Der Mönch mit der Peitsche

There's a lot going on in The College Girl Murders. A mad scientist creates an almost undetectable poisonous gas. Before he can reap the rewards of his discovery, the scientist is killed by a hooded, whip-welding monk. After a co-ed is killed in a church by the gas, Scotland Yard is called in to investigate, but the killing continues. Who can stop this mad killer who seems to be able to come and go as he pleases in and out of the college?

What Works:

• The Killer. What's not to like about a killer who sneaks around wearing a vivid red KKK looking outfit, complete with red gloves. The white whip he carries and uses very effectively stands out nicely against the bright red gown. Although the idea of a killer in a flaming red, pointy-head outfit sneaking around a girl's school is fairly far-fetched, it's one of the more sinister looking costumes I've seen.

• Groovy 60s Music. I really would like to track down the title music to The College Girl Murders. It's got a jazzy, hip, 60s feel to it that I just loved.

• Bizarre Touches. Beyond the killer's red gown and hood, the movie features a sliding fireplace, a pit of alligators with a cage handing overhead, poison spraying bibles, a strategically placed mannequin, mini-skirts, go-go boots, and mile high hair. I would describe it as a cross between the 60s Batman TV show and an Italian giallo. The College Girl Murders is a real treat for the eye.

• The End. Let's just say that there are more twists than a mountain road. Just when you think the killer has been uncovered, here comes a twist..and another.and anotherand another.

What Doesn't Work:

• Chief Inspector Sir John. I know the guy was meant to be comic relief, but his buffoonish character has way too much screen time.

• Why Have Alligators? Previously, I mentioned the alligators in the pit. And while they are a nice touch, they serve very little purpose. Why go through all the trouble and not use them?

• Plodding Plot. Some of The College Girl Murders has no flow or rhythm to it. There are far too many moments throughout the movie when things come inexplicably to a screeching halt. Better pacing would have made this a much more enjoyable movie.

I haven't seen many of these German krimis but of the few I have seen (Phantom of Soho, Strangler of Blackmoor Castle, Dead Eyes of London) this may be my favorite. This one has a real funky feel to it that I really go into. Had the plot flowed a little better, I could have easily given The College Girl Murders a 7/10.

This is probably the fastest-paced and most action-packed of the German Edgar Wallace "krimi" series, a cross between the Dr. Mabuse films of yore and 60's pop thrillers like Batman and the Man from UNCLE. It reintroduces the outrageous villain from an earlier film who dons a stylish monk's habit and breaks the necks of victims with the curl of a deadly whip. Set at a posh girls' school filled with lecherous middle-aged professors, and with the cops fondling their hot-to-trot secretaries at every opportunity, it certainly is a throwback to those wonderfully politically-incorrect times. There's a definite link to a later Wallace-based film, the excellent giallo "Whatever Happened to Solange?", which also concerns female students being corrupted by (and corrupting?) their elders. Quite appropriate to the monk theme, the master-mind villain uses booby-trapped bibles here to deal some of the death blows, and also maintains a reptile-replete dungeon to amuse his captive audiences.

Alfred Vohrer was always the most playful and visually flamboyant of the series directors, and here the lurid colour cinematography is the real star of the show. The Monk appears in a raving scarlet cowl and robe, tastefully setting off the lustrous white whip, while appearing against purplish-night backgrounds. There's also a voyeur-friendly turquoise swimming pool which looks great both as a glowing milieu for the nubile students and as a shadowy backdrop for one of the murder scenes. The trademark "kicker" of hiding the "Ende" card somewhere in the set of the last scene is also quite memorable here. And there's a fine brassy and twangy score for retro-music fans.

Fans of the series will definitely miss the flippant Eddie Arent character in these later films. Instead, the chief inspector Sir John takes on the role of buffoon, convinced that he has mastered criminal psychology after taking a few night courses. Unfortunately, Klaus Kinski had also gone on to bigger and better things. The krimis had lost some of their offbeat subversive charm by this point, and now worked on a much more blatant pop-culture level, which will make this one quite accessible to uninitiated viewers.

