The Strangler (1939)

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Movie
German title The strangler
Original title The Dark Eyes of London
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 1939
length 76 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Walter Summers
script Patrick Kirwan
Walter Summers
J. F. Argyle based
on the novel of the same name by Edgar Wallace
production John Argyle
music Guy Jones
camera Bryan Langley
cut EG Richards
occupation

Der Würger (OT: The Dark Eyes of London , shown in the USA under the title The Human Monster ), also sold on DVD in Germany under Edgar Wallace: Der Würger von London and Die Dunkel Augen von London , is a British Edgar-Wallace -Film adaptation from 1939 with Bela Lugosi , who plays an unscrupulous criminal here as so often in his career.

action

A dead body was washed up on the banks of the Thames . It is the last of five bodies of water that recently swam in the London harbor basin. The police are at a loss. Detective Inspector Holt is supposed to continue the investigations, he is assigned a Ltnt. O'Reilly of the Chicago police, who is supposed to learn something about British investigation methods. A little later, a certain Mr. Stuart enters an insurance agency that Dr. Orloff heard. This opaque-looking man also grants financial loans in addition to the usual insurance offer: for this, the beneficiaries have to take out life insurance policies that will be in Orloff's favor in the event of death. Stuart needs money too, and Orloff seems to be the right man for that. After Stuart has left Orloff's office, Orloff writes a brief message in Braille , crumples up the piece of paper and throws it out of his window, at the feet of a blind violinist. This records the message. Immediately afterwards, Inspector Holt enters the agency and confronts Dr. Orloff with his investigation into the corpse of water. Because at least two of the dead were insured with Orloff. Holt learns the names of the beneficiaries from his counterpart.

Holt suspects nothing of the double life of Dr. Orloff. He runs an eerie organization that is hiding under the charitable guise of a home for destitute blind people: Dearborn's Home for the Destitute Blind. In the following scene, the blind violinist with the Braille message meets Dr. Orloffs a. A fearsome figure with a huge overbite, the dumb Jake, opens the door for him. A service is being held in the home for the blind. The next morning, Stuart enters the home for the blind and meets Dr. Orloff, a generous patron of this facility. This shows Stuart around. When Stuart tells en passant that he has a daughter named Diana in the USA, Orloff is upset for a brief moment, because he believed that Stuart had no relatives. While Holt is picking up his American colleague from the train station, he also meets a blonde woman who he will later find out is Stuart's daughter Diane. Soon after, Holt and O'Reilly are called to another corpse find. This time it is about Henry Stuart, who was murdered by the brutal Jake on Orloff's orders. Holt and Diane Stuart meet again in the morgue, and the young woman identifies her dead father.

Soon the trail of dead Stuart leads to Dr. Orloff, who, when visiting Holt and his American colleague, frankly admits that Stuart had taken out life insurance with him, of which he himself is the beneficiary in the event of death. While the police continue their investigation, Jake continues to kill on Orloff's behalf. This time it hits the habitual criminal Grogan, who worked as a signature forger for Orloff. Grogan's connection to him could be dangerous for the doctor. Orloff instinctively senses that Diane Stuart could become a problem for him and seeks contact with her. When Diane Orloff makes it clear that she will track down her father's killer, he suggests that he find her a secretary at the home for the destitute blind. Diane gratefully accepts. When she is about to take a taxi home, Inspector Holt intercepts her, disguised as a taxi driver, and warns her about Orloff: There is a connection between him and the home for the blind. When she arrives at the home for the blind, Diane is greeted by the director of the institute Dearborn and shown around. While rummaging through his records, Diane finds that her father had written a check for £ 50 to the Dearborn Home. Scotland Yard, in turn, has established that Orloff has always been the beneficiary of the wills of the murdered. Now the connection between Dearborn and Orloff seems as clear as the fact that the supposed insurance agent Dr. Orloff must have something to do with the disappearance of Henry Stuart. When Diane wants to tell Holt about her discovery by phone in her apartment, the lights go out, the gigantic Jake taps in and tries to get Diane under his control. Holt hears her scream over the phone and immediately sets off with O'Reilly to see her.

At the last second, Diane is saved from the monster, Jake is able to escape via the fire escape. Holt gives a manhunt for Dr. Orloff out. He and O'Reilly visit the ominous home for the blind and interrogate Dearborn. But he only knows the best about the supposedly generous patron Dr. Orloff to report. When Dearborn gave Diane a document to have it translated into Braille for the police, she found a cufflink with the initials HS in a hiding place. No question about it: your father Henry Stuart must have been to the home for the blind once. She confronts Dearborn about her find. He unmasked in front of her: Dearborn is none other than Dr. Orloff, who immediately puts Diane in a straitjacket and then ties her to a bed frame. In front of their eyes, Orloff drowns the mute Lou, another creature he has abused, and throws his lifeless body from the upper floor into the Thames. Orloff calls Jake and instructs him to complete his murder assignment for Diane. Diane is about to drown Diane in the vat when she tells him that Orloff has just killed Lou, Jake's only friend here at Dearborn's Home. Jake, angry with pain and anger, lets Diane go. When Jake runs up to Orloff and accuses him of the murder of Lou, Orloff shoots him down.

Then the police are already at the door and force their way into the home for the blind. In the subsequent exchange of fire with the police, Orloff is wounded in the right arm. He runs back to the room Diane is locked in. When Orloff barricades himself there, he is suddenly faced with Jake, who has regained his strength. A scuffle ensues in which Jake grabs the criminal and throws him down into the Thames. There Orloff sinks into the muddy brackish water. Holt and O'Reilly storm in and free Diane from the straitjacket. Jake collapses dead.

Production notes

The strangler was filmed in Welwyn Garden City within eleven days and premiered in November 1939. The horror-crime mix was Lugosi's second British film after The Mystery of the Mary Celeste . The German premiere of Der Würger took place on July 22, 1949. The same story was remade in Germany in early 1961 as Die toten Augen von London .

Reviews

BR Crisler wrote in 1940 in the New York Times : "Even connoisseurs of the horror film will doubtless be constrained to admit that nothing quite so consistently horrid as" The Human Monster "... has ever befallen this hapless city. (...) Our personal reaction was more hysterical than horrified, but that's a matter of taste. "

Leonard Maltin wrote: "Absurd, sometimes engaging Edgar Wallace tale".

Halliwell's Film Guide found: "Reasonably effective British horror, a rarity at the time".

In the lexicon of the international film it says briefly: Thrilling crime entertainment.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The organ music comes from C. King Palmer
  2. ↑ In order not to immediately betray Lugosi, who appears in strong disguise in the role of Dearborn, Lugosi received the voice of the British OB Clarence in this role.
  3. ↑ The New York Times, March 25, 1940. Translation: Even those familiar with horror films will no doubt be compelled to admit that nothing as equally horrific as "The Human Monster" ... has happened to this unfortunate city. (…) Our personal reaction was more hysterical than shocked, but that is a matter of taste.
  4. ↑ Movie & Video Guide , 1996 edition, p. 611. Translation: Absurd, sometimes gripping Edgar Wallace story
  5. ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide , Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 248. Translation: Quite effective British horror, a rarity at the time
  6. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Internationale Films, Volume 9, P. 4365. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987.