Edgar Wallace Mystery Magazine

[dem bones]

Nigel Morland (ed.) - Edgar Wallace Mystery Magazine (April 1967)

Mystery, Crime, and Detection for the Aficionado

Edgar Wallace - The Wimbledon Vampire
Paul Tabori - The Sound of Death
John Steinbeck - How Mr. Hogan Robbed A Bank
Penelope Wallace - House Of The Cat
J. M. M'Intyre - The Long Day
Eric Slayter - The Forgotten Door
Eric Parr - A Matter of Prejudice
Miriam Sharman - Death Be My Solace
Jeffrey Scott - The Hand Behind The Gun
Anton P. Chekhov - The Avenger
James Pattinson - The Double Twist

FEATURES
Crime: F. Tennyson Jesse -The Importance Of Spelling
Recollection -Nigel Morland: I Knew Edgar Wallace
Reportage: Peter Magnus - Crime In View

Editorial; Briefly
Caricature: Nigel Morland drawn by Ralph Sallon
Relaxation; Crossword N0. 27.
Who's Who; Some EWMM Contributors
Reviews: John De Sola - New Books
Letters: Readers Say . . .
Cartoons by Maciek

Another of the terrific 'sixties monthly digests, Edgar Wallace Mystery Magazine was launched in August 1964 and survived thirty-five issues, finally going the way of all such titles in June 1967. Similar contemporary crime-orientated publications like London Mystery and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, are perhaps more of interest to fans of horror and supernatural fiction, but EWMM had it's macabre moments and, from the Christmas Xmas Racing Number's 'Index to EWMM July-December 1966', the September 1966 issue looks particularly strong with contributions from John Burke (The Calculated Nightmare), Miriam Allen De Ford (The Net), Thomasina Weber (Let's Play Monster) and Edgar Wallace's Blackmail, With Roses. That month's golden oldie was Villier De L'Isle-Adams' classic conte cruel, The Salvationists (AKA The Torture Of Hope). Lord Russell's thoughts on The Hanratty Case (July) evidently sparked a lively debate on the letters page, while, in light of the then recent trial of Brady & Hindley, Colin Wilson's The New Trend In Murder argues the case for a new science, 'Murderology.' It's likely the article was later reworked and absorbed into one of his book length crime studies, but in raw form it's fascinating. He even wonders aloud if we might all be better off living under a police state. If ever was a case of 'be careful what you wish for' ...

The fiction sampled to date is light crime pulp, nothing especially horrible, even Samuel Warren's famous account of an attempt at body-snatching, The Resurrectionists, is more macabre comedy than all-out corpse fest, so will give pride of place to Wallace's own The Wimbledon Vampire, if only because it was that title decided me to buy these issues at Mr. Leslie's much-loved junk shop many moons ago.

Edgar Wallace - The Wimbledon Vampire: "This gay story has all the light-hearted escapism which makes EW the most readable of crime writers. It is exclusive to EWMM and never before published." From which you'll gather that we're talking a glamorous gold-digger as opposed to a properly undead Brides Of Dracula. In collusion with her estranged husband, devilishly attractive Lila Morestrel preys on a string of extremely gullible suitors, amassing a fortune in settlements along the way. The blackmailers' latest target, Mike Long, is heir to a £3 million fortune. As to his soppy fiancée, Lady Mary Midsten, as far as Lila is concerned, she can have him once he's been relieved of his surplus wealth. But Mary is not the shrinking wallflower the Morestrel's take her for, and vows to deliver her intended from "that unspeakable reptile." With the help of a reformed burglar who owes her a favour and Daddy, who lends her the cash to buy an ailing scandal magazine, Social Snaps, Mary puts the Wimbledon Vampire to flight. Dopey Mike really doesn't deserve her.

J. M. M'Intyre - The Long Day: "A chill little Grand Guignol short-short which makes you say: 'I wonder?'. Texan Lew Cassidy, a former motor-racing champ down on his luck and owing on his rent, is offered a substantial sum of money to act as driver on a hush-hush operation in Dallas ....

