The strangler in the fog

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Movie
German title The strangler in the fog
Original title Strangler of the Swamp
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1946
length 59 minutes
Rod
Director Frank Wisbar
script Frank Wisbar ,
Harold Erickson ,
Leo McCarthy
production Raoul Pagel for
PRC Pictures
music Alexander Steinert
camera James S. Brown Jr.
cut Hugh Winn
occupation

Der Würger im Nebel (Original title: Strangler of the Swamp ) is an American horror and mystery film by director Frank Wisbar from 1946 and a remake of the German feature film Fährmann Maria by the same director from 1936.

action

The action takes place in a secluded village in a swamp area that is not localized, similar to the bayou area in the southern United States. There are hardly any roads and the most important means of transport to get from one place to another is the ferry. Not only the living, but also the dead use this ferry, as it says in the opening titles - because recently strangled people have been found several times in the swamps and then taken to the village by ferry. Even if it looked like an accident or a suicide every time, the fear is still around the place. The deaths are attributed to a ghost, the "strangler". Years ago, Douglas, the ferryman at the time, was condemned as a supposed murderer by the entire village community in a fast-track trial and lynched by hanging him from a tree. And now people believe that he has returned as an avenging spirit. Christian Sanders, the local executive, thinks this is just silly superstition. Then Joseph Hart, the current ferryman, is also found dead - around his neck the noose that Douglas was tied with at the time and which has since been left hanging on the tree as a kind of memorial. It had been Hart, whose false testimony had sufficed as proof of guilt to convict Douglas - he had then been able to take over the profitable ferry business himself.

Maria, Hart's granddaughter, is returning to the village after living in the big city for ten years, where she had since felt too lonely. When she learns of her grandfather's death, she agrees to take over the ferry service from him. However, Sanders initially tried to hide the circumstances of her grandfather's death from her - all the more so since a written confession from Hart has emerged in the meantime: he was not only guilty of false testimony in the Douglas case, but he was the actual murderer himself , for whose act Douglas was innocently executed.

A short time later, Chris, the son of the local council, who had also lived in the city, arrives at home again. Chris and Maria fall in love. However, Sanders forbids his son to interact with Maria, because after all she is the granddaughter of a murderer. Chris countered that this would apply to himself as well - since his father, like everyone else involved, helped lynch an innocent man, he was also the son of a criminal.

Then the ghost actually picks Chris as the next victim. Despite warnings from his wife, Sanders continues to ignore the curse. In order to eradicate this "superstition", he would like to drain the whole swamp and build a road through it - with the money that was actually collected for the renovation of the destroyed church. The women of the village, who consider this to be sacrilege, oppose this.

Maria tries everything to save her beloved and takes up the fight with the spirit, but in vain. Finally, she and Chris take refuge in the ruins of the church, which the ghost cannot enter. Nevertheless, Chris slowly threatens to suffocate by the power of the "strangler". Therefore, Mary offers herself as a sacrifice to the spirit of Douglas, if it is ready to spare the life of her lover. This gesture finally gives the ghost relief - it sinks into the moor, Chris can breathe again, and a few rays of sun penetrate through the clouds over the marshes for the first time.

Production background

On the day of the so-called Reichskristallnacht 1938 Frank Wysbar left Germany and traveled to the USA. His Jewish wife Eva (born in 1908 as Eva Krojanker) had already left Germany in September 1938 and emigrated to the United States. Here he changed his last name to Wisbar , but found it very difficult to find work in the film business and to build on his earlier successes. Only a few smaller production companies from Poverty Row in Hollywood employed him as a screenwriter. He was able to direct a total of four films for the Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), the poorest of these companies, which only produced the most cost-effective B and C films . The second of these was Stranglers of the Swamp . Wisbar himself had suggested the subject: a remake by Ferryman Maria , perhaps the most outstanding of the films he directed during his time in Germany.

The budget for Strangler of the Swamp was just about $ 20,000. For comparison: Val Lewton had an average of about 150,000 dollars each for his “intelligent” horror films made by RKO between 1942 and 1946 , which were also considered cheap productions. Strangler of the Swamp has been compared to Val Lewton's productions by critics.

