Im Banne des Unheimlichen

This is pretty poor. I started well and being in colour and made in 1968 had high-ish hopes. The thing here is that there were just too many people involved and the tale far too ridiculous and uninteresting. It needs more than a few colourful sets and humour. Actually the humorous element was okay but then the seriousness of the tangled tale then becomes undermined and more difficult to watch. The only reason this gets any points at all from me is the 'zombie'. An absolute object lesson to all low budget film makers. A black cloak, a wide brimmed hat and a skull face mask with beautifully working jaw and great lighting. It is increasingly such a joy when the killer 'zombie' arrives to relieve us from our boredom that we are immediately on the wrong side.

You can say what you want about crime writer Edgar Wallace, but one thing you can never fault is his imagination - and here, once again, director Alfred Vohrer has created a brilliantly entertaining film from one of Wallace's over the top novels. This film features all the things that make the Krimi genre great; from the refined atmosphere all the way down to the bizarre plot line. The film's most striking element is undoubtedly the murderer, who wears a skeleton costume and a bowler hat; echoing the lead character in Umberto Lenzi's cool comic book crime flick Kriminal. The plot focuses on the death of a man named Sir Oliver. There is a disruption at his funeral when there are reports of the corpse laughing; and soon after his brother Sir Cecil (apparently quite a noble family) begins to believe that Sir Oliver has come back from the dead and it's not long before several people are being picked off by a skeleton costume-wearing killer with a bizarre murder weapon! Naturally, Scotland Yard looks into the deaths...

The thing I like most about this genre is the style, and director Alfred Vohrer has once again ensured that his film is memorable. The atmosphere on display in this film is simply stunning; the vibrant colour scheme is striking while the lighting is very well used. The plotting, as ever, is slightly confusing; although there is not as many subplots in this film as there have been in other Edgar Wallace outings. The killer is a real masterpiece creation; the suit does look slightly silly, but the way that the killer silently creeps around and the way that the mouth moves on the costume are really great. The murder weapon is another original idea; instead of using a gun or a knife like other murderers, this one uses a ring with a scorpion's tail that delivers the victim with a dose of deadly (and undetectable!) poison. The film plods along nicely for most of its running time and we eventually boil down to the ending; which is completely confusing to say the least. Still, while this is not the best of the genre; it's still a very effective little film and I'm sure Krimi fans will enjoy it!

From the versatile (albeit rather monotonous) mind of Edgar Wallace comes another reasonably effective Krimi that incomprehensibly isn't called "The Laughing Corpse". I think we can all agree this would make a much better title than the dull and irrelevant titles "The Zombie Walks" or "The Hand of Power". The best sequence is the opening, when during the funeral of the wealthy but eccentric Sir Oliver the pallbearers drop the casket because diabolical laughter suddenly comes from inside of it. When soon after the heirs of Sir Oliver are getting killed, the remaining family members are convinced he returned as a vengeful zombie.

The usual Krimi-ingredients are there, like far too many characters that are all suspects, and the only way to prove their innocence is by dying at the hand of the real killer. Scotland Yard hero Joachim Fuchsberger is present again, but to my knowledge this is the first and only Krimi without the annoying Eddi Arent as the comic relief. Instead, the charismatic Hubert Von Meyerinck provides the redundant comical interludes. Oh, there's also a guy with a green face, but everybody seems to think this is totally normal. It must be said the killer looks awesome! He wears a creepy skull mask, in combination with long hair, a black cloak and hat, and uses scorpion's venom to murder his victim. Where can I pick up his outfit to celebrate Halloween?

Basically all of these German movies based on the Edgar Wallace novels are being pretty silly and even bad ones but thing about them it that they are being so (delibertatly) silly that it actually does work out as great entertainment.

The psychedelic '60's was nearing its end, so so was this movie series, featuring the Inspektor Higgins characters. And I'm also glad because of that, since there is no way really that this type of movie would had worked out in any other decade than the '60's. It's perfectly silly and laid back all, as if it simply doesn't seem to worry about the fact that it's being a pretty silly and bad movie.

Germans are not exactly know for their great humor but there are of course some exception here and there. And this movie does really feature some amusing comedy, that is being quite cheap and predictable but it works out thanks to its fine timing and the handling by its actors. The actors all play their roles as straight as possible, which is often something that can strengthen a movie its comedy actually.

As for the movie and story itself; it really is being a very typical crime/mystery movie, in which a murdered needs to be literally unmasked. There is really nothing specular or special about any of it and some moment really don't make that much sense but at least it has a pretty cool killer; a person in a skeleton costume that kills people with his poisonous ring. But really, it just isn't the story that makes this movie such an effective and fun one to watch; it simply is its '60's atmosphere and tone throughout the movie, combined with fine humor and plenty of deliberately silly moments.

Simply effective as some great entertainment.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Actually it is Inspector Higgins, played by Joachim Fuchsberger ... and he did a few of these movies. I remember that I loved them as a kid, even if they were done way before I was even born. But I had a thing for crime stories anyway, so that wasn't that hard actually.

They may be more about the mystery and us guessing who the culprit is all along. And while Higgins is no Sherlock Holmes, this is not supposed to be any Holmes either ... there are elements of Giallo I reckon in this ... with the fake red blood and the killings ... and the story quite frankly. A nice little movie and throwback ... when criminals coorparated after you apprehended them ... for no good reason at all....