Nigel Morland (ed.) - Edgar Wallace Mystery Magazine (Enlarged Xmas Racing number, Dec. 1967)

Mystery, Crime, and Detection for the Aficionado

Edgar Wallace - The Christmas Cup
Dick Sharples - The Reluctant Traitor
Eric Parr - A Merry Christmas From Nicodemus
Agatha Christie - The Dead Harlequin
Peter Wallace - Fast Money
Samuel Warren - The Resurrectionists
Geoff Taylor - .... China. 'Cross The Bay

FEATURES
Crime: Colin Wilson - The New Trend In Murder
Vignette: Roger Garnett - The Tote Riggers
John De Sola - New Books

Editorial; Briefly
Caricature: Julian Symons drawn by Ralph Sallon
Relaxation; Crossword N0. 23.
Contest: Racing Competition
Who's Who; Some EWMM Contributors
Cartoons: Christmas with 'Maciek'
Letters: Readers Say . . .

[dem bones]

Jack Adrian (ed.) - Edgar Wallace: The Sooper & Others (Dent, 1984)

Brian Grimwood

THE FOUR JUST MEN
The Man who Hated Amelia Jones
The Man with the Canine Teeth
The Man who Died Twice

THE SOOPER
The Little Dragon of Jade
The House of the Candles
The More-or-Less Crime
The Get-Back
Warm and Dry

ANGEL, ESQUIRE
The Silver Charm
The Monkey and the Box
The Impossible Theft

THE BLACKMAIL EXPERT
A Raid on a Gambling Hell

THE BRIGAND
The Plum-Pudding Girl The Guest of the Minnows

THE STEWARD
Blooming Aloes

THE REPORTER
The Caretaker in Charge

THE RINGER
The Man with the Red Beard
A Servant of Women
The Blackmail Boomerang

Blurb:
A selection of Edgar Wallace's most brilliant and entertaining crime stories.

Few writers can have had such a varied experience of life as Edgar Wallace. Brought up by a Billingsgate fish-porter and his wife, he worked while still in his teens as a ship's cook and captain's boy on a Grimbsy trawler, a shoe salesman and a newspaper boy. Later, his career in the Army Medical Corps and in Fleet Street further enriched his fund of anecdotes and salty language. He also became a passionate gambler, especially on the racecourse, frequenting that twilight zone populated by fascinating and plausible characters, one-quarter straight, three-quarters crook.

It was this zest for experience that made Wallace such a brilliant story-teller, with a sharp ear for dialogue, a profound knowledge of people from all walks of life, and a journalist's nose for a good story. He wrote hundreds of stories, but those grouped around the characters in this selection are probably the most enduringly appealing. In these pages you will meet 'The Sooper', Wallace's thoroughly down-to-earth police hero; super-sleuth Angel, Esquire; the Brigand, a charming conman; the Ringer, a classic hero-villain; and many more. Here are stories of confidence tricks on transatlantic liners and forgery in Notting Hill, of blackmail, murder, and theft. For anyone with a taste for crime fiction this selection is a feast of first-class exciting reading.

The Man With The Red Beard: Superintendent Bliss, the pride of Scotland Yard, always gets his man - unless that man is Henry Arthur Milton, aka The Ringer, the most wanted man in Britain. The Ringer, man of a thousand disguises, is an avenging angel visiting ultimate justice upon those whose wealth has seen them walk free from court despite the most heinous crimes. Such a one is international playboy Miska Guild. Ethel Seddings, chorus girl, leapt to her death from the fifth floor rather than suffer molestation at his lecherous hands. The Ringer sends him a note advising him to settle his worldly affairs as he is coming to London to kill him. Superintendent Bliss has no liking for Guild, but that does not mean he will allow the Ringer to make good his threat. Top snout Wally the Nose is told to put his talent to its best use and locate the vigilante's current whereabouts.

