Krimi! 2 due out soon (and what else have I been up to this year)

Super excited to reveal that the new issue of Krimi! will hit the stands (well, Amazon) September 30, and it's even bigger than last year's official first issue.

Though Mabuse is the main focus, especially unreleased Mabuse projects or films that one would not at first glance consider to be Mabuse productions, we do cover a lot of ground and also write about: LES COMPAGNONS D'ELEUSIS (a long forgotten French TV series that covered similar ground as Umberto Eco or Dan Brown years later); Continental Films and crime movies produced in Nazi occupied France; novels written by Edgar Wallace's daughter Penelope; Bryan Edgar Wallace's novel THE WHITE CARPET and its adaptation of sorts THE MAD EXECUTIONERS; DER ALTE, a long running German TV Krimi series; Marijan Vajda, “the Yugoslav Ed Wood”, and his most notorious film, MOSQUITO; Cornell Woolrich's connection to SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS; and we also provide an overview of our ten favourite Rialto Edgar Wallace films.

Boris, my partner in Krimi, had created this graphic with an overview of all that we cover in this issue (not including our Top Ten cause that would be telling).

As always, this issue will be available on Amazon from September 30 on and exclusively print-only. (Ignore the fact that this says Issue 3. That booboo will be corrected before release.)

Boris also provided a sneak peak at some sample pages.

What else have I been up to this year that you may have missed?

Me and Boris both wrote separate articles for the "Adventure Calls! Karl May at CCC" Blu-ray set by Eureka.

And speaking of Karl May, I also had the pleasure of appearing yet again on Rod Barnett's "Bloody Pit" podcast, this time discussing TREASURE OF SILVER LAKE (1962), the first Karl May Western.

Following up from the release of the "Fantômas Returns" box-set (also by Eureka) to which I had contributed another article, I also guested on another episode of the "Cult Connections" podcast, discussing the Fantômas trilogy from the 1960s. This episode is available on Spotify or where-ever else you get your podcast fix from.

Oh, and I also was able to introduce THE MAD EXECUTIONERS at a screening in March in my local arthouse cinema, the Triskel in Cork (Ireland).

Looking ahead, there are another couple of podcast episodes in the pipeline and in November I am planning to visit the Isla Calavera festival in Tenerife for the first time. Guest stars expected this year are Lone Fleming, Barbara Crampton, Lloyd Kaufman, Christopher Lambert, Joanna Cassidy and Tom Berenger. Should I have any Spanish readers who also plan to go there, please drop me a line and maybe we can geek out together.

Eureka Blu-Rays (and the new Bare*Bones magazine)

Thanks to Eureka Entertainment there has never been a better time to be an international Krimi Fan as they have started releasing a number of German Krimis in English friendly versions!

First up: Mabuse Lives! Dr Mabuse at CCC 1960-1964

This sumptuous box set collects all the Mabuse movies from the 1960s and amongst the extras contains an article by me in its limited edition 60-page collector’s book.

The set is officially out on March 31, 2025 but I have already seen photos from one fan who received theirs a few days earlier.

The set can also be purchased on Amazon US or Amazon UK.

You can still listen to my guest performance on Rod Barnett's Bloody Pit of Rod podcast where we discuss the series or check out my little book The Many Masks of Dr. Mabuse: Mabuse in the 1960s. I had also contributed a Mabuse related article to The Sensational Sixties #10 magazine.

Next up: Terror In The Fog : The Wallace Krimi at CCC

This set is out May 26, 2025 and features several Bryan Edgar Wallace Krimis and one non-Rialto Edgar Wallace adaptation from CCC Studios.

I have again contributed an article for its collector's booklet. Pre-orders are now taken and this is also available from Amazon US or Amazon UK.

And last but by no means least: 

The latest issue of bare*bones magazine (Winter 2025) contains an article about the Kommissar X film series again written by yours truly.

Find it here (Amazon US) or here (Amazon UK).

And don't forget to also check out my appearance on the Cult Connections podcast where I chatted about Kommissar X. That show was the inspiration for me to write this magazine article.

The Etruscan Kills Again/The Dead Are Alive/Das Geheimnis des gelben Grabes (1972)

Just discovered these couple of lines that I penned a good few years ago. I don't think I had published them anywhere before so decided I might as well pop them up here on this blog given the connection to Bryan Edgar Wallace. I definitely need to rewatch this film some time soon again as I can't remember much from it at this time.

The history of Bryan Edgar Wallace movies still had a little epitaph in the form of The Etruscan Kills Again aka The Dead Are Alive, an Italian Giallo allegedly based on one of his novels but really a standalone project that just availed of his name to drum up a little publicity. 

