The face in the dark

Movie
German title	The face in the dark
Original title	A doppia faccia / The face in the dark
Country of production	Italy , Federal Republic of Germany
Publishing year	1969
length	80 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Riccardo Freda (as Richard Freda )
script	Paul Hengge , Riccardo Freda
production	Rialto Film ( Horst Wendlandt , Preben Philipsen ), Colt Produzioni ( Oreste Coltellacci ), Mega Film ( Antonio Girasante )
music	Nora Orlandi
camera	Gábor Pogány
cut	Anna Amadei , Elisa Lanri (Italian version), Jutta Hering (German version)
occupation
Klaus Kinski : John Alexander Christiane Krüger : Christine Margaret Lee : Helen Alexander Günther Stoll : Inspector Steevens Annabella Incontrera : Liz Sydney Chaplin : Mr. Brown Barbara Nelli : Alice Carlo Marcolino : Servant Gastone Pescucci : Peter Nader Luciano Spadoni : Inspector Gordon Domenico Ravenna : spectators at the horse race Alfred Vohrer : Spokesman for Edgar Wallace Ignazio Dolce Claudio Trionfi Bedy Moratti Alice Arno

The face in the dark (Italian title: A doppia faccia ) is an Italian-German co-produced crime film that was shot in 1969 under the direction of Riccardo Freda . The film, which is a free adaptation of the novel of the same name (original title: The Face in the Night ) by Edgar Wallace , was released in Germany as the 34th contribution in the Edgar Wallace film series . The premiere of the color film took place on July 4, 1969 in the Mathäser-Filmpalast in Munich . The film opened in Italian cinemas on July 26th of the same year.

action

London : Helen Alexander, owner of the Brown & Brown automobile plant, has a lesbian affair with her friend Liz. John Alexander, who had been happily married to Helen until then, discovers this and confronts his wife. Thereupon she decides to withdraw for some time. The evening before her departure, a stranger hides an explosive device on Helen's sports car. After saying goodbye to her father Mr. Brown, her friend Liz and her husband John, Helen dies while driving to Liverpool . Inspector Steevens and Inspector Gordon from Scotland Yard initially assume an accident.

John Alexander, whom Helen has appointed as the sole heir of her fortune, including the automobile works, embarks on a short recovery trip after the tragic event. When he returns, a certain Christine is in his villa. This leads him to a strange hippie party, at which a porn film with Christine and a veiled woman is shown. She wears Helen's ring and, like Helen, has a scar on her neck. John is convinced that his wife is still alive and he succeeds in getting possession of the film. When he wants to show the film to Helen's stepfather, Mr. Brown, the managing director of the automobile works, neither the ring nor the scar can be seen. John begins to doubt himself. The Scotland Yard officials meanwhile find remains of the explosive device on Helen's car. That same night John visits Liz. She also suspects that Helen is alive and even claims to have spoken to her on the phone.

Then John also receives a call from his wife, who was believed to be dead. They arrange to meet in a cathedral . There, the veiled and terribly disfigured Helen demands of John that he should shoot her. John tries to calm her down. He notices that the burned face is a mask that he angrily tears off. It turns out that the masked man is Liz. At the same moment the police and Mr. Brown enter the church. Brown asks officers to finally arrest his daughter's killer. But instead of John, Brown is handcuffed. He had murdered Helen, who was actually his stepdaughter , in order to gain possession of the automobile works. The unscrupulous intrigues that were supposed to bring John behind bars were also on his account. Although his hands are tied, Brown escapes from the church to his car. In a spectacular police chase, Brown's car is finally hit by a train.

History of origin

Background, pre-production and script

The Edgar Wallace films The Gorilla of Soho and The Man with the Glass Eye , released in 1968/69, each had over 1.6 million moviegoers during their premiere. However, these basically satisfactory figures were offset by rising production costs and changed public tastes for other films. The 1968 movement and the sex wave had developed into mass cultures that also made themselves felt in the programs of the film distributors . After later with the Golden Screen excellent lout film Down with penne Wendlandt should Rialto Film in 1969, among other films like Class wedges , Life for two - The Perfect Marriage Part 2 or The guy loves me - and I'm supposed to believe? realize.

