Der unheimliche Mönch

The best Edgar Wallace film adaptations in the West German film industry come from Alfred VOHRER, Jürgen ROLAND and the ACADEMY AWARD nominee Harald REINL (nominated in 1971 for his documentary film EREMNERUNGEN AN DIE ZUKUNFT).

In 1965, Harald REINL made the contribution DER UNHEIMLICHE MÖNCH, which with its suggestive black and white images became a highlight of the long-running series (1959 - 1973). An inheritance case, a dysfunctional family, an eerie castle (shot at Hastenbeck Castle near Hameln), a murderer disguised as a monk and many beautiful women! That's all it takes for a typical horror thriller from West German assembly line production.

REINL's second wife Karin DOR plays the young heiress Gwendolin Gilmore, who returns to the family castle after years and is immediately confronted with inheritance disputes and dark family secrets. Her aunt (Ilse STEPPAT) runs a girls' boarding school in the castle, so the people there are exclusively beautiful young ladies (Uschi GLAS / Uta LEVKA / Dunja RAJTER). An evil uncle (Siegfried LOWITZ), a crazy tenant (Rudolf SCHÜNDLER), a pushy janitor (Eddi ARENT) and of course the murderous monk round off the gruesome events. Inspector Bratt (Harald LEIPNITZ) and the scatterbrained Sir John (Siegfried SCHÜRENBERG) have their hands full trying to solve the case.

This horror thriller thrives on the spooky atmosphere, which is expertly created by the old master director REINL. A Wallace thriller like something out of a picture book, which lives enormously from the black and white images (from 1966 Edgar Wallace was in color!) and the outstanding acting ensemble. No wonder that actors like Karin DOR (YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE / TOPAZ), Ilse STEPPAT (ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE) and Rudolf SCHÜNDLER (THE EXORCIST / SUSPIRIA) have been cast in international films in the future.

An exciting and entertaining climax to the long-running Edgar Wallace series of successes in the West German film industry!

Gwendolin (Karin Dor) inherited a fortune from her grandfather, but doesn't know it yet. Her greedy relatives try to get her out of the way, but that's not as easy as it seems, when a hooded monk sneaks through the night and kills people with his whip. Is it a ghost, a psychopathic killer, or a man with a secret plan? Harald Leipnitz plays the inspector investigating on this case, whilst one of the most famous inspectors of German TV history, Siegfried Lowitz, plays the villain this time. The 20th movie of the Edgar Wallace series (which began only 6 years earlier with "Der Frosch mit der Maske") was the last one in black & white. Somehow the later color movies didn't have the same atmosphere anymore and ran out of ideas. "Der unheimliche Mönch", however, is spooky, foggy fun and absolutely worthy to close this chapter of the classic series.

I've only just really started getting into the Krimi genre and most of the ones I have seen so far have been the later entries which were in colour. As such, one of the things I like most about this type of film is the wacky colour schemes; yet although The Sinister Monk is shot in black and white and thus doesn't feature one, it's still a very nice film to look at and also provides an interesting and entertaining mystery - ensuring that The Sinister Monk is one of the very best Krimi flicks that I've seen so far! The plot is, as usual, based on a novel by British crime writer Edgar Wallace and this time focuses on a family in turmoil over the distribution of a family will. It turns out that the late patriarch of the family intended to leave all of his wealth to his favourite granddaughter Gwendolyn; a fact that doesn't exactly go down well with the rest of the scheming family. Naturally, they plot to ensure that the granddaughter doesn't get what's coming to her; but things are complicated when a monk with a whip shows up and starts picking people off!

The plot is not exactly original and has literally been seen a hundred times before in mystery thrillers - but the film is made good by Edgar Wallace's strange approach and we get a plot peppered with things such as the whip wielding monk (evidently a Wallace favourite), a wall full of death masks and a revelation involving carrier pigeons! Naturally, the film doesn't always completely make sense and sometimes you just have to go along with it; but really, that is what makes this film so much fun to watch. There's plenty of entertainment and since the film is only short at about eighty minutes, the runtime is rather crowded - but that is a benefit if you ask me! The cinematography is just great; the black and white picture adds a real foreboding atmosphere to the film and the fog-drenched castle in which most of the film takes place makes for a really great central location. It all boils down to an unexpected and silly conclusion; but it's satisfying enough, despite feeling a little bit too rushed. Overall, The Sinister Monk is an excellent little film and I can certainly recommend it!

This is a solid middle-period entry in the long-running German "Krimi" series, based on the ingenious thrillers of Edgar Wallace. In this case, the film-makers were taking the plot seriously and not trying (much) to dazzle the viewer with the nifty cinematic trickery and vivid violence that would become the hallmark of the series. Fortunately, the plot is a strong one, involving the usual murderous infighting over an inheritance, a girls' boarding school, and the wonderfully avenging titular character who breaks necks with the visually impressive snap of his whip. The style fits best into the Eurospy genre of the 60s, which was director Reinl's forte. Besides the monk, there is a weird caretaker who keeps pigeons and who casts creepy facial masks of people at the school, which turn into death masks after the inevitable murder of their models (shades of "I Bury the Living"). A poisoned water pistol serves as one girl's defense from prospective attackers. Karin Dor, the director's statuesque wife, resembles Barbara Steele in the lead role, and series favourite Eddie Arent, normally the effective comic relief, has a quite unexpected role to play here. More effort than usual is spent establishing the Thames-side background, though the German origin is unmistakable. Best of all is the wild lounge score by retro-hip composer Peter Thomas, with chimes and cascading organ swells (à la Vic Mizzy of "Munsters" fame) to highlight the monk's appearances. A lurid-colour sequel, "The Monk With The Whip", is much more campy and flamboyant, in keeping with the later efforts in the series directed by Alfred Vohrer.

This 34 year old german movie probably is not a timeless piece of art, yet it still is very entertaining. Check out the music, too!!!

Among the Wallace movie series during the 60s this is one of the best entries.