 Directed by Armando Crispino and featuring a range of excellent and familiar but not too familiar (and therefore affordable) actors such as Samantha Eggar, Alex Cord, John Marley, Horst Frank and Nadja Tiller this film is beautifully set in the uniquely scenic Italian countryside among ancient Etruscan ruins. When an ancient graveside gets unearthed a series of often quite graphic murders shocks the archaeological community but could the old Etruscans really have come back to life or is the solution a bit more mundane? 

 This is a lesser known and often maligned entry into the giallo genre but the truth is that it is if not necessarily good but then at least a very entertaining production with decent production values that lives through its assortment of dubious and often disturbed characters: psychotic alcoholics with black outs, camp choreographers, violent bigamist conductors the image of Herbert von Karajan, cheating wives and mysterious ex-wives with their own secrets all make up part of this fun ensemble. 

 Riz Ortolani with help from Giuseppe Verdi provides the memorable score that underlines the grisly killings. 

 The solution won’t come as a major surprise to anyone who’s ever seen a giallo but as usual it is a case of style over substance in these type of films and this flick sure deserves to be better known amongst cognoscenti of this sub-genre.

Edwin Zbonek (March 28, 1928 - May 29, 2006)

(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.

KRIMI! #0 out today

 

It's an exciting day for me today as the first (experimental) issue of the new Krimi! magazine is out today. 

It is the brainchild of Boris Brosowski from the Death at the Grindhouse blog. He had contacted me with the idea and in early September we met in person when I was visiting Germany again and hit it off instantly, chatted for hours about all things Krimi and Cult movie related over a few bevvies and then at the end of an amazing meeting when we realised we hadn't even properly discussed the magazine we just briefly asked ourselves: "So, are we going to do this?" and answered it with a "Hell yeah!"

And now less than three months later the inaugural issue is ready for sale. It is first English language magazine dedicated to this genre and we're in it for the long time. Exclusively available in print, it can be ordered via Amazon UK, Amazon US or through any of the other Amazon channels worldwide.

The reason why we numbered this as 0 is because we wanted to first of all learn to come to grips with the minutiae of physical publishing as well of course as figuring out how well we can work together. 

From next year on we will start with a proper Number 1 - even bigger, even better - and have also already assembled a little line up of established genre writers so exciting days ahead.

Boris has set up a blog exclusively for the magazine as well as a YouTube channel.

Table of contents

This blog is dedicated to covering the whole plethora or classic German Krimis, thrillers etc.

A large chunk of that is of the course the series of 32 Rialto Krimis plus adjacent productions (Bryan Edgar Wallace films or non-Rialto Wallaces).

What was missing so far was a list of all the relevant films with links to show which ones I have already covered and looking at this list, I just realised that there is still a lot that needs to be done.

This document will always be a work in progress that I will keep updated whenever I add some new info to this blog and eventually I can foresee that I will also end up providing similar overview posts for the other franchises as I noticed while compiling this list that I often appear to have posted stuff about the lesser known productions rather than the Edgar Wallace films. (Yes, I know, I'm weird.)

Full reviews are provided by clicking on the title links. Links to promotional material are given after the film title.

This post can also quickly be found by checking out the Featured Post gadget at the top of the side bar on the right.

Edgar Wallace 

Rialto: 

