The Executioner of London (1963)

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Movie
Original title The executioner of London
The Executioner of London Logo 001.svg
Country of production Federal Republic of Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1963
length 94 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Edwin Zbonek
script Robert A. Stemmle
production CCC Filmkunst GmbH ( Artur Brauner )
music Raimund Rosenberger
camera Richard fear
cut Walter Wischniewsky
occupation

The Executioner of London is a German crime film that was made in 1963 under the direction of Edwin Zbonek . The film adaptation of the novel George and Jojo (original title: The White Carpet ) by Bryan Edgar Wallace was the fourth of a total of ten Bryan Edgar Wallace films from Artur Brauner's CCC film . The film producer wanted to participate in the success of the Edgar Wallace series , which started in 1959 . The black and white film in Ultrascope started in German cinemas on November 22, 1963.

content

The so-called "executioner of London" keeps the British capital in suspense. With his band of conspirators, the mysterious man already three criminals whose acts were not previously revealed to death by hanging convicted and executed. Inspector John Hillier and his friend, Dr. Philip Trooper find a "file of evidence" and the historic hangman's rope, which was previously stolen from the crime museum of Scotland Yard . Chief Inspector Morel Smith is appalled by the state of the investigation so far. Hillier has the museum guarded day and night. There he meets the strange journalist Cabby Pennypacker, who absolutely wants to take part in the clarification of the case. In the evening, John Hillier has the hangman's evidence examined by former judge Sir Francis Barry, the father of his girlfriend Ann. The old gentleman makes no secret of being an advocate of the death penalty and thus of mysterious executions. In this context, he also brings up several feminicides by a previously unknown perpetrator, whose cold-blooded decapitated victims also include Hillier's sister. When a package bomb is dropped off at Sir Francis' villa , Cabby Pennypacker, of all people, is able to prevent someone from being harmed. The reporter claims that the bomb came from the criminal Messerjoe, who has just been released from prison. Sir Francis had once condemned him.

It doesn't take long before the hangman's rope is stolen from the crime museum again. Inspector Hillier and Dr. Trooper has no choice but to request increased roadside checks and wait for the next hanged man. This time a certain Francois Bréant is standing before the secret court. Again the evidence against the "accused" is clear. When Bréant's body is found the next morning, Hillier is resigned to the fact that the murder victim has already been investigated. Chief Inspector Smith fears for his career and angrily rejects Hillier when he asks him to assign the investigation into the woman killer. On the very evening when Hillier was invited to a concert by his girlfriend Ann, the inspector was told that the secret court would be meeting again. With the help of a police command, Hillier actually manages to storm such a court hearing. The executioner of London was obviously the crook Messerjoe, who died in the operation. Meanwhile, Philip Trooper makes the strange discovery that Sir Francis and his butler Jerome are reenacting old trials in the middle of the night.

After everyone considers the "Executioner of London" case closed, Hillier takes over the investigation into the woman killer. Within a very short time, two women's corpses with their heads severed are found. Meanwhile, Sir Francis and the inspector's suspicions have been confirmed that Messerjoe was not the real executioner at all. The reporter Cabby Pennypacker finds the body of a hanged murderer and the accompanying evidence file. Chief Inspector Smith, who kept the hangman's rope in his safe, claims that the key to it was stolen from his own apartment. Ann Barry, who wants to help her boyfriend with the investigation, finally offers herself as a decoy for the serial killer. In fact, Ann is approached by a man at a fair. However, this succeeds in misleading the police officers and kidnapping Ann into his house. The wanted person is Dr. Mac Ferguson, a mad scientist. The unscrupulous doctor believes he can perform his first successful head transplant on Ann . Inspector Hillier can save his girlfriend at the last minute. But Ferguson is kidnapped in front of the police to end up in front of the executioner's secret court. With the help of reporter Pennypacker, Chief Inspector Smith and Dr. Trooper locate the hiding place. A chase ensues, which ends fatally for the executioner. When the dead man is unmasked, the officers are in for a great surprise: it is Inspector Hillier's body. As a result of the murder of his sister, he had developed a pathologically increased sense of justice that made him the hangman of London. His helpers were also the bereaved of the murdered women. The chief inspector thanks Cabby Pennypacker, who is actually the secret service agent Tom Jenkins.

History of origin

prehistory

In the course of the Edgar Wallace films by Rialto Film , which have been marketed by Constantin Filmverleih since 1959 , numerous other films based on a similar pattern were made in the 1960s. In 1960, the film producer Artur Brauner , who was already established in the 1950s, started his own crime film series with the Dr. Mabuse films, and from 1962 he brought films based on material by Bryan Edgar Wallace , the son of the well-known writer Edgar Wallace , to the cinemas. In addition to the filming rights to the novel, Brauner had also acquired the rights to the names Bryan Edgar Wallace and Dr. Mabuse to use for fictitious film material. In the film Scotland Yard, which premiered in September 1963 , Dr. Mabuse , the two series were even combined by the criminal from Bryan Edgar Wallace's novel by Dr. Mabuse was replaced.

