The monster of London City

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title The monster of London City
The Monster of London City Logo 001.svg
Country of production Federal Republic of Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1964
length 89 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Edwin Zbonek
script Robert A. Stemmle ,
revised by: Bryan Edgar Wallace
production CCC Filmkunst GmbH ( Artur Brauner )
music Martin Böttcher
camera Siegfried Hold
cut Walter Wischniewsky
occupation

The London City Monster is a German crime film that was shot in West Berlin in 1964 under the direction of Edwin Zbonek . It is the sixth Bryan Edgar Wallace film with which the film producer Artur Brauner wanted to participate in the success of the Edgar Wallace series . The film was started in German cinemas on July 2, 1964 .

action

The actor Richard Sand appears every evening in the role of the women killer Jack the Ripper on the stage of the Edgar Allan Poe Theater in the London borough of Whitechapel. Sir George Edwards is a bitter opponent of the successful piece. As a member of parliament, he would like to introduce theater censorship and prohibit the performance, especially since his niece Ann Morlay wants to marry actor Richard Sand against his will. Sir George would much rather see his niece at the side of her childhood friend, the police doctor Dr. Morel Greely.

At the same time, London is held in suspense by a gruesome series of murders. Inspector Dorne and police doctor Greely have to discover that the gruesome sex murders are very similar to the deeds of the criminal of the century Jack the Ripper. But not only Richard Sand, who in an uncanny way is getting more and more into his stage role, is one of the suspects. Denouement: In the fifth murder, a little girl observes the perpetrator up close. It's Morel Greely.

History of origin

prehistory

In the course of the Edgar Wallace films by Rialto Film , which Constantin Film has marketed since 1959 , numerous other crime films based on a similar pattern were made in the 1960s. In 1960 the film producer Artur Brauner started his own crime film series with the Doktor Mabuse films , and from 1962 his CCC film also brought films based on material by Bryan Edgar Wallace, the son of the well-known writer, to the cinemas. In addition to the rights to the novel, Brauner had also acquired the right to use the name Bryan Edgar Wallace for freely invented scripts.

Pre-production and script

The model for The Monster of London City was a script written by Robert A. Stemmle entitled The Eerie Legacy , which was edited by Bryan Edgar Wallace. Cast suggestions by the producer and original role names were among others (actually engaged actors are shown in italics ):

Filming

The previous Bryan Edgar Wallace films have proven to be extremely good business for Brauner and Ilse Kubaschewski's Gloria film distribution . Four days before the world premiere of Das Phantom von Soho (director: Franz Josef Gottlieb ), shooting for Das eheimlich Erbe , as the film's title still read, followed from February 10 to March 16, 1964 in West Berlin . A large part of the outdoor shots were shot directly on the premises or in the immediate vicinity of the CCC film studios in Berlin-Haselhorst .

Like The Executioner of London and The Phantom of Soho , this production was also made in the elaborate Ultrascope format (1: 2.35). As a director, Brauner was again able to engage Edwin Zbonek , who had staged one of the most successful contributions in the film series with The Executioner of London . For the Design , the architects were Hans-Jürgen Kiebach and Ernst Shomer responsible. The film title was eventually changed to The London City Monster .

Film music

The soundtrack by Martin Böttcher was together with that of Peter Thomas composed soundtrack of the Edgar Wallace film The Traitor (1964) in 1971 on a long-playing record of a British music publisher published. Seven tracks from the soundtrack for The Monsters of London-City appeared on CD Martin Böttcher - Kriminalfilmmusik Vol. 2 in 1999 :

  1. Theme music 1:37
  2. Doodle Dandy 2:33
  3. Police operation 0:56
  4. Escape 1:21
  5. Walking Jack 2:30
  6. Persecution 1:22
  7. Closing music 0:44

The theme music was also heard as such in the two-part television series Das Millionending (1966).

reception

The FSK released the film on July 11, 1964 from the age of 18. On January 30, 2006, the age rating was downgraded to 12 years. Both artistically and commercially, the film The Monster of London City , which was launched on July 2, 1964, could not follow the success of earlier films in the series. It was the last Bryan Edgar Wallace film to be distributed by Gloria Film Distribution. After the film The Seventh Victim , which was ultimately to be marketed by Nora Filmverleih, Brauner's film series was temporarily discontinued in the same year. It was not until 1970 that Constantin-Filmverleih brought a film to the cinema again with the Italian-German co-production The Secret of Black Gloves , which was marketed as the Bryan Edgar Wallace film.

Reviews

“Predictable horror thriller with approaches to (self-) parody, which, however, get lost in the illogical plot. Irrelevant, sometimes even clothing-like entertainment. "

- Lexicon of international film

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 89 minutes for cinema projection (24 images / second), 85 minutes for television playback (25 images / second), film length: 2430 meters
  2. ↑ Suggested cast  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 110 kB), handwritten by Artur Brauner@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.filmportal.de  
  3. ↑ Original daily report (No. 20) of the film production, March 6, 1964  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 173 kB)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.filmportal.de  
  4. ^ LP Studies in Drama . Brull Harmonic Mood Music Library. 1971. Order number: CBO 640
  5. ↑ Booklet of the CD Martin Böttcher - Kriminalfilmmusik Vol. 2 . BSC Music. 1999. Order no. 398.6534.2
  6. ↑ Release certificate for The Monster of London City . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , January 2006 (PDF; test number: 32 208 DVD).
  7. ↑ The Monster of London City. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used