A Servant of Women: The Ringer is living under an assumed identity in a Norbury semi-detached. Lucy Oring, the daughter of his seafaring next door neighbour, is ruined when she falls foul of kindly, white haired Mrs Graddle, a procurer for "that type of West End club which appears on and is struck from the register so very rapidly that you might not know it had ever existed." Mrs. Grabble is in partnership with her son, Julian, a ladies hairdresser, who passes on all the gossip overheard in his salon. The Ringer has the lily-livered Julian thrown aboard a ship bound for Bagdad to live out his days a slave in the service of a wealthy and powerful friend, Ibn el Masjik, with the recommendation that he be sorely used as "a servant to women."

[pulphack]

As you would expect from Jack Adrian, a good collection with some otherwise hard to find stories that didn't always surface in book form. A lot of EW's shorter stuff languished in newspaper and magazine files. Many years back I belonged to the Crimson Circle, and with every issue of their newsletter they included a photocopy of a magazine or newspaper story that had failed to surface, or had only found a home between covers after much changing. I have a real soft spot for the Sooper, although Minter's irascibility and homespun philosophy is perhaps an acquired taste. I only know of one novel in which he appeared - Big Foot - but it's up there with Dark Eyes Of London, Jack O'Judgement and Terror Keep as one of the best.

[dem bones]

Sept 3, 2014 7:48:17 GMT pulphack said:

As you would expect from Jack Adrian, a good collection with some otherwise hard to find stories that didn't always surface in book form. A lot of EW's shorter stuff languished in newspaper and magazine files. Many years back I belonged to the Crimson Circle, and with every issue of their newsletter they included a photocopy of a magazine or newspaper story that had failed to surface, or had only found a home between covers after much changing. I have a real soft spot for the Sooper, although Minter's irascibility and homespun philosophy is perhaps an acquired taste. I only know of one novel in which he appeared - Big Foot - but it's up there with Dark Eyes Of London, Jack O'Judgement and Terror Keep as one of the best.

Thanks ever so for the recommendations, mr. hack. Have long been meaning to sample Wallace's prodigious output and J.A.'s compilation seemed the ideal starter pack.The Ringer is an intriguing creation. However 'deserving' his victims, it's clear the man is made of the same stuff as de Sades anti-heroes and heroines, with a particular down on ladies hairdressers. Will be turning my attention to 'The Sooper' next. Splendid introduction by the man of a million pseudonyms, too.

[dem bones]

Edgar Wallace - The Casefiles Of Mr. J. G. Reeder (Wordsworth Editions, 2010)

Nathan Clair

David Stuart Davies - Introduction

Room 13

The Mind Of Mr. J. G. Reeder
The Poetical Policeman
The Treasure Hunt
The Troupe
The Stealer of Marble
Sheer Melodrama
The Green Mamba
The Strange Case
The Investors

Terror Keep

Blurb:
‘How on earth did you piece together all this?’ he asked in wonder. Mr Reeder shook his head sadly. ‘I have that perversion,’ he said. ‘It is a terrible misfortune. I see evil in everything. I have the mind of a criminal.’
Let us introduce you to the enigmatic J. G. Reeder, a timid, gentle middle-aged man who carries a furled up umbrella and wears an old-fashioned flat-topped bowler hat. He is one of the great unsung sleuths of mystery fiction, created by the prolific Edgar Wallace, the ‘King of Thrillers’. Despite his insignificant appearance, Reeder is a cold and ruthless detective who credits his success to his ‘criminal mind’ which allows him to solve a series of complex and audacious crimes and outwit the most cunning of villainous masterminds.

This volume is a rich feast for crime fiction fans, containing the first three volumes in the Reeder canon: two novels, Room 13 and Terror Keep; and the classic collection of short stories, The Mind Of Mr. J. G. Reeder

Another stub. Keep meaning to give Edgar Wallace a proper go, but something else - invariably involving a woman in peril from a MAD SCIENTIST, evil monk, sado-nun, man dressed up as an octopus, etc - always distracts me. Odd thing is, those few EW's I've read have been full-on entertainers. Maybe Mr. Reeder will be the man to finally sink in a hook.

