Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Koffer

In 1959 production company Rialto started the long-running Edgar Wallace series; in 1961 producer Arhur Brauner decided to start his own series, that is: a series based on stories by Wallace's son. Of the Brauner series this is episode number 1.

Werner Klingler's direction was always one of the good routine and is the best for this kind of film. It is simply old-fashioned but good entertainment with a story complicated enough to keep the interest, and nice cast. And of course it ends with the necessary subterranean labyrinth.

I do like the krimi genre but this instalment is a little plodding. It's about a spate of knife murders (achieved via some fun FX) taking place in London and the detective assigned to the case. He soon finds himself mired in a complex little plot involving drug dealing, a conspiracy, siblings and an eccentric with a penchant for collecting sounds. It's murky but not hugely entertaining, at least not until the fun climax in which everything is explained. There are better krimi out there, put it that way.