1. Der Frosch mit der Maske/Fellowship of the Frog (1959) 

2. Der Rote Kreis/The Crimson Circle (1959) 

3. Die Bande des Schreckens/The Terrible People (1960) 

4. Der Grüne Bogenschütze/The Green Archer (1961) 

5. Die Toten Augen von London/Dead Eyes of London (1961): Slideshow 

6. Das Geheimnis der grünen Narzissen/The Devil’s Daffodil (1961) 

7. Der Fälscher von London/The Forger of London (1961) 

8. Die seltsame Gräfin/The Strange Countess (1961): Film Program

9. Das Rätsel der roten Orchidee/Secret of the Red Orchid (1962): Film Program

10. Die Tür mit den 7 SchlössernThe Door With Seven Locks (1962)  

11. Das Gasthaus an der Themse/The Inn on the River (1962) 

12. Der Zinker/The Squeaker (1963) 

13. Der schwarze Abt/The Black Abbot (1963) 

14. Das indische Tuch/The Indian Scarf (1963): Italian Film Posters

15. Zimmer 13/Room 13 (1964): Lobby Cards

16. Die Gruft mit dem Rätselschloss/The Curse of the Hidden Vault (1964): Lobby cards

17. Der Hexer/The Ringer (1964): Slideshow, Podcast, Film Poster, Film Program

18. Das Verrätertor/Traitor’s Gate (1964) 

19. Neues vom Hexer (1965)

20. Der unheimliche Mönch/The Sinister Monk (1965) 

21. Der Bucklige von Soho/The Hunchback of Soho (1966) 

22. Das Geheimnis der weissen Nonne/The Trygon Factor (1966) 

23. Die blaue Hand/Creature with the Blue Hand (1967): Lobby Cards

24. Der Mönch mit der Peitsche/The College Girl Murders (1967) 

25. Der Hund von Blackwood Castle/The Monster of Blackwood Castle (1968): Lobby Cards

26. Im Banne des Unheimlichen/The Zombie Walks (1968): Lobby Cards

27. Der Gorilla von Soho/The Gorilla Gang (1968): Lobby Cards

28. Der Mann mit dem Glasauge/The Man With the Glass Eye (1968): The Phantom vs Glass Eye (Death Match), Lobby Cards

29. Das Gesicht im Dunkeln/Double Face/A doppia faccia (1969) 

30. Der Tote aus der Themse/Angels of Terror (1971) 

31. Das Geheimnis der grünen Stecknadel/What Have You Done to Solange?/Cosa avete fatto a Solange? (1972): Lobby Cards

32. Das Rätsel des Silbernen Halbmonds/Seven Blood-Stained Orchids/Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso (1972): Lobby Cards, Barber Calendar

 Bryan Edgar Wallace: 

1. Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Koffer/The Secret of the Black Trunk (1961)  

2. Der Würger von Schloss Blackmoor/The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle (1963)

3. Der Henker von London/The Mad Executioners (1963): Lobby Cards

4. Das Phantom von Soho/The Phantom of Soho (1963): The Phantom vs Glass Eye (Death Match), Film Program

5. Das Ungeheuer von London City//The Monster of London City (1964) 

6. Das siebente Opfer/The Racetrack Murders (1964): Lobby Cards

7. Der Todesrächer von Soho/The Corpse Packs His Bags (1971): Lobby Cards

A. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1969)

B. The Cat o' Nine Tails (1970)

C. The Etruscan Kills Again (1972)

 Non-Rialto: 

1. Der Rächer/The Avenger (1960): Film Program

2. Der Fluch der gelben Schlange/The Curse of the Yellow Snake (1963)

3. Das Rätsel des silbernen Dreiecks/Circus of Fear (1966) 

4. Die Pagode zum fünften Schrecken/Five Golden Dragons (1967): Podcast

5. Der Teufel kam aus Akasava/The Devil Came from Akasava (1971)

Louis Weinert-Wilton

1. Der Teppich des Grauens/The Carpet of Fear (1962)

2. Die weisse Spinne/The White Spider (1963)

3. Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Witwe/The Secret of the Black Widow (1963): Lobby Cards 

4. Das Geheimnis der chinesischen Nelke (1964)

Louis Weinert-Wilton Book Covers

Rolf Olsen St Pauli Series:

1. Rolf Olsen's St Pauli Films (Part 1)

2. Wenn es Nacht wird auf der Reeperbahn/When Night Falls on the Reeperbahn (1967)

3. Der Arzt von St Pauli/Females for Hire (1968)

4. Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins/The Bedroom (1969)

5. Der Pfarrer von St Pauli (1970)

6. Das Stunden-Hotel von St. Pauli/Hotel by the Hour (1970)

7. Käpt'n Rauhbein aus St. Pauli/Nurses for Sale (1971)

Also check out:

Rialto Wallace Top 5 - Guest Contribution by Douglas Waltz

MAELSTROM 01 - French fanzine dedicated to the Edgar Wallace Krimis

Fred Williams (*09 Feb 1938)

Born in Munich as Friedrich Wilhelm Löcherer, Fred Williams studied to become a mechanical engineer but after being discovered by an Italian film producer in a bar in the swanky suburb of Schwabing he anglicised his name and started a career as an actor in Italian and European movies. 

In Angelique et le roy/Angelique and the King (1966) Williams plays exiled Hungarian Prince Rakoczy who has assumed some kind of Robin Hood style role and saves Angelique (Michèle Mercier) from being raped by a Persian Bey. 

Starting with El conde Drácula/Count Dracula (1970) where he played Jonathan Harker, good looking but somewhat uncharismatic Williams became one of Jess Franco’s regular stars in a series of his movies in the early to mid-1970s. Four of those were influenced by or may even be considered as the Krimi genre’s final breath and featured a number of the genre’s familiar faces: Der Teufel kam aus Akasava/The Devil Came from Akasava (1971), She Killed in Ecstasy (1971), Der Todesrächer von Soho/The Corpse Packs His Bags (1972) and the La venganza del doctor Mabuse/Dr. M schlägt zu (1972). 