[pulphack]

See that Terror Keep what I mentioned, like? There it is! But first, a quick detour to The Woman From The East, as kindly donated by Dem the other week: a collection of unconnected short stories, it's notable for the idiot compiler placing two stories in which a murdered millionaire is replaced by an anonymity loving doppleganger not just in the same volume but right next to each other (!) and also for Control No2, in which a surgeon with ideas for operating on babies and conducting behavioural experiments with their upbringings finds that nature will out and the wrong child becomes a sex killer... not common Edgar territory, but rather nicely handled. As it were.

Anyway, since it came out I've considered that Wordsworth collection an odd one. The Mind Of JG Reeder is the book that has all the best known shorts, yet this volume puts the two novels in with it and omits the three collections of novellas - JG Reeder Returns and The Guv'nor had two apiece, and Red Aces had three. All these fit with the idea of Reeder being a mild-mannered resident of Brockley, poultry keeper and civil servant with the unfortunate affliction of having a criminal's mind which enables him to out-think your average (and not so average) criminal mastermind. He seems inoffensive, but appearances are deceptive, and he can be pretty swift with a pistol or swordstick. He's also charmingly gauche in his courtship of Miss Margaret Bellman. Now, when Terror Keep happens along, Mad John Flack kidnaps her to get back at JG for a long sentence on Dartmoor, and JG swings into action more redolent of Wallace's other, more action-packed thrillers. It's a great book, but the novella collections go better in tone with the shorts.

As for Room 13 - now there's an oddity. Written a decade before the other Reeder stories, it's a so-so earlier Wallace thriller which features a mild-mannered and very ineffectual Reeder who is bumbling, looks the same, but is actually very obstructive to the hero, young dashing John Gray, despite his reputation as sharp and on the side of truth. Thing is, at the denouement, it transpires that John Gray is John Gray Reeder, and the bumbling older Reeder is actually a decoy put in by Gray to fool his enemies. I don't know, but I always suspect that EW got a commission for a series of stories years later, was casting around for an unusual hero, and thought 'aha, no-one will remember that book as it stiffed!'... It's not worthy of being in the same volume as the other books, especially when it's such an anomaly and there were better options.

JT Edson actually featured Reeder in two of his Company Z novels, and in in typical JT fashion got round the anomaly by having three Reeders - an uncle and two nephews, with the younger coves dressing up at times as their uncle to fool criminals (this was how he got round the problem of the older Reeder doing his own stunts in Terror Keep, which is, frankly stretching things at times). It sounds barmy but it does work, and even though it's the usual JT style and doesn't have EW's informal and journalistic style, being a little more pompous and pedantic (but I do like him for it), JT's absolute love of EW smooths this over.

So in short, approach Room 13 with caution, but I reckon Dem will like Terror Keep (it's what Horler aspired to but couldn't reach) and probably the short stories, too.

[dem bones]

Taking my lead from Mr. Hack's instructive series overview above, decided to bypass Number 13, and tackle the eight shorts as acclimatisation for Terror Keep.

Sheer Melodrama: Chose this one to begin with because looks like Jack Adrian borrowed the title for a Strange Tales From The Strand section heading. Then I read David Stuart Davies's introduction, which suggests the Mind of ... stories are best read in order...

Thinking himself beholden to Miss Margaret Belman for placing her in a dangerous situation, Mr. Reeder, who, at fifty-two has never known a woman, nervously invites her to attend tonight's performance at the Orpheum theatre as his guest (no skin off his nose, he gets his tickets for free). Miss Belman delightedly accepts, though she wonders how the great private detective can possibly enjoy The Fires Of Vengeance when the action is so far removed from reality. Reeder assures her that there are real-life precedents for every murderous activity featured in the plot. As if to prove his point, also in attendance - and keeping a keen eye on Reeder and his glamorous companion - are Tommy Fenalow, prince of the counterfeiters and Ras Lal, self-styled criminal mastermind, both of whom determined to knock J. C. off his perch.

The Poetical Policeman: A night-watchman dies in bizarre circumstances during a successful bank robbery. All the evidence points to an inside job, the bank manager, Mr. Lambton Green, once having served a prison sentence for embezzlement. Reeder intervenes on his behalf and unravels a devilish blackmail conspiracy, with his client as patsy. Lovestruck P.C. Burnett inadvertently supplies the key via one of his rubbish romantic poems. The great detective offers his heartfelt commiserations:

"It is never wrong to be in love,' said Mr. J. G. Reeder. "Love is a very beautiful experience - I have regularly read about it.'

