(Edwin Zbonek to the right)
Though his career spanned from 1960-1982, the bulk of Edwin Zbonek's TV and movie work is from the 1960s.
He is mainly known for his TV movies but also directed two of CCC’s Bryan Edgar Wallace films: Der Henker von London/The Mad Executioners (1963), a film that combines a plot about a group of vigilante henchmen in London with that of a sex fiend/mad scientist, and Das Ungeheuer von London City/The Monster of London City (1964), featuring a narrative about a modern day Jack the Ripper.
With their splashes of grand guignol and smidgens of giallo-like elements, these are some of the best and most enjoyable Krimis outside the Rialto series. They are also remarkable in that they both somewhat dared to defy the classic idea of a Happy End that for the most part was prevalent in other films of this genre. They also presented suspects and villains that were able to elicit a certain kind of sympathy with the audience and operated in a grey area away from the traditional black and white scheme presented elsewhere.
Zbonek had also been first choice for Das siebente Opfer/The Racetrack Murders (1964) but not been available.
His feature film Am Galgen hängt die Liebe [tr. Love Hangs on the Gallows] (1960) was also written by him. Set in wartime Greece it has been described as a “partisan spaghetti western with hard Heimatfilm contours”.
He again served as combined writer/director for Deutschland - deine Sternchen [tr. Germany - Your Starlets] (1962), an early film about how the yellow press pushes the career of starlets.
Also worth of note is his action drama Die Flucht (Mensch und Bestie)/Man and Beast (1963) with Götz George as a concentration camp escapee chased by a vicious dog during a manhunt. Disillusioned by the cuts imposed on what he considered his most personal work so far, Zbonek subsequently for the most part decided to focus on more commercial productions.
Prior to becoming a director, Zbonek was one of Austria’s best known movie critics for radio and newspaper.
Parallel to his work for cinema and TV he was also a well known stage director in prestigious theatres and opera houses such as the Burgtheater and the Volksoper in Vienna and for a while even was the festival director of the Viennale. He also directed an impressive list of radio plays.
No comments:
Post a Comment