down to business" ex-Nazi, Horst ("Derrick" a German TV show that ran for 281 episodes from 1974 to 1998 as the main character, Stephan Derrick) Tappert as Inspector Perkins, and on the right, Hubert (The Haunted Castle) von Meyerinck as eccentric horndog head honcho Sir Arthur! Hubert started his acting career back in 1921!
We've watched over 1600 movies in the last six years, and I think this shot right here is just about as creepy as it gets! Just freakin' weirdsville, and if that dummy named Snookie isn't weird enough just to look at, it also calls the ventriloquist Daddy when they are alone together! The ventriloquist Eric is played by Otto (Scandal In Fairyland) Czarski!
Strange characters abound, this is Jan (Illegal Border) Hendriks as the knife-throwing midnight cowboy wannabe Rubiro! Rubiro has an ongoing feud with the freakcase ventriloquist!
This dancer who was with the guy in bed that got killed in the opening scene has just put on a mask not that different from the binoculars in "Horrors Of The Black Museum," except this time, instead of getting poked in the eyes, she is stabbed in the upper lip with two poison nails causing instant death!
Right here is where this movie really starts getting very strange! You're never going to guess what this young detective's name is, are you ready? Sergeant Pepper!!! Sergeant Pepper is played by Stefan (Will Manages The Whole Thing) Behrens! Now I don't really think Stefan is a bad actor, but whoever dubbed his voice into English needs to be given fifty lashes with a wet noodle! I don't even know how to describe it, it's that annoying! Let's just say it's like the worst whiney cartoon voice you've ever heard, but as bad as it is, it doesn't totally ruin the picture! Almost, but not quite!
Narziß (The College Girl Murders) Sokatscheff has the role of The Boss, the man with the glass eye, but guess what? More trickery, he's not even the boss! That's the kind of stuff that makes this film great!!! I think he takes his eye out at least 3 or 4 times during the course of the film!
Ilse Pagé is Miss Mabel Finley, Sir Arthur's secretary! Ilse was also in "Creature With The Blue Hand" where she played the character of, what else? Miss Mabel Finley!! She was also Miss Finley in "The Monster Of Blackwood Castle," and "The Zombie Walks!" Mabel is an extremely interesting character that has more than a normal amount of air in between her ears! She doesn't have a driver's license because she has a tendency to get the accelerator and the brake mixed up!
Two more of the main characters in all this confusion are Karin (Hoopla, Now Comes Eddie) Hübner as Yvonne, and Fritz Wepper as Lord Bruce Sheringham! Fritz was also co-star in 281 episodes of "Derrick" as Inspektor Harry Klein, and is still working today!
These are The Las Vegas Girls! They all have lots of potential to be shipped off to South America as love slaves with a cargo of heroin!
Christiane (Star Maidens) Krüger as Las Vegas Girl Linda on the left, and Marlies Draeger as Las Vegas girl Leslie on the right are invited to a party of ill repute, and are not real happy about it! Actually, it was Marlies' role in the Jerry Cotton classic "Death And Diamonds" that caused me to seek out this film, and I have no regrets even though her role here is fairly minimal!
Surf's Up Girls!!
Someone dressed as Snookie takes his Daddy out on one final date!
Mabel seems totally oblivious to Sir Arthur's advances! You can bet that while he's giving her lessons at billiards, he also has his hand on her ass, and she doesn't object at all!
When it's found out that the hollow billiards cues contain heroin, Mabel innocently tastes a sample or three before being whisked off by the inspector!
"The Man With The Glass Eye" is a fairly serious movie, that you can't really take seriously! The humour is tongue in cheek, and scenes like this where the Las Vegas girls are being abducted in a truck that says "Fresh Meat" will keep you wondering for quite a while whether this is a comedy or not! Leave it to "Sinister Cinema" to keep this stuff alive! I'm just glad somebody has the cajones to do it!!