Lo strangolatore dalle 9 dita

A strangler is loose on a British estate, and he not only strangles his victims but brands an "M" onto their foreheads before he decapitates them.

The letter M features heavily in the story, scrawled on the foreheads of the victims, one head is mailed to someone, which quite gruesome. Complicated and dullness hinders the film, making it not so gripping. Castle, strangler, diamonds and light and shadow atmosphere- quirky and mysterious characters all with their own sinister motivations is here, and sounds enticing, however the direction is pedestrian and the excitement is lacking. It's just passable, but of its ilk it's not top tier. Karin Dor is great as always. The killer here is like those fiends from a 1980's slasher film -sometimes strangling his victims, but also machine-gunning them or chopping their heads off. For its time, there's a fairly gruesome scene where a guy gets his head lopped off while on a motorbike.

1963's "The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle" (a literal translation of "Der Wurger von Schloss Blackmoor") was among the more popular krimi to emerge from West Germany, crime thrillers based on the works of Edgar Wallace or, in this case, his son Bryan Edgar Wallace. More straightforward than some of the more convoluted entries, the prolific Harald Reinl directing his young wife Karin Dor to play Claridge Dorsett, reporter/niece of diamond smuggling uncle Lucius Clark (Rudolf Fernau), both renting the huge castle of Blackmoor from its eccentric, tax burdened owner (Hans Nielsen). There is indeed a strangler on the loose, wearing a mask to completely cover his face (very similar to the culprit in Lew Landers' 1962 "Terrified"), later revealed by Scotland Yard's Inspector Jeff Mitchell (Harry Riebauer) to have only 9 fingers. When he can't get his hands on them he sets traps like a line across the road to behead one cycling victim, the letter 'M' a calling card branding their foreheads. The moor is dotted with hidden passages that occasionally turn up (or drop in), while Clark's ex-con diamond cutter (Dieter Eppler) seems especially determined to prevent Claridge from earning her share of the estate on her 21st birthday. A spot of blackmail finds several shady types frequenting a certain London tavern, but most of the mayhem takes place on the foggy marshes or inside the castle, a suitably eerie setting for added horror atmosphere. What sets this apart from the others is to be a virtual blueprint for the more violent Giallo, as there's little blood shown but times would change by decade's end.

The problems are. 1) the comedy relief, is the wacky mustache-bird- recording character and if that isn't enough the spunky little kid that sometimes acts as his sidekick. 2nd problem is the music score, all electronic though not much of it, but it is also used mostly for comic relief which is not early electronic music's strong point. Some other sounds are comically dated now--though music for these German films is frankly usually pretty bad--awful non stop squealing rock/jazz so this film's lack of music is mostly a good thing but the comic electronic burbs and beeps are hard to get over and distracting, but, like I say at least there isn't a lot of music. And the comic relief also doesn't overwhelm the plot but does pop up just when you least need it.

The last deficit is that just past the half way point in the movie briefly stops making sense, this is another problem with these films there are so many characters that you lose track at some point. This film has a series of car ride sequences with the cops talking about various suspects and it just becomes a blur, this one holds up longer than most though plot wise and it does get back on track before the ending.

The Alpha DVD is full frame and things are obviously cropped but the print is in decent shape, just turn down the brightness a little.

For a Strangler film the strangler does almost as much beheading as strangling, this is a good thing and it adds variety and strangling can be pretty dull on film, the spfx are pretty good especially one on screen decapitation. There is one awful mechanical bird but is part of the equally bad comic relief and only appears twice and very briefly.

The film moves well and "attacks" come pretty regularly and the ending is very well photographed in a foggy swamp and forest. The dubbing is actually not too bad which helps the movie too. There is a very clever hiding place for the diamonds too.

So prepare yourself for the bads and enjoy the goods and this film is well worth the time to watch it.

Very fun, sinister film. This is the kind of movie I remember waking up and seeing at three o'clock in the morning on television when I was a child--good thing or bad? Anyhow, Karin Dor is terrific, and who wouldn't love the disjointed creepiness of a German version of Britain in which everyone speaks American English--at least in the version I own. Nice use of marking victims with the letter M--reference to Lang? Why oh why can't we find these movies on television anymore?--not even on cable! And, by the way, where the heck is HUNCHBACK OF SOHO?

Enjoyable krimi film; I really need to see more of these. A man in black strangles people and threatens an old man to reveal where the diamonds he stole are hidden. The old man's niece is a journalist, so naturally she becomes interested in the story of the strangler (without knowing how her uncle is involved) and the police also investigate.

Reasonable suspects include the old man's strange butler, and the eccentric Lord of the castle, among others.

Despite the title, the "Strangler" also carves an "M" into his victims' foreheads and decapitates two of them, one of them right before our eyes.

As with the last Wallace krimi I watched, this one has people looking through peepholes, and secret passages.

Watched Alpha's DVD of this; no complaints.