User reviews

Karin Dor ("The Green Archer") and Siegfried Lowitz ("Der Frosch mit der Maske") return for the 7th entry of the Edgar Wallace series, while Hellmut Lange stars for the first time as Peter Clifton who marries the beautiful Jane (Karin Dor). Jane discovers a printing machine for banknotes in her new home. Has she just married "The Forger of London", or who else could be responsible for the counterfeits? Funny enough, Peter doesn't know that himself because he seems to be a victim of schizophrenia... which Jane once dryly describes to him thus: "Can you imagine how interesting it is to have a husband who never knows where he wakes up?" Typical music by Martin Böttcher, unusual story, powerfully directed by Harald Reinl - a good movie, even if none of the most popular in the series. Apparently the producers tried to break fresh ground here instead of repeating a formula, and this courage is one reason why the Edgar Wallace series lasted so long.

Karin Dor marries wealthy Hellmut Lange, but all is not sunny. Her uncle and friends assume she married him for money, of course. At the same time as the marriage Little do they know that he is worried that his father's madness will descend upon him! At the same time, fake bank bills made by "the Forger of London" start showing up, and all the clues point to Mr. Lange. Why then, is Chief Inspector Siegfried Lowitz helping Miss Dor destroy evidence? Could he be part of the forgery ring?

It's one of the Edgar Wallace mysteries shot in Germany. You can tell. Not only is the English dialogue inexpertly looped, but the players move nothing at all like English people. Of course, bad voicework on foreign movies is a hallmark of cheap foreign productions. Anyone who has not noticed that most of the men in Italian peplum movies sound sound like Paul Frees has not been paying attention. Still, it is easy to accept that people in ancient Greece moved like the actors in those movies, because we have no other standards to judge by. 20th-Century Englishmen are another matter, at least when it comes to movie actors, and there's a clear difference in the physical performances.

Still, it's a nicely convoluted murder mystery that appears to be going nowhere for a while, until the answer pops out at you and you realize that, yes, it has been more than adequately foreshadowed. That's something.