In consultation with Constantin Film , it was also decided to produce three Edgar Wallace films again in 1969:

1. The face in the dark (Script: Paul Hengge , planned start date: June 1969)
2. The secret of the green pin (Script: Herbert Reinecker , planned start date: November 14, 1969)
3. The Angel of Terror (script: Paul Hengge, planned start of shooting: October 1, 1969, planned start date: early 1970)

While The Secret of the Green Pin was to be created under the proven direction of Harald Reinl , Wendlandt and his business partner Preben Philipsen wanted to take a new direction with the other two films. The intention was to create two psychological thrillers of international stature. Philipsen and Wendlandt first signed a coproduction contract with the Italian companies Colt Produzioni and Mega Film for the film The Face in the Dark , the cost of which was to be around 1,300,000  DM (currently around 2,430,000 euros). Of this, 30% was taken over by Rialto Film and 70% by the Italian partners. The Italian Riccardo Freda was to direct and the Austrian Paul Hengge wrote the script. Romano Migliorini, Gianbattista Mussetto, Lucio Fulci and the director were also involved in the creation of the script . As usual with the Edgar Wallace films in the second half of the 1960s, the film material for The Face in the Dark was based solely on motifs by Edgar Wallace . The film ultimately had nothing to do with the novel of the same name (original title: The Face in the Night ).

With the same co-producers and also with the participation of author Paul Hengge and director Riccardo Freda, the plan was to later produce The Angel of Terror .

occupation

In order to be able to market the film internationally, the Italian producers in particular insisted on Klaus Kinski as the leading actor. Günther Stoll and Christiane Krüger also came from Germany, both of whom had already been seen in Edgar Wallace films. The ensemble was complemented by the Italian Annabella Incontrera , the British Margaret Lee and the American Sydney Chaplin , the son of Charlie Chaplin .

production

The film, which was produced in color (Technostampa) and widescreen format 1: 1.85, was shot from January 20 to March 15, 1969 in London , Liverpool and Rome . The film construction and the costumes were made by Luciano Spadoni .

Film music

The film music was composed by Nora Orlandi under the pseudonym Joan Cristian . Under the name Silvie St. Laurent she also sang the two songs A Doppia Faccia and The Face of Love . On the CD A Doppia Faccia / La Terrificante Notte Del Demonio , released in 1998 , nine titles of the film music were published:

1. A Doppia Faccia (instrumental)
2. Voices
3. Double face
4. The Face of Love
5. A Doppia Faccia (Main Title)
6. Soho
7. Darkness
8. A Doppia Faccia (Vocal Version)
9. The Face of Love (Vocal Version)

The tracks A Doppia Faccia , Soho and The Face of Love were also released on The Best of Edgar Wallace CD from 2002.

synchronization

The German dubbing was produced by the Berliner Synchron Wenzel Lüdecke . The actor Günther Stoll dubbed himself for the German version. Otherwise, the following speakers can be heard in the German version of the film:

role	actor	Voice actor
John Alexander	Klaus Kinski	Gerd Martienzen
Christine	Christiane Kruger	Ursula Herwig
Helen Alexander	Margaret Lee	Ilse Pagé
Liz	Annabella Incontrera	Ursula Heyer
Mr. Brown	Sydney Chaplin	Helmut Wildt
Alice	Barbara Nelli	Renate Küster
Inspector Gordon	Luciano Spadoni	Arnold Marquis

Post production

During the production of the German version, it became increasingly clear to producer Horst Wendlandt that the director and the Italian co-producers had not got the film project under control. Wendlandt seemed to distance himself from the project by not mentioning his name in the opening credits for the first time since 1961 . Several bungling film tricks caused displeasure as did the sometimes lengthy dramaturgy . Numerous cuts, which made up almost 10 minutes compared to the Italian version, could not hide the shortcomings. The completion of The Face in the Dark was completed on June 15, 1969.

The shot of several girls leaving the stage entrance of a theater comes from the previous Edgar Wallace film The Man with the Glass Eye .

