La grenouille attaque Scotland Yard

Self-entitled German Krimi this first movie lays out on conceive largely used in America on those serial theatre as "The Shadow" whereof had a hidden commander, "Vampire" French series from silent movie era, among other alike concept movies, thus the danish Rialto Film bought the copyrights from Edgar Wallace's novel and adapted to big screen in this debut picture that later will add up to 39 movies all made in Germany using the native actors and all happening take place in British island, mostly in London.

Also somehow it was a forerunner of Giallo genre later, the noirish style is blatantly in those fog London atmosphere, a slight expressionist as well on countless weirdo small characters and a massive use of these elements created a unique genre, actually a blending of several genres, the storyline follows the Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple neither, in well-set Whodunit concept, this early movie has a bit confusing plot, but with a keen eye the audience soon catches the offer.

The hero is an American amateur detective who coming together with his exotic butler as sidekick and the fake deaf Scotland Yard's Inspector Elk a cunning elder man, all mixing a delightful offering that certainly will please all viewers.

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

This movie is an abomination, and its making should have been considered a capital crime.

One of the great mysteries of film-making is why nobody ever has made a faithful movie adaptation of this wonderful mystery. It is a tale of a really gripping mystery, nice old-fashioned romance, and dry English humor. Why did the makers have to change Richard Gordon from a Scotland Yard policeman to an amateur detective, introduce the idiotic role and caricature of his English servant, change the part of the main storyline about the murder charge and circumstances of Gordon's struggle to save the accused, etc., etc.? These producers and directors who always think they can make a better story than the one in the book should write the original script themselves and not to rape another person's product.

This was the first of the long-running German "krimi" series based on the mysteries of Edgar Wallace (actually, there were two simultaneous series from rival companies, the other based on the works of the author's son Bryan). As Tim Lucas and other astute critics have pointed out, the films were the precursors of the Italian giallos and ultimately the slasher pictures of the 70s and 80s. They also have obvious stylistic links to the superhero and superspy action genres of the 60s.

Most of the key elements of the series already appear in this effort -- the foggy Soho underworld settings; the cabaret shows (which became progressively sleazier); the archvillain with his bizarre modus operandi and grotesque henchmen; the clever, persevering but underappreciated Scotland Yard inspector; the flippant comic antics of Eddie Arent (here appearing as the consummate English butler with Kato leanings) who is always smarter than he seems; the statuesque ingenues; the unfathomable plots featuring dozens of red herrings; and the quite violent-for-the-time stalk-and-murder sequences. Later the series would rely more on flashy camera tricks and tongue-in-cheek stylistics (especially under Alfred Vohrer's nifty direction), but here the proceedings are mainly played straight. Harald Reinl's work was always atmospheric but rather stiff in its mise-en-scene and ragged in continuity. However, this film features quite a sadistic, eye-opening ending that seems to have wandered in from a Jess Franco opus. Well worth a look, especially for amateur film historians.

"Der Frosch mit der Maske" aka. "Fellowship Of The Frog" of 1959 is the first of the popular German Edgar Wallace movies, but it certainly isn't one of the best. It has to be respected for inciting the wave of these Wallace-based German crime flicks that became extremely popular in the early 60s. Generally speaking, I am a fan of the German Edgar Wallace flicks, but I personally always preferred those dealing with a murder series to those dealing with super-criminals like this one. Also, "Fellowship of The Frog" is a bit too naive for my tastes. Sure, the German Edgar Wallce films never were nasty, brutal or cynical like the Italian genre-cinema in the 60s, for example. Still, the naiveté is quite extreme here. This makes the film a pleasure to watch for its sentimental value, but, for me personally, it doesn't go beyond that.

Scotland Yard are in desperate search for a ruthless super-criminal wearing a frog mask, whose henchmen can be identified by a frog tattoo on their forearms. The police have hardly any success in the search for the mysterious arch-criminal, even though the investigating chief inspector (Siegfried Lovitz) is a clever man. Richard Gordon (Joachim Fuchsberger), a rich man and hobby detective decides to investigate in the case himself, with the help of his loyal butler (Eddi Aren't)...

It is Aren't, one of the absolute cult-actors of the German Edgar Wallace 'krimis', who is responsible for many of the (half-dumb, but often very amusing) gags in the film. Aren't, an Edgar Wallace flick regular, often played the more comical parts in these films (often that of the butler), and this is his first role to do so. Siegfried Lovitz is very good in the role of the chief inspector, and the Eva Pflug fits in well as the seductive femme fatale. The rest of the performances are not necessarily breathtaking (the greatest performances in Edgar Wallace flicks always came from the great Klaus Kinski), but they're not bad either. The only awful performance comes from Walter Wilz, who is quite terrible as a naive young guy. All things considered, "Fellowship of the Frog" is an important film for its value as the first of the German Edgar Wallace films. Nevertheless, I recommend other Edgar Wallace flicks, such as "Das Indische Tuch" (aka. "The Indian Scarf") way over this. "Fellowship Of The Frog" is a fun film to watch, but only for sentimental values. Recommended to fans of the German Edgar Wallace films.

Harald Reinl, an excellent director who has made films from the Mabuse series and the Winnetou series. This one is very well done and comic too, a pleasure to watch even today in 2019, after 60 years: old movies are the best! Well, not all of them but, definitely, I prefer them to those painful superhero productions of today...