Der Puppenmörder

Freddie Francis directed The Psychopath, a 1966 horror/thriller. The stars are Patrick Wymark, Margaret Johnson, Alexander Knox, and Judy Huxtable.

Inspector Holloway (Wymark) investigates murders by what appears to be a serial killer, who leaves a lookalike of the victim in the form of a doll next to each body. Four men are killed, none in the same way. These men play in a string quartet but actually knew one another in the war.

The dolls are traced to Mrs. Von Sturm (Johnson) who lives with her son in a house that has dolls everywhere. She considers them human, and talks to them. The men killed were in fact part of a committee that discredited Mrs. Von Sturm's husband during the war, so she seems a likely suspect. However, Mrs. Von Sturm, though she seems bonkers, is confined to a wheelchair. Holloway's interest turns to the fiancée of Louise (Huxtable), who is the daughter of one of the men (Knox) who was murdered.

This is pretty good - some people reviewing on this site saw the film as children, and I can see where it would have left a major impression on them. It is a derivative story, very strange, and Francis has a good atmosphere going, if the pace at times is a little slow. If you like this kind of film, you will like seeing this one.

When a series of strange murders is found to contain a miniaturized doll next to the victim, the resulting police investigation leads to a mysterious doll collector and her deranged son that has far more connections than they expected.

Not all that particularly memorable 60s-era slasher, as it's mostly helped along by a clever little twist that adds immensely to the chill-factor of the film by having the dolls' be a likeness of their victim left at the murder scene and they're quite creepy when shown. Several of the stalking scenes are overall above-average and rather thrilling, and the ending revelation is overall one of the better parts of the film, though there's several difficult areas here. The biggest is the slow-pace involved where it tends to focus on the police investigation and their rather laid-back nature that doesn't make for a real exciting time, the series of red herrings doesn't have any real value since they don't impact the investigation at all, and there's a few mishandled scenes that don't really need to be there. Overall, there's a lot to like and not a lot to dislike here.

Today's Rating/PG: Violence.

This is one of Amicus's lesser-known films and not one in their usual omnibus format. But it's an effective, creepy tale in what would be known today as the "serial killer" genre. Patrick Wymark is good as the detective, and director Freddie Francis, a multi-Oscar winning cinematographer, always brings a fine visual sense to his films. According to director Subotsky, the ending was re-edited and overdubbed to change the identity of the murderer (!) although this is not discernible on screen.

Freddie Francis continues to be one of my all-time favorite directors(not to mention his superb work in Cinematography) and here's another fine effort from him for Amicus.

A serial killer seems bent on striking at 4 men involved in a common conspiracy. Each victim is found murdered under bizarre and unusual circumstances and in each case a little doll in the victim's likeness is left at the death scene. One Inspector Holloway(played by the then promising talent Patrick Wymark) investigates and uncovers a whole bunch of unusual connections between nearly every character in the film.

This film is terrific visually and in terms of story(it does display some similarities to Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO)--one is always left guessing. Great stuff!

Cinematographer and Director Freddie Francis who is best known for his work at Hammer Studios in Britain, (a classy outfit that remade the Universal Horror classics with verve and in color and produced some of the most remembered movies of the 50's and are Baby Boomer favorites), was behind the camera on this one.

With the help of Psycho (1960) author Robert Bloch, they went into familiar turf here with this little seen, and slightly disappointing, entry.

It does look pretty good and has some creepy setups, but suffers from some poor editing (some say it was re-edited after initial screenings) and a bit of a talky atmosphere. The ending is memorable and it is worth staying for the denouement, it just takes its time getting there and is clumsy at times, but not at all to be dismissed.