A Estalagem no Rio

This is another in the series of German krimi's based on the works of Edgar Wallace.After sitting through several less than average of these this one rises above the water(pun intended) a bit.

There is a killer called The Shark terrorizing the Thames.He has a propensity to shoot folks with a spear gun.The Shark is also the criminal mastermind behind a gem smuggling ring that is driving Scotland Yard up the wall.Inspector Wade of the River Police is put in charge of the case.

Most of the action centers around a waterfront dive called Mekka.The owners smuggle in contraband whiskey and are tied up with the Shark somehow.Red herrings and double indentities are as usual plentiful.There is also a plot to attain one of the greatest inheritances in England.

The black & white photography adds a lot of flavor to this film. The Thames at night looks to be a place that you don't want to be. The use of night fog is pretty eerie.The sets are well done. You do feel like you're in a very seedy waterfront dive.The plot moves along well and the movie is ably directed. You have to take the acting at face value as you can never really tell with the dubbing.The same stable of actors is used from film to film which is always fun to see them in different roles.

As usual there are some drawbacks. The opening title theme is hysterically funny. It is punctuated with yells, screams and a cuckoo clock.In fact there are so many badly done songs in the first ten minutes you think you're watching a musical. As usual Eddie Arndt plays the broad comic relief which while a staple in this series never fails to irritate.

All in all a small cut above the average in this series.

This is one of the better entries in the Edgar Wallace krimi series. There's a heavy emphasis on the fog-bound (supposedly) Soho environment, several sleight-of-hand camera angles (including a great one with Kinski and a mirror), and a creepy denizen-of-the-depths villain known as The Shark, who uses harpoons as his weapons of choice. Eddie Arent contributes his always welcome comic relief as an eccentric nautical wag this time (instead of his usual assistant inspector), and gives a wonderful demonstration of "The Twist" with a local hipster. Of course the inspector falls for a lovely (barely of-age) fraulein. The wacky score contributes greatly.

A serial killer named The Shark is terrorizing London by killing his victims with a speargun and then, dressed in a scruba-diver's wetsuit, using the city's sewer tunnels to make his getaway.

Atmospheric thriller that has a great sea setting with an inn on the harbour and plenty of fog and murky underwater scenes. The villain here is a menacing killer donned in a scuba diving outfit and his tool of the trade is a spear gun - this is reminiscent of the slasher films where the fiend is donned in an outfit and uses a particular weapon. Matching him is a very determined police inspector played by Joachim Fuchsberger. Other undesirables are Klaus Kinski who plays a seedy character and stealing the scene is Elisabeth Flickenschildt as the creepy innkeeper who is low enough to sell her niece to an old man. There's plenty to enjoy here- it's fast-paced, focused and has some tense scenes. The killer's identity came as a surprise.

Shot entirely at Hamburg in Germany as if it was in London, this movie portraits in smallest details the atmospheric London's fog nearby the Thames river, just using old stock footage in some sequences only, this turn the Scotland Yard's Inspector Wade (Joachim Fuchsberger) has to face an unexpected enemy intitled as Shark, due he acts disguised of scuba diver who has been perpetrating several robberies, murders and disappearing thru sewage network until Thames river.

Inspector Wade starts at harbor area where a famous lodging-Tabern-nightspot Mekka is set, looking for some clues to take on the unknown killer, there are many suspects as the owner of Mekka the cynical Mrs. Nelly Oaks (Elisabeth Flickenschildt) his bleak bartender Big Willy (Rudolf Fenner), an obscure Ship's owner Mr. Broen (Heinz Engelmann), the scarface thug Roger Lane (Jan Hendriks) and slippery lodger Gubanow (Klaus Kinski), otherwise in other pictures the funny character played by Eddi Arent now is a flamboyant water sports as Barnaby.

Aiming for spice up the story the Inspector Wade has a romantic affair with the gorgeous teenager Leila Smith (Brigitte Grothum), meanwhile he has a support of the police forensic Doctor Collins (Richard Munch), it sounds a complex plot about a supposed daughter from a wealthy British family that actually was dead in tender age, indeed a absorbent thriller.

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First watch: 2024 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5.

Between 1959 and 1972 a stream of 32 (!) films, based on criminal novels from famous British author Edgar Wallace had been produced by the German Rialto film company. "The Inn on the River" is an early example and surely one of the highlights of the series. The film benefits tremendously from the atmospheric black and white photography shot by cameraman Karl Loeb. There are plenty of impressive night scenes with eerie lights and shadows. Foggy canalization funnels, lonesome harbor quays, subterranean and underwater locations capture the audience from the beginning. Though some side aspects of the script seem to be far fetched and only loosely connected with the entire plot, it doesn't distract from the main story line, which is loosely based on Wallace's novel "The India Rubber Man". The film focuses on the police chasing a mysterious Jewel robber known only as the "Shark". Disguised in a black divers suit, he frequently kills in proper style with his harpoon! "The Inn on the Thames", so the exact translation of the German film title, was a huge success, when released in 1962. Apart from the suspenseful crime story, one of the reasons for this might be, that the thriller elements are complimented here more than usual by a simple but effective fairytale-like romance.

The film's young heroine Leila (Brigitte Grothum: very pretty, though she seems rather limited here as an actress) is captured at the sinister harbor Inn "Mekka" just like a 20th century Cinderella. She is repressed by her evil stepmother (excellent: Elisabeth Flickenschild) and threatened not only by the "Shark", but by numerous gangsters around, some of them lustfully longing for the under aged girl. The prince coming to her rescue is of course Scotland Yard's Inspector Wade (in his usual role, handsome Joachim Fuchsberger): he even calls her "Princess" at their first encounter. Wade suspects that the "Mekka" Inn is a smuggler's nest, somehow connected with the "Shark". Among the many doubtful characters he finds here is the sneaky Russian merchantman Gubanow (great: Klaus Kinski, in one of his typical supporting roles, that became a trademark of the series)

As usual in German Wallace Krimis of that time, the film wasn't shot on location. Hamburg and the Elbe river doubled in for London and the Thames. There is only few (badly fitting) original British stock footage from a rowing boat race. Other minus points are the uneven title music and the comical character of Barnaby (Eddie Arend), an eccentric fan of water sports. Arend, who can be funny at times, is allowed to overact so shamelessly, that his screen presence becomes annoying here. Nonetheless, this is a great little thriller. It's impact on filmmakers can be viewed in Dick Maas Horror action flick "Amsterdamned" (1988), which borrowed more than the idea of a killer in a diving-suit from this one.