Williams seems to also have appeared in a number of the popular Italian photo-comics at the time, a topic for which he was interviewed for German TV station WDR in a 1973 documentary Einmal wirst auch Du mich lieben – Über die Bedeutung von Heftromanen. 

His best known mainstream role was in the big budget war drama A Bridge Too Far (1977) where he appeared in a supporting role as an SS Officer.

More lobby cards for German Krimis

 I just returned from a trip back to Germany and picked up two incomplete sets of lobby cards while over there.

First up seven lobby cards for Bryan Edgar Wallace film Das siebente Opfer/The Racetrack Murders (1964).

Next up three lobby cards for Piccadilly Null Uhr Zwölf (1963).

Death Match: THE PHANTOM vs. GLASS EYE

In my recent review of Der Mann mit dem Glasauge/The Man With the Glass Eye (1968) I wrote: 

 “The Man With the Glass Eye is one of those Wallace films that doesn’t even pretend to be based on any of his novels anymore. Its development, however, is probably way more interesting than a straight forward adaptation would have been as this is an example where a rival production from a different studio initially influenced by the success of the Rialto Wallaces in turn influenced a film in the original series back again. 

Ladislas Fodor, an author who had been very influential in creating the 1960s series of Mabuse movies, had also provided a screenplay for Artur Brauner’s CCC Film production Das Phantom von Soho/The Phantom of Soho (1964), allegedly based on Bryan Edgar Wallace’s novel Murder by Proxy, a book that does not, however, seem to exist. In his screenplay Fodor focused on a string of knife murders in London’s red light district, committed by a masked killer in revenge for the actions of a gang of drug and girl smugglers. 

Which kind of is the entire premise of The Man With the Glass Eye as well! (Right down to the exact nature of the reason for the revenge.) 

For Rialto’s production Fodor supplied a treatment under the title “Die grausame Puppe” [The Cruel Doll]. His involvement went uncredited and his treatment was reworked by Paul Hengge whose name features in the credits of Rialto’s 28th Wallace movie. 

There is speculation as to whether Phantom of Soho’s screenplay may have simply been sold over to Rialto at the time. Whatever exactly happened remains unknown but the similarities between both movies is striking (and possibly a subject for a future blog post).” 

 I have just rewatched Das Phantom von Soho/The Phantom of Soho (1964) so now thought it would be neat to have a little death match between those two movies to see which comes out the superior production. 

 Mind you, this is just a fun little exercise. Both movies are thoroughly enjoyable in their own right and get a thumbs up from me but this kind of exercise may help highlight some of the differences between the two rival series as well as how the Krimi genre ended up progressing over time. 

I have come up with a number of categories under which I will have a quick look at the two movies before announcing the winner in each category. At the end of this post, I will count up those individual wins and announce the ultimate champion of this Death Match. 

German Lobby Card Set for DER TODESRÄCHER VON SOHO/THE CORPSE PACKS HIS BAGS (1972)

You know you've drunk the Jess Franco Kool-Aid when you find an old review from 2009 in which you slate this film and yet even though 13 years later all the points still hold true, they are now the reason you get such a great kick out of it. 

Watched this film again at 4 o’clock at night. Maybe being spaced out from insomnia had a part to play as well, but this time I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, its odd angles and occasional hallucinatory day-for-night shots. 

In order to pay penance for my prior lack of respect for Señor Franco, here are some German lobby cards for this last in the series of Bryan Edgar Wallace films by Artur Brauner’s CCC Film, a remake of its first entry (Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Koffer/The Secret of the Black Trunk, 1962), and also arguably the last classic Krimi.

Maria Perschy (23 Sep 1938 – 03 Dec 2004)

Austrian actress with a versatile career that brought her from German productions to Hollywood blockbusters until she finally starred in a series of Euro Cult movies that ultimately were responsible for her longterm and still ensuing popularity amongst fans of Eurotrash. She is a graduate of the prestigious Max-Reinhardt-Seminar school of acting in Vienna. 

 Perschy started her career in bit parts and on early German TV productions. Her breakthrough came in Nassser Asphalt/Wet Asphalt (1958) next to then heartthrob Horst Buchholz and Gert Fröbe in a plot about fake journalism and war criminals in post-war Germany. 

She followed this up in a series of light hearted German comedies and had her first international role in Giorgio Bianchi’s Il moralista/The Moralist (1959). 

Her first English language film was the war drama The Password Is Courage (1962) next to Dirk Bogarde.

