L'énigme du serpent noir

Scotland Yard investigates a series of murders where the victims have died by snake venom poisoning.

A rather convoluted plot, which has random scenes that don't quite gel, also much of the film had dialogue and lacks excitement. The plot never really catches fire either; nor is the mystery all that engaging, but it's still mildly distracting, mainly due to some stylistic touches and bizarre POV shots - a character eating a carrot - from the inside of his mouth, Klaus Kinski playing a weird character who likes to kidnap and kiss snakes and a murderer known as The Snake picking off his victims using a dart gun dipped with venom. The second half is better than the first, but it's nothing remarkable.

The Sinister Cinema DVD merits a few remarks. Sinister Cinema uses the same template for it's budget packaging (the only items that change are the film title and a small frame from the film). The film is transferred to DVD-R and usually contains a trailer as one extra bonus. Based on this I was not expecting much regarding the quality of the film transfer. Was I surprised! The transfer is struck from a beautiful widescreen black and white print. It keeps the German language titles and credits which is a nice touch. The audio is up to par with the print quality. The English language dub is also done quite well and does not detract from the original intent of the film. I say that Sinister Cinema's release is miles above the Edgar Wallace films that Something Weird Video is currently releasing. I have several and while the quality is good, it pales in comparison to SC's release. Many years ago I was a customer of Sinister Cinema when all they offered were VHS dubs. I remembered getting a copy of Spider Baby from them that also was excellent quality. Glad they haven't changed. Based upon this experience I have ordered 6 more Edgar Wallace films and can't wait to see them. Check out their website for some incredible catalog titles. I plan on backfilling my collection with more of these hard to find items.

Although this early West German Edgar Wallace "krimi" is called "The Squeaker" for some reason, it's actually about another colorful shadowy Wallace supervillian called "the Snake", who uses venom milked from deadly cobras in the city zoo to paralyze and kill his enemies and and anyone else who gets in his way. Klaus Kinski plays his henchman, a creepy zoo worker and the obvious but more minor villain. The Snake himself, however, could be any number of people from the colorful cast including a classical musician and society matron who drinks straight whisky for tea time, her lovely young niece, the niece's fiancée, the owner of the zoo, or perhaps even one of several police officers investigating the bizarre murders.

This movie has a few effectively creepy scenes, some good comic relief, and an effective ending. Still it doesn't compare in my mind to the classics of the krimi genre like "Dead Eyes of London", nor even to slightly less well-regarded entries like "The Mad Executioners", "The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle" and "The College Girl Murders". It was directed by Alfred Vohrer who also directed "Dead Eyes" and two of the three films just mentioned, but I wouldn't rank it among his best work. It does feature an early appearance by the late enfante terrible German actor Klaus Kinski (who would no doubt dismiss it as another "piece of sh*t", but, of course, he said that about ALL his films). Strangely, it doesn't feature Joachim Fuchsberger, who was in even in more of these films than Kinski. It does have the go-to "comic relief" actor Eddie Arentt, but frankly Inge Langen is a lot more funny as the elderly, whisky-swigging society matron.

This movie is somewhat overrated in my opinion, but definitely worth seeing if you like the krimi genre.

The Squeaker usually ranks toward the top of Rialto Film's Edgar Wallace adaptations. The film is good but somewhat overrated. A criminal known as The Snake is killing witnesses with a gun that shoots snake venom into the victims. The identity of the killer is fairly easy to determine, but that is not really the problem. The Squeaker feels talkier than usual and less interesting than some of the best entries in the series. It is, however, a reasonably entertaining watch though.

Fans of the series will appreciate the actors changing up their roles. Series regular Siegfried Schurenberg takes a break from Sir John, the Scotland Yard Chief to play a newspaper publisher baffled by his paper always missing the big scoop. This might have something to do with having Eddi A-r-e-n-t (take that auto-correct!) as a reporter.

As good as these actors are, the film belongs to Klaus Kinski. The actor appeared in many of these adaptations, but he often had a superficial role. Kinski's physical demeanor did not lend itself to casting him as the main villain because the audience would easily guess he was the villain just by looking at him. Thus, often, Kinski played a sleazy witness that would be bumped off or the villain's henchman, which technically he plays in The Squeaker as well. The difference is that, in The Squeaker, Kinski is given more chance to shine. Almost all of the film's best scenes belong to Kinski, from the opening heist of the black mamba, to playing with a pet boa constrictor, to disposing of an unwanted body, to silencing a witness (in a clever way), to the ending shootout, Klaus Kinski owns this film. Fans of the actor should definitely take note.

Another enjoyable Edgar Wallace krimi. Definitely one of the creepiest, with young Klaus Kinski slithering around in a wild animal emporium and french-kissing tropical snakes. It's all set in a dank, slushy London winter, where an arch-criminal called The Snake is avenging himself using blow-dart-propelled venom. There's also a bibulous old lady who loves lurid murder mysteries, the indispensable Eddie Arent as an eager reporter who plays invisible ping-pong, a cigarette-smoking stuffed deer, and a couple of those signature point-of-view trick shots from director Vohrer. The pace is a bit stodgy and the Squeaker doesn't seem to be involved much at all -- it sure doesn't resemble the older British version. The Sinister Cinema tape for once features the original intro with the author's name violently spelled out in bullet holes.