L'homme à l'oeil de verre

Alfred Vohrer's last Wallace crime novel

In 1969 the film was able to attract another 1.6 million visitors to the cinemas, but the series had clearly passed its peak. The blood was particularly ketchup-red and the somewhat clumsy beating scenes already breathe the spirit of the 1970s, but the fun of earlier Wallace works is gone.

Horst TAPPERT plays the inspector, Stefan BEHRENS (Evelyn HAMANN's partner) is annoying as the idiot assistant. Sir Arthur (Hubsi from MEYERINCK) fawns over his frivolous secretary (as always magical: GERMAN FILM AWARD winner Ilse PAGé). The lively dancing bees from the theater are led by Christiane KRÜGER (daughter of GOLDEN GLOBE nominee Hardy KRÜGER), Marlies Draeger, who was born in Heilbad Heiligenstadt, Eva STRÖMBERG and the still very young INTERNATIONAL EMMY AWARD nominee Iris BERBEN (she was for KRUPP in 2010 : A FAMILY CHRONICLE nominated). GERMAN FILM AWARD winner Fritz WEPPER (who later became Horst Tappert's assistant in the television series DERRICK on the West German television station ZDF) can be seen as the young Lord Sheringham, who is deeply in love with a dancer (Karin HÜBNER). This displeases his mother. And that is really the show of the film when musical star Karin HÜBNER (MY FAIR LADY in West German theaters) meets Friedel SCHUSTER, the operetta star (FRAU LUNA) of the 1930s. The pieces are flying!

Quite good entertainment, but not a highlight of the series!

Heroin smuggling, white slave trading, foul murders committed by sinister villains, clumsy Scotland Yard inspectors... And, of course, all this taking place in the heart of London, where everyone speaks German. Yup, we boarded another Edgar Wallace Krimi-Carousel. Every time I start watching one of those, I feel as if the plot is derivative and the formula is getting worn out, but somehow the film in question always turns out entertaining and sufficiently innovative. "The Man with the Glass Eye" is special and memorable enough for a couple of reasons. It's a Krimi in color, with a couple of grisly murder sequences and clever twists. It's also the first German Wallace-adaptation I've seen that doesn't star Eddi Arent in the pitiable comic-relief role. This responsibility is taken over by Stefan Behrens (as a Sgt. With a squeaky voice) and Hubert Von Meyerinck (as the ignorant chief of Scotland Yard). Although they hardly share any scenes together, "The Man with the Glass Eyes" also unites Horst Tappert and Fritz Wepper, five years before they would star together in the most successful (I think) German TV-series ever, namely "Derrick". The most disturbing character in this film is, hands down, a spooky ventriloquist who has dummies with gigantic heads and he makes them call him "daddy". In fact, he even makes them talk when there isn't an audience around. Bizarre.

Merely a few months after "Der Gorilla von Soho", Horst Tappert returned as Inspector Perkins in "Der Mann mit dem Glasauge". The second movie is clearly better scripted than the first and much more exciting. Perkins is this time chasing a gang who trades drugs and girls between England and South America. Much to the dislike of his boss, Sir Arthur, Perkins suspects members of the high society to be involved. Sir Arthur (Hubert von Meyerinck) has a couple of rather silly scenes in the movie which in my opinion are not as convincing as those in several films of his predecessor Siegfried Schürenberg, or maybe the police chief with certain weaknesses simply became a formula that had been used too often. The versatile performance by Karin Hübner (mostly a theater and TV actress) as Yvonne must be mentioned, ranging from cold and calculating to crazy with love. All in all, "Der Mann mit dem Glasauge" is one of the better color movies of the Wallace series and probably Horst Tappert's best.

An Edgar Wallace episode filmed in colour though not overwhelmingly colourful, this film is impressive rather because of its charming touch of humour than creepy thrill. Stefan Behrens, who plays young Sergeant Pepper has a voice as annyoing as some bad German dubber of Jerry Lewis characters, but he has the potential to be funnier than all the guys played by Eddi Arent.

Average.

This is a rather late German Edgar Wallace 'krimi', so maybe I should not prejudge the rest based upon this viewing. Actually this begins tremendously with stunning impressionistic credits based upon London night scene neon. We are then introduced to the cast and given a good idea of the storyline involving some leggy lady dancers, a knife thrower, a ventriloquist and sex and drugs. Heroin and the white slave trade to be precise. But, I don't imagine the early 'krimi' relied so much on humour but this one gets just a little too silly. Not helped by an English dub devoted more to trying to out camp each other rather than convince us of any hint of believability. The colour deserves a mention because even if the film could not live up to the opening credits the bright, even lurid colour does and the blood is the very brightest red I've seen in a film. There are hints at the giallo and we see the classic, hat cloaked coat and black rubber gloves but really, this cannot surely be a good guide to the best of this mini genre I have heard so much about but seen so little of.