I'm still new to the Krimi genre and the only one I've seen prior to seeing this one was the earlier and somewhat disappointing 'The Dead Eyes of London', which didn't exactly inspire a great hope for the rest of the genre in me. If I'd seen this one first, however, the feeling would have been different as while The College Girl Murders is a bizarre and rather wacky attempt at a crime flick; it's great fun to watch and it's really hard to hate a film that throws so many weird and wonderful ideas into the script and manages to pull it off with style. The film begins in a lab where a crazy scientist has invented a new and highly toxic poison that kills its victim and makes it look like they died from a heart attack. This poison is used by a mysterious criminal mastermind who breaks common criminals out of jail to carry out his murders using this poison (and then has them put back in jail). As the title suggests, it's a nearby college full of girls that provides most of the victims. There's also a mysterious monk dressed in a red robe who marauds around breaking necks with a bullwhip.

Of course, with a plot like that; this is not exactly a serious affair and the director clearly knows that as there is a very tongue-in-cheek vibe to the film, which does bode well with the plot. The fact that there are so many different sides to the plot does unfortunately mean that everything does not run smoothly; although this isn't a big problem as things are kept ticking over nicely throughout the film and there's always enough going on to keep the audience interested. The atmosphere is superb and the colour scheme on display is great too look at. Of course, the film is based on an Edgar Wallace novel and clearly the man has a great imagination; the locations used are also superb and while a killer's lair decked out with a host of wild and exotic animals might not serve any relevance to the plot, it does help to give the film that extra 'something'. You cant expect a conclusion that fully makes sense after all the stuff that goes on in this film; but the reason for the murders sort of makes sense and is a satisfying way for the film to climax. Overall, College Girl Murders is an excellent little mystery flick and one that comes highly recommended!

This is one funky crime-thriller, or Krimi, since it's a German movie after all.

This movie and it's story are both being quite silly. It's really a product of the '60's and it does nothing to conceal this. It's a type of movie Austin Powers used to make fun of. It has silly weapons (a gun that sprays gas, a bible that kills), a stupid evil criminal plot, people who do silly and unlikely things in general, silly James Bond like villains, that live in a lair with crocodiles and other sea animals surrounding the villain, who sits with his back to the camera in a chair and who we can only hear speak. This really seems like the German answer to James Bond's growing popularity. But luckily the movie also doesn't take itself very serious. It has fun, almost quirky like characters and some good comic relief as well, from time to time.

The movie is being based on a Edgar Wallace novel, that were quite popular, not in the very least because Edgar Wallace was also the author of King Kong. A whole series of movies got made of his books. The books were actually a lot older than the movies, so it's hard to say how much of the silliness actually comes from the books themselves. Probably very little and the books in essence were mostly being serious crime-thrillers, with always a mysterious villain, that inspector Higgins had to unmask.

The movie is just basically a whole lot of fun. The villains, the silly plot, all of the other characters, it's funky '60's style and atmosphere, all make this a very likable movie. This really is the movie its strongest point, since if you have to look at this movie deeper and more serious you really can't call this movie a good one at all. The story and storytelling is far from likely or well done, so overall you can really call this movie a bad one, if you look at it very strictly. But luckily nobody will be able to, due to the funky silliness of this movie. Everybody will probably get taken by it and will enjoy this movie because of that.

A great guilty pleasure movie.

7/10

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Students at a woman's college in England are turning up dead by poisonous gas or acid, which draws the attention of two Scotland Yard detectives. Witnesses tell of a mysterious person with a red monk robe and conical-shaped hood lurking around. What's going on?

A West German production, "The College Girl Murders" (1967) is a colorful Krimi, a crime mystery/thriller based on Edgar Wallace's novel "The Black Abbot." The original name is "The Monk with the Whip" (translated). It's similar to a Giallo, but with stabs of humor revolving around the bald inspector who plays opposite the smooth, handsome one (Joachim Fuchsberger).

I thought this was going to be a precursor to the slashers of the 70s-80s, but it's more multi-dimensional with the likes of mad scientists, a James Bond-ish mastermind & weapons, a quirky 60's score, poisonous Bibles, a red "clansman" brandishing a whip, and so on. To be expected in light of the milieu, there are several fetching females on hand, such as blonde Grit Boettcher as Betty.

While I suppose it's overall meh, it's oddball and entertaining enough for those interested.

The movie runs 1 hour, 27 minutes, and was shot at Spandau Studios and on location in West Berlin.

GRADE: B-