Edgar Wallace: Das Gesicht im Dunkeln

I fell in love with this movie from its first frame. Or, at any rate, the first BOOM-BANG-CRASH-WALLOP of its fabulously over-the-top piano soundtrack - as if Liberace were stationed just off camera, with blazing gold candelabra and rhinestone-studded Steinway grand. Its visuals are, if possible, lusher than its score. Crystal vases weep rose petals over the photo of a murdered woman. Venetian glass mirrors reflect the elegantly chiselled face of Klaus Kinski - glowering at us seductively over a polka-dotted silk cravat.

If you are used to Kinski hamming it up in a Herzog epic, his role here is a revelation. As a London millionaire who may or may not have murdered his lesbian wife, he is so subtle and ambiguous, so - dare I say it? - restrained that he keeps us guessing right up until the last few seconds. Seeing her 'come back to life' in a porno film (shot after her death) Kinski's face takes on a haunted look that outdoes all his raving, eye-rolling and tooth-gnashing in more famous roles.

Proof, if proof were needed, that director Riccardo Freda was not just a great unsung visual stylist, but a maestro of mood and suspense. Imagine a Chabrol or Hitchcock with the eye of a Renaissance painter, and you come close to the splendours of this film. So exquisite in its visual detail that its minor flaws - i.e. blatantly fake model car wrecks; continuity howlers such as Kinski walking bareheaded through Soho, then sitting in a nightclub with his hat on - simply evaporate before our eyes.

Oh, and I even like the tacky Italian pop ballad that keeps recurring as a 'clue' - to oddly chilling effect. So perhaps I'm just a sucker for this type of film.

David Melville

Liz and Helen, a mod-Gothic mystery from Riccardo Freda, has some points in common with one of the director's earlier films, The Horrible Dr. Hichcock. Each concerns a man who believes his wife to be deceased, only to be confronted by creepy evidence to contrary. Then, too, there's the extravagant, romantic atmosphere, thunderstorms, and lurid melodramatic scenes.

Distinguishing Liz and Helen, however, is its Swinging London setting, complete with a disorienting visit to a hippie dance club with colored lights, topless birds, motorcycles, and psychedelic music. The attentive viewer will be further unsettled by the questionable motivation of its protagonist, straight-laced but tortured industrialist John Alexander, played by a simmeringly earnest Klaus Kinski.

The production values aren't consistently impressive. In one scene Kinski pretends to be pummeled by people clearly not in the same room, and the English actor who dubs the lead is laughably un-Kinski. Still, Liz and Helen does more than compensate for its shortcomings with mood and stylistic flair. Recommended to the open-minded and those wanting to see Kinski do something other than glare crazily, eat bugs, and kill people.

The premise of 'A Doppia Faccia' ('Double Face') is very good, actually. A wealthy woman dies in a car accident and the husband inherits a fortune, but soon after, clues lead him to believe she's still alive. What's going on?

It's an old-school, late-sixties giallo, not a lot of sex and violence, more of a psychological thriller in the Hitchcock vein. While there are some interesting twists and turns, and the direction and acting are pretty good, it just misses the mark due to several issues.

First and foremost, Kinski just isn't right as 'the good guy'. He's a very good actor, but he's well-known for playing creepy characters, especially in the Edgar Wallace krimi films, the predecessors to the gialli. This character needed us to find him likeable and to care, but Kinski's strength isn't his charm and empathy, it's his intensity and anger.

In terms of craft, the photography is quite good, except that silly scene in the snow, which really should have been cut. Sometimes effects don't work. The acting and directing were competent.

The script is another weak point. They should have spent more time making us believe the relationship was authentic and they loved each other, so we'd believe his obsession with finding out if she was still alive. There are quite a few nothing conversations that could have added to the character development. The police investigation and red herrings could have been more fleshed out.

Really, they did a pretty good job overall, considering how quickly and cheaply they pumped these films out. But a bit more time on the script and a different casting choice would have made this one really sing.

Surprise! Surprise! There are not many movies where Klaus Kinski doesn´t play a bad guy. This is one of them. And it´s rather twisted. He´s a prime crime suspect, and we follow him solving the case right to a surprise ending. It´s a German Edgar Wallace adaption directed by classic Italian director Riccardo Freda and , yes, it´s a typical Giallo. So I guess all the fans of those "normal" German Edgar-Wallace-Movies didn´t like it very much. It´s only for fans of the director and, of course, the brilliant, astonishing, unforgettable Klaus Kinski.

There are some cigarettes smoked in this film. In fact, the amount featured might have blown the budget, as some of the special effects are more than a little rough. Not to worry, we have top-billed Klaus Kinski playing a man apparently being driven mad, so we're in for some enjoyably extreme theatrics, surely?

Well actually, no. Kinski is at the most restrained I've ever seen him. That powerhouse of rolling eyes and bared teeth is subdued and on his best behaviour - or as much as you can be given the circumstances. It's strange seeing Kinski in the Edwidge Fenech/Dagmar Lassandra role (Nora Orland's incidental score has definite echoes of his subsequent work on 'The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh', starring Fenech in the titular role).

A fairly standard giallo, which has moments of great interest - usually involving Kinski.