With a title more befitting to a giallo, THE PARALLEL CORPSE is an engaging thriller from Denmark. Based on a novel by Frits Remar, the film features an exciting game of cat and mouse as a two equally despicable characters battle it out to stave off the uncovering of their respective crimes.
The biggest surprise in THE PARALLEL CORPSE is the bleakness of the characters. The scenario is filled with such moral wretchedness with both of the leads equally scummy in their depiction. Allan is a murderous letch who is angered by the thought of someone blackmailing him for his crimes. Hans is an elderly mortuary worker who has no qualms about selling used coffins and pillaging corpses of their valuables. This is not a clear good guy/bad guy scenario but, in the end, both men pay for their misdeeds. Strangely, I found myself siding more with Hans. Sure, he may pry rings off of dead folks, but at least he never murders anyone.
My sympathy for Hans probably results from the performance by Buster Larsen. You end up rooting for him the same way one hopes Elliot Gould will succeed in his crime in THE SILENT PARNTER. Apparently a popular comic actor in Denmark, Larsen, who looks a bit like Peter Lorre, presents Hans as a silent man barely making it in life, a proverbial underdog. With his weathered face and clustered single room apartment, you can't help but feel sorry for him. In contrast to Hans' insignificance, the filmmakers present Allan as a well-to-do businessman with a cutthroat approach to life. Kiil, who resembles perennial bad guy James B. Sikking, is cold and calculating in his approach. Although I doubt the filmmakers intended it, there is a strong theme of the haves vs. the have-nots in this film.