Fist impressions: Mr Reeder is perhaps the least all-action hero this side of E. G. Swain's gentle spook-whisperer, Mr. Batchel. Seems such a melancholy soul, too, so how his painfully awkward (and, probably, unconscious) romancing of cheery Miss Belman works out is anybody's guess.

[pulphack]

You'd be surprised - JG is a man of hidden depths. Which is why DSD has a point - read them in order and you do see how his character reveals more about him as the overall story emerges. By the time you get to Terror Keep...

I shall say no more about this for now, as Reeder is probably one of, if not the, key figure in my love of crime fiction. (I guess The Baron, The Toff, Sexton Blake and Fletch also figure over the years), and I am horribly biased!

[andydecker]

Is Wallace still readable today? I have seen most of the movies, but I tried to read one of his novels a few years ago and got stuck fast. Which one is recommended reading?

[pulphack]

It's debatable, Andy. I think he is, but then I've always liked the style of '20's and '30's thrillers and still read a lot of them, so may not be the best person to comment. For what it's worth, I think it's true that he dragged the thriller out of the Edwardian era and into the C20 in terms of style by applying his reporter's technique to prose, streamlining a lot of what went before. However, the downside of that is that although many of the stories have their lurid moments, the style is never as purple prose lurid as the best of the pulpsters, or people like Rohmer, who have aged less well but have appeal purely because of that cheese factor.

Also, his sheer prodigality goes against him: the other month I read The Missing Million, which comes from the period 1921-32, when he signed with Hodder and was producing a book a month on average. These were mostly thrillers, and they could be generic at times. The Missing Million is one of those - I enjoyed it as an EW fan, but it wouldn't be the best place to start. His pre-Hodder work for Ward Lock remains some of his best, though the Sanders of the River books are contentious because of their African setting (in his defence, he's less of a racist than many of his generation, carrying accepted attitudes that don't always come out in practice - Bosambo the Okori chief in the Sanders books is smarter than most of the white men, and has an alliance of grudging respect with Sanders, which is unusual for the era). Novels like Chick, The Duke In The Suburbs, and Barbara On Her Owen fall into the light humour category, which is always a problem (one man's funny, and all that), though the latter title gets close to Wodehouse in his Mulliner moments and pleasantly surprised me.

If you want EW at his best, from my own experience, look for The Dark Eyes Of London (insurance scams, institutes for the blind, and great use of London), Jack O'Judgement (from 1920 and a precursor to masked vigilantes like the Shadow, with cocaine peddlars and costumed avengers criss-crossing London - again), or The Crimson Circle (phoney psychics and men who have escaped the hangman's noose - literally). Captain of Souls is an oddity both for EW and the times - a black man fitted up for a crime gets the chance at point of death to transmute with the white criminal who fitted him up and so put right the damage caused by his new persona. So many levels on which that's an anomaly for that period!

[andydecker]

Jun 9, 2015 4:57:14 GMT pulphack said:

It's debatable, Andy. I think he is, but then I've always liked the style of '20's and '30's thrillers and still read a lot of them, so may not be the best person to comment. For what it's worth, I think it's true that he dragged the thriller out of the Edwardian era and into the C20 in terms of style by applying his reporter's technique to prose, streamlining a lot of what went before. However, the downside of that is that although many of the stories have their lurid moments, the style is never as purple prose lurid as the best of the pulpsters, or people like Rohmer, who have aged less well but have appeal purely because of that cheese factor.