 In the 1960s Hollywood came calling and for fans of Classic Hollywood Perschy is probably best known acting side-by-side with Rock Hudson and Paula Prentiss in the Howard Hawks directed comedy Man’s Favorite Sport? (1964) in which Hudson’s tie gets entangled in Perschy’s zip. She also had a small role in John Huston’s Freud: The Secret Passion (1962) with Montgomery Clift but ultimately never hit the big time in US productions. 

Instead Perschy focused on bigger parts in smaller European movies aided by her faible for speaking foreign languages. At the time she predominantly appeared in a mix of action/adventure, war (633 Squadron (1964)) and Euro western (Die Banditen vom Rio Grande (1965)). Over the years she also on occasion featured in some popular TV dramas of the time such as “General Hospital”, “Paul Temple” and “Hawaii Five-O”. 

 Der Henker von London/The Mad Executioners (1963) is a Bryan Edgar Wallace film that switches from being a typical Krimi to a Frankensteinan shlock fest with Maria Perschy as the token blonde love interest and decoy to help catch the decapitating mad scientist. 

 She spends most of her time in the first Kommissar X movie Jagd auf Unbekannt/Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill (1966) wearing a lavender wig and quickly changes allegiances from being one of the henchman’s assistants to being instrumental in saving a private army of Amazon warriors from his influence. 

Prior to Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill she had already starred alongside Brad Harris in Weiße Fracht für Hongkong/Mystery of the Red Jungle (1964), about combatting a drug ring in modern day Hong Kong. Harris would subsequently also be involved in her film Mister Dynamit - Morgen küßt euch der Tod/Spy Today, Die Tomorrow (1967), a somewhat lame German Eurospy production with Lex Barker. 

Right after the Kommissar X movie Perschy starred in Las 7 magnificas/The Tall Women (1966), a Spanish filmed Eurowestern that may or may not have also been directed by Gianfranco Parolini. According to some sources it is likely that though nominally credited to Rudolf Zehetgruber, it may indeed have instead been filmed by Sidney W. Pink with Parolini also being mentioned in order to satisfy legal requirements by Italian financiers. 

Perschy is one of many familiar faces in Five Golden Dragons (1967), a British-German co-production loosely based on Edgar Wallace “Sanders” stories. One of her co-stars there was Christopher Lee with whom she also appeared in the final Dr Fu Manchu film of the 1960s, The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969, directed by Jess Franco).

 During the 1960s Perschy lived in Spain. 

 In 1971 while shooting promotional photos in a petroleum field near Madrid disaster struck. Covered in oil she was cleaning herself up with petrol while a woman in the same room as her lit a gas oven causing an explosion. Perschy turned into a human torch but managed to extinguish the flames herself before being rushed into hospital with life threatening wounds. Despite the severity of her injuries, her wounds managed to heal and she was able to resume her career. 

 It appears that Maria Perschy was tested but did not make the cut for Los monstruos del terror/Assignment Terror (1970). In the subsequent years she did, however, appear in five other productions featuring Paul Naschy (Hunchback of the Morgue/El jorobado de la Morgue (1973), Los ojos azules de la muñeca rota/Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll (1974), Exorcismo (1975), La diosa salvaje/Kilma, Queen of the Jungle (1975), Último deseo/The People Who Own the Dark (1976)). 

In 1974 she also starred in El buque maldito/The Ghost Galleon (1974), the third of Amando de Ossorio’s four Blind Dead movies. 

 Privately she was involved in an on again/off again relationship with fiancé Joachim Hansen (from Bryan Edgar Wallace Krimi Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Koffer/The Secret of the Black Trunk (1962)) with whom she had acted together in Lebensborn/Ordered to Love (1961), a German war time drama about Nazi breeding farms, before marrying Stanley Torchia, the Executive Producer of her film A Witch Without a Broom (1967). That marriage ended in a divorce. 

 The couple had a daughter together in 1967. 

During the 1970s Maria Perschy briefly moved back to Austria when the Spanish government repeatedly demanded of her to take on the Spanish citizenship. She then moved to Hollywood where she got married for a second time, this time to screenwriter John Melson (Battle of the Bulge (1965), Cauldron of Blood (1970)). This marriage lasted until Melson’s suicide in 1983. 

During her time in L.A. Perschy also worked as a translator and in the antiques business. 

She returned back to Austria in the mid-1980s and acted on stage there while also appearing in German TV shows. 

In the last five years of her life Maria Perschy had to undergo 15 cancer related operations. She passed away in 2004 at the age of 66.

US Lobby Card set for THE MAD EXECUTIONERS (1963)

 Just received these eight US lobby cards for the Bryan Edgar Wallace film The Mad Executioners (1963).