Im Banne des Unheimlichen

At the burial of Sir Oliver, witnesses hear a terrible laughter, and quickly the rumour spreads that Sir Oliver returned from the dead - as a walking skeleton. His brother Cecil (Wolfgang Kieling) soon suffers from persecution mania, because everybody he knows seems to be the target of an (attempted or successful) assassination. Inspector Higgins (Joachim Fuchsberger) has no clue why, but reporter Peggy Ward (Siw Mattson) pushes the investigation a bit with her reckless curiosity.

The cast also includes Hubert von Meyerinck as Sir Arthur, clearly trying to make a difference from his predecessor Schürenberg with little human touches such as his musical interests, Pinkas Braun in a typical twisted role as a man who could be a bad guy as well as a good guy, and Lil Lindfors who gets to sing a great song whose lines ("I wanna feel my heart beat") seem quite ironic if you consider it's all about a "zombie". The undead may look a bit silly on still photos, but believe me, it's scary enough in the film. It inspired the title character of the comedy "Der Wixxer" (2004). Something that didn't work was the make-up for Ramiro: he looks green like a Martian, not olive like a Creole. Nonetheless, tremendous entertainment!

1968's "The Zombie Walks" ("Im Banne des Unheimlichen" or Under the Spell of the Unknown) is perhaps better known to American audiences as "The Hand of Power," the actual title of the Edgar Wallace source novel though a less enthralling one. Like the earlier example "The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle," it's another crime drama laced with horror elements, more pronounced here with its killer dubbed 'The Zombie' or 'The Laughing Corpse' and sporting skull mask with a mouth that opens to audibly exhale, his method of murder a signature ring with poison scorpion stinger. Director Alfred Vohrer and star Joachim Fuchsberger were old hands in this series, the script mostly played for laughs, kicking off with the funeral of Sir Oliver, supposedly killed in an airplane crash, insane laughter emanating from his coffin, his brother Sir Cecil (Wolfgang Kieling) insisting on seeing the dead man walking as a zombie. Numerous questions abound: is Sir Oliver still alive, what are those excessive payments from Sir Cecil all about, how does the fetching female reporter (Siw Mattson) stay one step ahead of the law, and why does she assume that mouth to mouth resuscitation equals making out? The answers aren't always forthcoming, and too many characters again make it difficult to pin down a single suspect, but for a later Wallace entry it manages to stand on its own.

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.

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/

As far as bad movies goes, this one is a gem. Everything, from the killer's skull mask to the cheesy melodrama effects, makes it extremely funny. One extraordinary line shows a mechanism triggering the door to a secret passage opened by. a penny bank! Some wacko characters shows the filmmakers didn't take themselves very seriously. The final explanation doesn't explain anything. But this is a murder mystery far over the edge, on the tradition of "Doctor X".