L'énigme du serpent noir

The Squeaker usually ranks toward the top of Rialto Film's Edgar Wallace adaptations. The film is good but somewhat overrated. A criminal known as The Snake is killing witnesses with a gun that shoots snake venom into the victims. The identity of the killer is fairly easy to determine, but that is not really the problem. The Squeaker feels talkier than usual and less interesting than some of the best entries in the series. It is, however, a reasonably entertaining watch though.

Fans of the series will appreciate the actors changing up their roles. Series regular Siegfried Schurenberg takes a break from Sir John, the Scotland Yard Chief to play a newspaper publisher baffled by his paper always missing the big scoop. This might have something to do with having Eddi A-r-e-n-t (take that auto-correct!) as a reporter.

As good as these actors are, the film belongs to Klaus Kinski. The actor appeared in many of these adaptations, but he often had a superficial role. Kinski's physical demeanor did not lend itself to casting him as the main villain because the audience would easily guess he was the villain just by looking at him. Thus, often, Kinski played a sleazy witness that would be bumped off or the villain's henchman, which technically he plays in The Squeaker as well. The difference is that, in The Squeaker, Kinski is given more chance to shine. Almost all of the film's best scenes belong to Kinski, from the opening heist of the black mamba, to playing with a pet boa constrictor, to disposing of an unwanted body, to silencing a witness (in a clever way), to the ending shootout, Klaus Kinski owns this film. Fans of the actor should definitely take note.

With this horror crime thriller from the popular West German Edgar Wallace film series, some important changes have been established. For the first time, the iconic intro with the greeting by Edgar Wallace could be seen and heard. This was also the first Wallace crime film to be shot using the ULTRASCOPE process. In addition to proven forces such as Heinz DRACHE as an inspector, Eddi ARENT as an idiot journalist and Klaus KINSKI as a madman on duty, audience favorites such as Barbara RÜTTING, Günter PFITZMANN and Agnes WINDECK made their debut in the WALLACE CINEMATIC UNIVERSE.

For years, a cunning fence known as ZINKER / SQUEAKER has been making London unsafe by sending competitors and enemies to the afterlife with the poison of the Black Mamba. Luckily, the inspector gets access to Nancy Mulford's (Agnes WINDECK) pet shop, where things seem to be going wrong. Niece Beryl (Barbara RÜTTING) and managing director Frank (Günter PFITZMANN) are also pretty much in the dark until more and more murders occur...

This horror crime thriller thrives particularly on its succinct cast. Agnes WINDECK in particular makes a remarkable debut: You shouldn't mess with this old lady at all. The two GERMAN FILM AWARD winners Barbara RÜTTING (awarded in 1953 for DIE SPUR FÜHRT NACH BERLIN) and Klaus KINSKI (awarded in 1979 for NOSFERATU) enhance every production anyway. The fabulous Inge LANGEN plays a fine key role and Siegfried SCHÜRENBERG, as publisher Sir Geoffrey, is already warming up to the senior police service. Until this film, Günter PFITZMANN had hardly been seen in leading roles in films, as he was a busy theater actor at the time (MY FAIR LADY in the West Berlin version). From 1987 he became the main actor in the popular family series PRAXIS BÜLOWBOGEN on the then West German television station ARD.

Producer Horst Wendlandt and director Alfred VOHRER have once again gotten a lot out of the Wallace original THE SQUEAKER. At that time, 2,900,000 visitors (source: InsideKino) wanted to see the film in West German cinemas, slightly fewer than DAS GASTHAUS AN DER THEMSE the year before.

Definitely worth seeing!

Another enjoyable Edgar Wallace krimi. Definitely one of the creepiest, with young Klaus Kinski slithering around in a wild animal emporium and french-kissing tropical snakes. It's all set in a dank, slushy London winter, where an arch-criminal called The Snake is avenging himself using blow-dart-propelled venom. There's also a bibulous old lady who loves lurid murder mysteries, the indispensable Eddie Arent as an eager reporter who plays invisible ping-pong, a cigarette-smoking stuffed deer, and a couple of those signature point-of-view trick shots from director Vohrer. The pace is a bit stodgy and the Squeaker doesn't seem to be involved much at all -- it sure doesn't resemble the older British version. The Sinister Cinema tape for once features the original intro with the author's name violently spelled out in bullet holes.

Scotland Yard investigates a series of murders where the victims have died by snake venom poisoning.

A rather convoluted plot, which has random scenes that don't quite gel, also much of the film had dialogue and lacks excitement. The plot never really catches fire either; nor is the mystery all that engaging, but it's still mildly distracting, mainly due to some stylistic touches and bizarre POV shots - a character eating a carrot - from the inside of his mouth, Klaus Kinski playing a weird character who likes to kidnap and kiss snakes and a murderer known as The Snake picking off his victims using a dart gun dipped with venom. The second half is better than the first, but it's nothing remarkable.

Although this early West German Edgar Wallace "krimi" is called "The Squeaker" for some reason, it's actually about another colorful shadowy Wallace supervillian called "the Snake", who uses venom milked from deadly cobras in the city zoo to paralyze and kill his enemies and and anyone else who gets in his way. Klaus Kinski plays his henchman, a creepy zoo worker and the obvious but more minor villain. The Snake himself, however, could be any number of people from the colorful cast including a classical musician and society matron who drinks straight whisky for tea time, her lovely young niece, the niece's fiancée, the owner of the zoo, or perhaps even one of several police officers investigating the bizarre murders.

This movie has a few effectively creepy scenes, some good comic relief, and an effective ending. Still it doesn't compare in my mind to the classics of the krimi genre like "Dead Eyes of London", nor even to slightly less well-regarded entries like "The Mad Executioners", "The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle" and "The College Girl Murders". It was directed by Alfred Vohrer who also directed "Dead Eyes" and two of the three films just mentioned, but I wouldn't rank it among his best work. It does feature an early appearance by the late enfante terrible German actor Klaus Kinski (who would no doubt dismiss it as another "piece of sh*t", but, of course, he said that about ALL his films). Strangely, it doesn't feature Joachim Fuchsberger, who was in even in more of these films than Kinski. It does have the go-to "comic relief" actor Eddie Arentt, but frankly Inge Langen is a lot more funny as the elderly, whisky-swigging society matron.

This movie is somewhat overrated in my opinion, but definitely worth seeing if you like the krimi genre.