. His pre-Hodder work for Ward Lock remains some of his best, though the Sanders of the River books are contentious because of their African setting (in his defence, he's less of a racist than many of his generation, carrying accepted attitudes that don't always come out in practice - Bosambo the Okori chief in the Sanders books is smarter than most of the white men, and has an alliance of grudging respect with Sanders, which is unusual for the era). 
If you want EW at his best, from my own experience, look for The Dark Eyes Of London (insurance scams, institutes for the blind, and great use of London), Jack O'Judgement (from 1920 and a precursor to masked vigilantes like the Shadow, with cocaine peddlars and costumed avengers criss-crossing London - again), or The Crimson Circle (phoney psychics and men who have escaped the hangman's noose - literally). Captain of Souls is an oddity both for EW and the times - a black man fitted up for a crime gets the chance at point of death to transmute with the white criminal who fitted him up and so put right the damage caused by his new persona. So many levels on which that's an anomaly for that period!

Thanks for the advice! "Dark eyes of London" I remember the movieversion well in its pseudogothic splendour. The portrait of the institute of the blind in this movie alone would merit truckloads of protestors today.

If his novels are a product of its time, I don't have a problem with this. I have come to despise this pseudo-intellectual criticism and handwringing if pre-war writers have casually inserted random racism in their work. Of course they have! Should I toss my Lovecraft, Howard, Quinn, Doyle, Burroughs, Dumas and Verne into the trash, just because the attidues of their heroes reflected the attitudes of 90% of the society in which they lived and bought the books? Of course not. Just as a contemporary thriller-writer wouldn't write his heroine as a helpless damsel in distress,whose only goal in life is a good marriage, they wouldn't dreamed of writing a "respectable" heroine living in sin with a guy and having fun. To condem this and all the other –ism instead of just acknowledging it - as it is all the rage in some critical blogs or see the discussion about HPL and the World Fantasy Award - just smacks of Orwell and re-writing history, imho.

If Wallace's book are just a bit like the movies – which were very, very loosely based on the originals -, they must be full of legacy hunters, virginal heroines, square-jawed heroes and secret passages in old country houses. Which can be fun if done well. 

[shanea]

The following post is actually by Pulphack. Proboards suffered a 24 hour blip! - dem

That last paragraph just about nails the Wallace formula, Andy: he might not have invented it, but he just about perfected it!

I agree with you that the revisionist rewrite of history is pure arse: you have to look at the work in the context of its time, and if some of its views are not of this age, then accept it. Besides, eighty years from now (assuming there is still some kind of civilisation) those same revisionists will be roundly condemned by those that follow. That's how it works.

Having said that, I made the point as I'm fed up with those same idiot critics lumping everyone from those times into one basket. There were the prevalent attitudes, but there were also degrees - Wallace, consciously or not, goes against the grain as much as with it, and there's a world of difference between him and Sapper or Dornford Yates - or Horler, for God's sakes - who firmly believed that anyone not British and upper echelon should be briskly horsewhipped every morning before they were sent to the factories, just to remind them how ashamed they should be of NOT being British and upper class. I'd even say that there is some defence for Lovecraft's views, seeing that they seem to stem from his own fears and repressions from upbringing - they're a result of his inferiority complexes rather than the robust and stupid views of Sapper/Yates/Horler etc. Not condonable, but understandable. And let's be honest, without those he wouldn't have envisaged the creeping fears of his unique visions.

I must try and look up the German movie of Dark Eyes... then*, it sounds a hoot. The British version, with Bela in the (badly-dubbed) dual role is one of my favourite films, but wouldn't win awards from disability rights organisations, that's for sure.

(* I'm assuming you meant a Rialto version of course - if you meant the Brit version, then you're spot on. I'm off to search youtube now and see if I was mistaken!)

[andydecker]

Jun 12, 2015 5:06:01 GMT pulphack said:

That last paragraph just about nails the Wallace formula, Andy: he might not have invented it, but he just about perfected it!

I agree with you that the revisionist rewrite of history is pure arse: you have to look at the work in the context of its time, and if some of its views are not of this age, then accept it. Besides, eighty years from now (assuming there is still some kind of civilisation) those same revisionists will be roundly condemned by those that follow. That's how it works.

