The secret of the yellow daffodils
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The secret of the yellow daffodils |
| Original title | The Devil's Daffodil |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany , Great Britain |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1961 |
| length | 94 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ákos of Ráthonyi |
| script |
Basil Dawson , with the assistance of Donald Taylor , German Dialogues: Horst Wendlandt and Gerhard F. Hummel |
| production |
Horst Wendlandt , Preben Philipsen , Steven Pallos , Donald Taylor |
| music | Keith Papworth |
| camera | Desmond Dickinson |
| cut | Peter Taylor |
| occupation | |
| |
The secret of the yellow daffodils (English title: The Devil's Daffodil ) is the seventh German-language Edgar Wallace film of the post-war period . Directed by Ákos von Ráthonyi , Joachim Fuchsberger , Sabina Stuhlmann , Christopher Lee and Klaus Kinski star in this story, which is based on Edgar Wallace 's book The Daffodil Mystery . Von Ráthonyi also shot an English version at the same time.
action
Big alarm at the London police: an obviously insane murderer killed three young women within a very short time. Each time the perpetrator leaves a bouquet of yellow daffodils on the scene of the terrible incident. Chief Inspector Whiteside takes over the investigation. Jack Tarling, an agent for an international airline, and the mysterious Chinese Ling Chu do not believe in the act of any one. Especially not when they narrowly escaped a bomb attack that destroyed a newly discovered shipment of smuggled heroin.
The suspicion that the mysterious series of murders is related to the drug trade seems to be confirmed more and more. Inspector Whiteside initially stuck to his thesis until his tracks lead to a wicked club and its owner, a wealthy London businessman. In the end, the inconspicuous barman Peter Keene turns out to be a narcissus killer.
production
History of origin
Waldfried Barthel ( Constantin Film ) and Preben Philipsen (Rialto Film, Prisma-Filmverleih) originally planned The Secret of the Yellow Daffodils , directed by Harald Reinl, as the sixth Edgar Wallace film based on The Green Archer . Since the first version of the screenplay was edited several times by Egon Eis , the first production of the film The Dead Eyes of London began . After Reinl, Jürgen Roland was seen as director of The Secret of the Yellow Narcissi . Heinz Drache and Elke Sommer were to play the main roles. The German translation of the English version for The Secret of the Yellow Narcissi was then written by Horst Wendlandt and Gerhard F. Hummel .
Preben Philipsen had been in contact with the British author Basil Dawson , whom he met through Penelope Wallace , since the beginning of 1960 . Dawson introduced Philipsen in turn to film producers Steven Pallos and Donald Taylor of Omnia Pictures in London. Rialto Film, with Horst Wendlandt as a partner since 1961 , and Omnia Pictures finally agreed on a coproduction of the film The Secret of the Yellow Daffodils .
Christopher Lee was not dubbed for the German version, he can be heard in it in his own voice. It was the only Edgar Wallace film by Rialto Film shot in black and white that Eddi Arent did not appear in. The film was produced from April to May 1961 as a co-production by the British production company Omnia Pictures Ltd. and the German Rialto Film, filmed in Shepperton Studios in Middlesex , and is one of the few German-language Edgar Wallace films that contains only exterior shots from London .
Ingrid van Bergen sings the song With me everything is just nature (music: Keith Papworth , text: Ute Kuntze-Just), which in the English version is called I Haven't Got a Thing to Hide .
The film was approved by the FSK without editing requirements from the age of 16. In 1991 it was approved for children aged 12 and over. The film, which was broadcast in black and white on television for a long time, can now be seen again with the original color credits. The third Edgar Wallace film from 1961 became the most successful contribution in the film series to date, replacing the film The Dead Eyes of London, which had just started four months earlier . The secret of the yellow daffodils was the last German film to be awarded by Prisma-Film. In August 1961 the company was incorporated into Constantin Filmverleih, which significantly improved the division of labor between the producers involved.
Publication and Success
The secret of the yellow daffodils was shown in German cinemas on July 20, 1961 and had around 3.5 million visitors in German-speaking countries at the time. The film opened in the United Kingdom on May 20, 1962. It was also released in Finland, Ireland, France, Portugal and the USA, there under the title The Devil's Daffodil . The film was shown for the first time in the first program on the television of the GDR on January 18, 1975, on the television of the Federal Republic of Germany on May 22, 1981 on ZDF .
English version The Devil's Daffodil
Basil Dawson was supposed to write an English screenplay based on Egon Eis's first book. The plot and personal names of the novel were in parts significantly changed. The Hungarian director Ákos von Ráthonyi , who lives alternately in London and Hamburg , had the task of filming two language versions with, in some cases, different actors at the respective locations. The English version of The Devil's Daffodil saw William Lucas instead of Joachim Fuchsberger , Penelope Horner instead of Sabina Stuhlmann and Colin Jeavons instead of Klaus Kinski in the leading roles. All other actors played in both versions.
Reviews
“At the latest when you pull the dead man out of the Thames, the Wallace friend will sit down and look forward to a story that the master has perfectly combined. And he will not be disappointed. "
“Unfortunately, this mass extinction lacks the Anglo-Saxon joy in fun. Akos von Rathony put the Edgar Wallace novel in the limelight in a very honest and very serious way. As a detective, Joachim Fuchsberger offers little more than a smart face. "
"A Wallace story, whose otherwise undesirable opacity is exaggerated, so that instead of being able to think along, one only learns the context through the concluding dialogues."
"A perfect Wallace - he lacks nothing."
"Excitingly staged Edgar Wallace crime thriller."
"Confused history with some lengths."
"A not very tasteful Edgar Wallace film."
literature
- Edgar Wallace: The Witcher / The Blue Hand / The Secret of the Yellow Daffodils . Three novels in one volume. German translation. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-442-55502-4 .
- Joachim Kramp , Jürgen Wehnert: The Edgar Wallace Lexicon. Life, work, films. It is impossible not to be captivated by Edgar Wallace! Verlag Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89602-508-2 .
- Joachim Kramp : Hello! This is Edgar Wallace speaking. The story of the legendary German crime film series from 1959–1972 . Verlag Schwarzkopf and Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2005 (3rd edition), ISBN 3-89602-645-3 .
Web links
- The Devil's Daffodil in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The secret of the yellow daffodils at filmportal.de
- Sound carrier with the film music
Remarks
- ↑ For the publication of the film music on the CD Kriminalfilmmusik Vol. 4 (EAN 4015307656023) the producers tried to find out more about the composer Papworth. Apart from the information that he had died in March 1990, however, no further personal information could be found.
Individual evidence
- ↑ 1961 The secret of the yellow daffodils In: Zauberspiegel-online.de
- ↑ The Secret of the Yellow Daffodils at splattertrash.wordpress.com
- ↑ The secret of the yellow daffodils , on Filmportal.de
- ↑ THIS WEEK ON TELEVISION Friday, May 22nd , on Spiegel.de
- ↑ The secret of the yellow daffodils. In: Abendblatt.de. Hamburger Abendblatt , July 26, 1961, accessed on May 27, 2018 .
- ↑ The secret of the yellow daffodils. Number 2647_2. (No longer available online.) In: old.filmarchiv.at. Paimann's film lists , August 16, 1961, archived from the original on May 28, 2018 ; accessed on May 27, 2018 .
- ↑ The secret of the yellow daffodils. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed June 25, 2017 .