However, these small, independent production companies often gave their directors much more creative freedom than they would have had with a major studio , and Wisbar used the small budget as effectively as possible. By consciously emphasizing the spatial confinement of the swamp setting built in the studio, he underlined the claustrophobic mood of the story. Plastic lighting, the targeted use of fog and sophisticated image design - such as longer tracking shots along the ferry moving through the swamp - create depth and atmosphere. The perspective effect is also enhanced by simple means, such as the use of camera attachments painted on glass, which create the illusion of rushes and marsh grass in the foreground. (At one point, however, the existence of the glass plate was obviously forgotten, so that when the camera is panned, the grass in the foreground moves with it.)

In the representation of the ghost, Wisbar dispenses with elaborate special effects (as in the performances of Death in Fährmann Maria ). A simple but effective mask (makeup: Bud Westmore ), and the way Douglas slowly emerges from the shadows each time he appears and merges with them again (supported by a little petroleum jelly smeared on the camera lens), are enough to make the “Strangler “To give an otherworldly charisma. Even the very calm narrative pace, despite the short running time of the film of less than an hour, helps to intensify the spooky atmosphere of the story.

occupation

Rosemary La Planche (also: LaPlanche, 1923–1979) can be seen in the lead role as Maria. She was a former beauty queen (twice - in 1940 and 1941 - Miss California, in 1941 also Miss America ). After more than twenty-five small and smallest film appearances, mostly not even mentioned in the end credits, Maria was her first leading role in Strangler of the Swamp . Shortly thereafter, Wisbar made another film, also for the PRC, with La Planche as the leading actress, the semi-vampire film Devil Bat's Daughter (1946), a kind of sequel to The Devil Bat (1940) with Bela Lugosi , one of the most successful Horror films of the studio.

Douglas, the ghost of the dead ferryman, embodies Charles Middleton , who was particularly popular in his role as the chief villain Emperor Ming in the three Flash Gordon series by Universal (from 1936). However, he was not able to build on this success afterwards, from the 1940s onwards he was almost exclusively employed in small roles in Poverty Row productions.

Also noteworthy is the involvement of Blake Edwards in the only major role (as a lover) during his time as an actor before he began his career as a director (such as the Pink Panther series).

Comparison between ferryman Maria and Strangler of the Swamp

While the base story is very similar in both films, there are also some noticeable differences. Some of them are probably due to the lower budget and the shorter running time of the remake - ferryman Maria takes about 20 minutes longer than Strangler of the Swamp . Other differences, on the other hand, are in terms of content and also partially change the message of the film. While Ferryman Maria was made in National Socialist Germany before the start of World War II (and contains some hidden criticism of the regime), Strangler of the Swamp was filmed by Wisbar after his own escape, in exile, and shortly after the end of the war - some of these experiences are likely have also been used in script decisions.