Having said that, I made the point as I'm fed up with those same idiot critics lumping everyone from those times into one basket. There were the prevalent attitudes, but there were also degrees - Wallace, consciously or not, goes against the grain as much as with it, and there's a world of difference between him and Sapper or Dornford Yates - or Horler, for God's sakes - who firmly believed that anyone not British and upper echelon should be briskly horsewhipped every morning before they were sent to the factories, just to remind them how ashamed they should be of NOT being British and upper class. I'd even say that there is some defence for Lovecraft's views, seeing that they seem to stem from his own fears and repressions from upbringing - they're a result of his inferiority complexes rather than the robust and stupid views of Sapper/Yates/Horler etc. Not condonable, but understandable. And let's be honest, without those he wouldn't have envisaged the creeping fears of his unique visions.

I must try and look up the German movie of Dark Eyes... then*, it sounds a hoot. The British version, with Bela in the (badly-dubbed) dual role is one of my favourite films, but wouldn't win awards from disability rights organisations, that's for sure.

(* I'm assuming you meant a Rialto version of course - if you meant the Brit version, then you're spot on. I'm off to search youtube now and see if I was mistaken!)

Yes, I meant the Rialto one. "Die Toten Augen von London" - Dead Eyes of London. A lot of the Rialtos are constantly re-run on televison, but I havn't seen this in a long time. Still, it is a hoot. Fog so thick you could slice it with a knife, a gang of murderous blind pedlars, taping through the night and fog like the Blind Pew, Ady Barber, a one time wrestler, as a - I think, I don't remember exactly - dumb and blind strangler. Klaus Kinski as usual playing a nutcase, and an invalid home from hell.

Still, my favorite is "Der Rächer". The Avenger. A demented judge with a guilotine in his cellar executing criminals. For a 1960s german movie this IS truly racist in its portrait of the servant of one of the suspects, a malaian named Bhag, played by actor Al Hoosman, who can only grunt and looks like a cross between the wolfman and an orang utan. Just google it.  I watched this a couple of years ago for the first time and couldn't believe it. Just what did they think? Weren't they at least a bit embarrassed? Still, the movie is a fine piece of Grand Guignol, even if there is no blood and of course no sex on the screen. You never see the heads in parcels.

the more I think of it, the more it seems worth to compare the novels with the movies

[dem bones]

Jun 12, 2015 15:13:20 GMT andydecker said:

Yes, I meant the Rialto one. "Die Toten Augen von London" - Dead Eyes of London. A lot of the Rialtos are constantly re-run on televison, but I havn't seen this in a long time. Still, it is a hoot. Fog so thick you could slice it with a knife, a gang of murderous blind pedlars, taping through the night and fog like the Blind Pew, Ady Barber, a one time wrestler, as a - I think, I don't remember exactly - dumb and blind strangler. Klaus Kinski as usual playing a nutcase, and an invalid home from hell.

Still, my favorite is "Der Rächer". The Avenger. A demented judge with a guilotine in his cellar executing criminals. For a 1960s german movie this IS truly racist in its portrait of the servant of one of the suspects, a malaian named Bhag, played by actor Al Hoosman, who can only grunt and looks like a cross between the wolfman and an orang utan. Just google it.  I watched this a couple of years ago for the first time and couldn't believe it. Just what did they think? Weren't they at least a bit embarrassed? Still, the movie is a fine piece of Grand Guignol, even if there is no blood and of course no sex on the screen. You never see the heads in parcels.

the more I think of it, the more it seems worth to compare the novels with the movies

Thanks for the tip off re "Der Rächer", Andreas - plan to give that a watch later (with The Werewolf Reunion from the 1977 series, Supernatural as support). Is The Avenger novel as film-crew-in-peril as the blurb I've seen suggests?

[andydecker]

Jun 14, 2015 8:49:35 GMT dem bones said:

Jun 12, 2015 15:13:20 GMT andydecker said:

Thanks for the tip off re "Der Rächer", Andreas - plan to give that a watch later (with The Werewolf Reunion from the 1977 series, Supernatural as support). Is The Avenger novel as film-crew-in-peril as the blurb I've seen suggests?

Yes, indeed. It is even quite a large part of the story. One of the damsels in distress is a young actress on set who is the love-interest of the hero. I have forgotten what the movie in question is about. But there is quite some stuff of behind the scenes.