Script, preproduction and casting

Since there was no end to the crime wave in sight in 1963, the preparations for Artur Brauner's next crime film, which should be finished by the end of November: The Executioner of London, had long been underway . Robert A. Stemmle wrote the screenplay based on the novel George and Jojo (original title: The White Carpet ) by Bryan Edgar Wallace. The Austrian Edwin Zbonek , who most recently staged the Berlinale contribution Mensch und Bestie for Brauner , was engaged as the director . In August 1963, Zbonek submitted a few suggestions for changes to the script for The Executioner of London , including the following: “In an initial contact with the author [Robert A. Stemmle] we agreed on the effects of the production of this film to go one step further than is otherwise the custom in this country with such productions. Since a youth free is out of the question for the film anyway, we would like to find the style of a Grand Guignol with all the horror effects, in which, however, charming scenes - love affairs - and funny scenes should also have a lot of space. I suggest that certain threads should be shortened using a gag technique , as is often the case in English films. Any parodic element is to be avoided. [...] "

For the cast, it was possible to hire numerous actors who were already part of the regular staff of German crime films: Dieter Borsche , Wolfgang Preiss , Rudolf Forster , Rudolf Fernau , Alexander Engel , Albert Bessler and Stanislav Ledinek . Even Harry Riebauer , who already in the Bryan-Edgar Wallace film The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle mimed the inspector was here again before the camera. Hansjörg Felmy was hired for the main role, and he was to participate in other contributions to the series. In the female lead, Maria Perschy was seen , who embodied the only supporting female role in this film. The funny part was left to Chris Howland .

production

The cloister courtyard in the Klein-Glienicke Park served as the backdrop for the executioner's hiding place.

The shooting took place from September 2 to October 8, 1963 in West Berlin and London . The outdoor shots were taken in the Klein-Glienicke Park ( cloister courtyard and water gate ), in the Rudolf Virchow Hospital (pathology) and in a warehouse in Berlin-Haselhorst . The few scenes that were filmed on location in London took place again without the participation of actors. The studio recordings were made in the CCC studios in Berlin-Haselhorst. As a production designer was Hans-Juergen Kiebach and Ernst Shomer committed. Trude Ulrich was responsible for the costumes. Production manager was Heinz Willeg . In order to assert itself better against the strong competition, the executioner of London was filmed in Ultrascope . Rialto-Filmproduktion has been shooting its crime novels in this format since the beginning of the year.

Film music

The film music was composed by Raimund Rosenberger . On the CD Kriminalfilmmusik No. 4 is a digitally edited video recording of the theme music. The song sung by Chris Howland Die Kneipe am Moor was first released in 1993 on the CD Fraulein on the Bear Family Records label. The piece is based on the original Comrades, When will we see each other again (pub in front of the moor) penned by Georg Zierenberg, a member of the Nerother Wandervogel .

reception

publication

After the announcement that The Executioner of London was a real Edgar Wallace film, Artur Brauner's CCC film received an injunction from Rialto Film, according to which this was not to be done. Accordingly, Bryan Edgar Wallace was named both on the movie poster and in the opening credits. The FSK released the film on November 15, 1963 for ages 16 and up. It was the only film in the series that the film distributor Columbia-Bavaria marketed.

The film started in German cinemas on November 22nd, 1963. At this point in time, the previous Edgar Wallace film The Indian Cloth had premiered more than two months ago, so that The Executioner of London was also able to develop into a great public success. In the polls carried out by the trade journal Filmecho / Filmwoche at the time , in which cinema visitors rated current films on a scale from 1 (excellent) to 7 (very poor), the film received a grade of 3.0. For comparison: The films The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle (3.1), The Black Abbot (2.9) and The Indian Cloth (2.8) , published in the same year .

The executioner of London could also be marketed abroad and ran there under the following titles, among others:

The film was broadcast several times on German television and released as a purchase video. For the DVD release in 2006, the age rating was downgraded from 16 to 12 years.

Reviews

The film reviews of The Hangman of London were generally mixed. In the Internet Movie Database , the film has so far received around six out of ten possible stars.

According to a review by the Hamburger Abendblatt on December 4, 1963, the executioner of London had “the patented ingredients of German crime novels”. Here the “mystical underworld [...], a half-mad and a portion of comic clothes” are specifically named, whereby the plot is also filled with “a lot of night and fog”. Only the actors Hansjörg Felmy, Dieter Borsche and Rudolf Forster provided “good performances”.

For the critic of Paimann's film lists , the film represents a "crime thriller" based on the original Wallace [...] without any particular ambitions ", which is" only staged and portrayed in a technically clean manner ".

The lexicon of international films describes the film, although it does not come from this series, as a “stereotypical crime film from the series of Edgar Wallace films”. The film is "enriched with the usual horror effects". However, “due to a lack of psychological nuance and staging economics”, only “superficial tension is generated”. Here, however, "the hidden sympathy for the justice fanatic and his revenge justice" is rather strange.

literature

Audio book

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 94 minutes for cinema projection (24 images / second), 90 minutes for television playback (25 images / second), film length: 2570 meters
  2. ↑ Comments on the treatment (PDF file; 875 kB), Edwin Zbonek to Artur Brauner and Robert A. Stemmle
  3. ↑ Daily report of September 2, 1963 (PDF file; 172 kB), CCC film
  4. ↑ Daily report of September 9, 1963 (PDF file; 173 kB), CCC film
  5. ↑ CD crime film music No. 4 . BSC Music. 2000. Order no. 398.6560.2
  6. ↑ Chris Howland: Fraulein . Bear Family Records . 1993. Order no. BCD 15751
  7. ^ Bar in front of the moor at Scout-o-wiki
  8. ↑ 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. 454 .
  9. ↑ The Mad Executioners. Retrieved August 10, 2020 .
  10. ^ Hamburger Abendblatt- Hamburg: The executioner of London. December 4, 1963, accessed on August 10, 2020 (German).
  11. ↑ Paimanns film lists (2835_2 / 1964). In: old.filmarchiv.at. Retrieved August 10, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Two thousand and one. Film Lexicon FILMS from AZ - The Executioner of London (1963). Retrieved August 10, 2020 .