  • In Ferryman Maria , a legendary tone predominates, while in Strangler of the Swamp the horror elements are more in the foreground.
  • The scene of Ferryman Maria is a village somewhere in the heath, only near the ferry hut is a larger moor area. Strangler of the Swamp , on the other hand, only plays in the swamp area throughout. Accordingly, Fährmann was shot largely outdoors, on original locations in the Lüneburg Heath , while Strangler was shot almost exclusively in the studio.
  • The construction of the ferry is identical in both films: it is attached to a rope stretched taut across the water, along which the ferryman pulls her with muscle power from one bank to the other (so-called cable ferry ).
  • Ferryman Maria plays at the time of the harvest festival (which is shown in detail in the film), while a Halloween celebration is mentioned (but not shown) in Strangler of the Swamp .
  • Maria's antagonist in the older film is a personified death (in human form), whereas in the remake it is a vengeful ghost. While the death in Ferryman Maria only brings one victim (the old ferryman) before it pursues Maria's beloved, the ghost in Strangler of the Swamp already fell victim to several people before the beginning of the plot. The death in Fährmann comes from “outside” (it looks like from the same country as the refugee's persecutors come from) and he seems to be choosing his victims arbitrarily. The strangler, on the other hand, comes from "inside", because he was once the former ferryman of the village, as well as the first fatality, and his own victims are not chosen randomly - all the people who were responsible for his own, innocent death are included their family members. So while a basic theme in Ferryman Maria is the resistance against a blind, apparently overwhelming fate, Strangler of the Swamp is about dealing with collective guilt, which even continues into the next generation.
  • A subplot in Ferryman Maria - with a wandering violinist who even played with Maria at the dance of death festival - is completely missing in Strangler of the Swamp .
  • In Ferryman Maria , the two main characters are strangers in the village: Maria, who has “no home” (nobody knows where she comes from, and she never tells us either), is only by chance, after she has been on the road for a long time Looking for work ended up here and stayed. Her lover (unnamed to the last) also comes from a foreign country, from the country across the other bank of the ferry, he is on the run and finds asylum in Maria's hut. Until the end of the film, she hides him from the soldiers who chase him, from the villagers and from death. Strangler of the Swamp tells the story the other way around: Maria and her lover (who has a name here, Chris ) both come from the village, have spent a long time in a foreign country (in the "big city") and are now after Back home, home to her families - Maria is the ferryman's granddaughter, Chris the mayor's son. - “Having a home is the greatest happiness”, says the nameless refugee in ferryman Maria . And Maria replies, a few scenes later: “I now have a home because I know: I love you!” At the end of the film, the two of them leave the village together to go to the refugee's country of origin, their new common home. The last picture shows a gentle, wide, bright landscape. In Strangler of the Swamp , filmed by Wisbar in exile, there is no longer this hope - the “home” to which the two main characters have returned is not a place of “happiness” from the start, but rather a gloomy, cramped, misty place Area laden with curses and filled with the repressed guilt of the residents, about which people do not like to speak openly.
  • In Ferryman Maria , apart from Maria, there are no other female roles, women only appear here as extras. In Strangler of the Swamp , on the other hand, there are other female characters besides Maria, and they also have a more important function: while the men in this film mostly try to suppress what has happened and ignore the curse or the ghost, here it is theirs Women who don't stop putting their fingers on the wound.
  • In Ferryman, death itself protects Maria from an intrusive suitor (by defeating him in a game of dice), in Strangler Maria's lover does this job (with a simple punch).
  • In both films, Maria seeks refuge in a church shortly before the end, and in both films she fails to ring the bells. However, while death in Ferryman Maria can enter the church without any problems, the spirit in Strangler of the Swamp cannot cross its threshold. The biggest difference: in the 1936 film, the church is deserted, but intact. In the 1946 film, however, it is only a ruin.
  • In both films, Maria's unconditional willingness to give her life for her lover is enough to conquer death or the ghost - the actual execution of the sacrifice is not necessary. The way in which death / the ghost sinks into the moor at the end is almost identical in both films, right down to a very similar hand gesture reminiscent of a prayer position.

reception

Like most PRC productions, Strangler of the Swamp was barely noticed by contemporary film critics . An exception was Showman's Trade Review , which stated in the January 5, 1946 issue:

“Horror addicts will get their share of goosebumps, thrills, and an eerie atmosphere in this tale of a ghost in search of revenge. (...) Well played, and the direction by Frank Wisbar (...) makes the story as believable as possible for this type of fare. Rosemary La Planche and Blake Edwards portray the main romantic characters convincingly. "( 'The horror addicts will get their share of chills, thrills and eerie atmosphere in this tale of a ghost who sought vengeance. (...) The acting is good and the direction by Frank Wisbar (...) makes the story as believable as possible for this type of fare. Rosemary La Planche and Blake Edwards satisfactorily enact the romantic leads. ' ) "

It was not until William K. Everson devoted a separate chapter to the film in 1974 in his standard work Classics of the Horror Film that serious film historians also became aware of Strangler of the Swamp . Everson writes:

"The first third of the film is particularly effective: the fears and superstitions of the villagers, the sober acceptance of the supernatural, the eerie ringing of the ferry bell at night, the gradual revelation of the spirit and then the first climax when he faces the real murderer ( ...) The film is a commendable attempt to approach a well-established genre in a different way (serious ghost stories were still a rarity on the screen in 1945 (...)), and above all it is an example of how pure feeling and true style can even come from the the cheapest film can be extracted if the director cares about it. "

(quoted from the German edition of the 1980 classic horror film )

Today, Strangler of the Swamp is widely recognized as one of the most important independently produced horror films of its era.

literature

  • William K. Everson: Classics of Horror Movies. (OT: Classics of the Horror Film). Goldmann, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-442-10205-7 , pp. 181-185.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Review by Hans J. Wollstein
  2. ↑ E.g. here review by Brett Gallman , here review on mondo-digital.com or here analysis by Roderick Heath
  3. ^ "Shoestring Sagas," Chicago Tribune, Sept. 2, 1990
  4. ^ Review in Showman's Trade Review , Jan. 5, 1946