The name of the director Riccardo Freda was changed in the German version to Richard Freda . In the Italian version, Freda made use of the pseudonym Robert Hampton .

reception

Publications

The film was released on June 19, 1969 by the FSK from the age of 18, which should also have a detrimental effect on business. Due to the longer post-processing, the planned start date had to be postponed from June 13 to July 4, 1969. The world premiere took place without any major celebrations in the Mathäser-Filmpalast in Munich . During the premiere, the film had around 600,000 cinema viewers throughout Germany. For Rialto Film , The Face in the Dark was the Edgar Wallace film with the fewest moviegoers until then. In the polls carried out by the trade journal Filmecho / Filmwoche at the time , in which the cinema visitors rated current films on a scale from 1 (excellent) to 7 (very bad), The Face in the Dark received a correspondingly negative rating of 4.4. For comparison: The Rialto production Klassenkeile , also published in 1969, achieved a grade of 2.8 and was visited by 2.5 million moviegoers.

Because of the disappointing result of The Face in the Dark , Horst Wendlandt initially did not want to make another Edgar Wallace film. In consultation with Constantin Film , the film projects planned for 1969, The Secret of the Green Pin and The Angel of Terror, were stopped . It was not until 1971 that Rialto Film was supposed to make another Edgar Wallace film with Die Tote aus der Thames .

The Face in the Dark was also marketed abroad and ran under the following titles, among others:

• Belgium : Liz & Helen
• Brazil : A Dupla Face no Escuro
• France : Liz et Helen
• Greece : I anithiki zoi enos dolofonou
• Spain : Doble de rostro
• United States : Double Face , Puzzle of Horrors

The film was first broadcast on German television on May 9, 1985 on the Sat.1 predecessor PKS. In 1987 the age rating was downgraded from 18 to 16 years, for the release as a purchase video in 1991 to 12 years. In 2005, the German version of the film was released on DVD in a newly scanned version .

Reviews

"Although this film is a step forward compared to the earlier ones from the series, not only because it is the most expensive, it is not a" psychological thriller of international class "."

- Frankfurter Neue Presse , July 5, 1969

“The new Edgar Wallace film in color uses all the possibilities of directing (Richard Freda) in order to cast a spell over the audience as youthfully as possible, lively and, above all, genuine and unmistakable. It is a strip that penetrates from the old crime thriller atmosphere into other areas of life and thereby radiates an appealing liveliness. "

- Coburger Tageblatt , July 12, 1969

"The stylish image design is also the advantage of the present film, whose criminal intrigue - a factory director (Sidney Chaplin) has his stepdaughter (Margaret Lee) brought around the corner - is too transparent to be of particular interest to the crime lover."

- Wiesbadener Kurier , 23 August 1969

"Tired Wallace film with a surprise: Klaus Kinski finally in a sympathetic role."

- Lexicon of international film

literature

• 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 . 3. Edition. Verlag Schwarzkopf and Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89602-645-3 .
• Edgar Wallace: The face in the dark (Original title: The Face in the Night ). German translation. Scherz Verlag, Bern 1984, ISBN 3-502-50983-2 .

Web links

• The face in the dark in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The face in the dark at filmportal.de
• Sound carrier with the film music

Individual evidence

1. ↑ German version: 80 minutes for cinema projection (24 images / second), 77 minutes for television reproduction (25 images / second), film length: 2201 meters;
   Italian version: 91 minutes for cinema projection (24 frames / second), 87 minutes for television playback (25 frames / second), film length: 2486 meters
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Joachim Kramp: Hello! This is Edgar Wallace speaking. The history of the crime film series from 1959 to 1972. Third, revised and expanded edition . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89602-645-3 , p. 377-391 .
3. ^ Joachim Kramp and Jürgen Wehnert: The Edgar Wallace Lexicon. Life - work - films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89602-508-2 , p. 172-173 .
4. ↑ CD Nora Orlandi / Alessandro Alessandroni - A Doppia Faccia / La Terrificante Notte Del Demonio . Lucertola Media. 1998. EAN : 718750430021
5. ^ CD The Best of Edgar Wallace . All Score Media. 2002. EAN : 4015698951523
6. ↑ The face in the dark. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on March 2, 2017 . 
7. ^ Joachim Kramp and Jürgen Wehnert: The Edgar Wallace Lexicon. Life - work - films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89602-508-2 , p. 97 .
8. ↑ Joachim Kramp: The louts are on the loose! in the Lümmel blog Reloaded
9. ↑ The face in the dark. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .