Blackmoor Castle Strangler

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Movie
Original title Blackmoor Castle Strangler
The Wuerger von Schloss Blackmoor Logo 001.svg
Country of production Federal Republic of Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1963
length 87 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Harald Reinl
script Ladislas Fodor ,
Gustav Kampendonk ,
Bryan Edgar Wallace
production CCC Filmkunst GmbH ( Artur Brauner )
music Oskar Sala
camera Ernst W. Kalinke
cut Walter Wischniewsky
occupation

The Strangler von Schloss Blackmoor is a German crime film that was shot in West Berlin in 1963 under the direction of Harald Reinl . It is the second of a total of ten " Bryan Edgar Wallace films" from Artur Brauner's CCC film , with which the film producer wanted to participate in the success of the competition's Edgar Wallace series, which began in 1959 . The black and white film was premiered on June 21, 1963 in the Ufa-Palast in Cologne.

action

Shortly after Lucius Clark, who has just returned from Africa, announced at a reception that he would soon be raised to the nobility, a masked strangler appeared in the Blackmoor Castle he had rented, and several people would soon be killed. The stranger claims to be the legal owner of the stolen rough diamonds that Clark hides in the castle's boiler room and has his supposed butler Anthony cut into true masterpieces. In addition to Anthony, Clark initially suspects the actual castle owner, the impoverished Lord Edgar Blackmoor, behind the mask of the phantom. But soon more suspects emerge.

The lawyer Dr. Tromby demands that Clark repay the property he is managing for his niece Claridge Dorsett. Since Clark has obviously gambled away the money on racetracks, he tries to turn some of the stolen diamonds into money through the Tavish stealer. But all the messengers who are supposed to bring the gems hidden in cigar tubes to the wicked Old Scavenger Inn bar are intercepted by the strangler and murdered. Scotland Yard Inspector Mitchell takes the matter up. But neither he nor his friend Mike Pierce can prevent the next murder. In the end, it turns out that the reporter Pierce is the strangler we're looking for. Pierce is believed to be the son of Clark's friend Charles Manning, whose wife Betty Lucius Clark was dating and whom Clark apparently murdered over the diamonds. In reality, he is Clark's son from his relationship with Betty. Mike Pierce dies on the moor while fleeing from the police.

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; from 1962 he brought films based on subjects by Bryan Edgar Wallace , the son of the well-known writer Edgar Wallace , to the cinemas. In addition to the rights to film the novel, Brauner also acquired the right to use the name Bryan Edgar Wallace for freely invented film material. After the first Bryan Edgar Wallace film The Secret of the Black Suitcase , which premiered in February 1962 , Brauner was initially busy with the production of further Mabuse films and the real Edgar Wallace film adaptation The Curse of the Yellow Snake .

Pre-production and script

The script, which according to advertising was freely based on a crime novel by B. Edgar Wallace, came from Gustav Kampendonk and Ladislas Fodor . The producer was able to hire Harald Reinl again as director . who had already directed two successful Dr. Mabuse films for him. The actors were also carefully selected. In addition to Reinl's wife at the time, the actress Karin Dor , other well-known actors from the crime genre such as Rudolf Fernau , Hans Nielsen , Dieter Eppler and Richard Häussler were in front of the camera. The main male role was played by Harry Riebauer , who was also to appear in several crime films from the 1960s. Ingmar Zeisberg , Hans Reiser and Walter Giller had important guest appearances .

production

The now converted Palais Mendelssohn in Berlin-Grunewald can be seen in the film as Blackmoor Castle.
This film was also shot at the Jägertor in Glienicke Palace Park.

The shooting of Der Würger von Schloss Blackmoor took place from April 5 to May 17, 1963 in West Berlin . The studio recordings were made in the CCC studios in Berlin-Haselhorst . As art director was Werner Achmann committed. Irms Pauli was responsible for the costume advice . Production manager was Eberhard Meichsner .

The following locations can be seen in the film:

In addition, CCC-Film London filmed some scenes on original locations in the British capital, but without the involvement of the director or actors.

Film music

The film music was composed by Oskar Sala and recorded on his Mixturtrautonium . Part of the soundtrack was released in 1997 on the CD Subharmonische Mixturen ( Der Würger von Schloß Blackmoor (Soundtrack), 12:31 ). Four individual titles from it appeared in 2000 on the sampler Kriminalfilmmusik No. 4 :

  1. Theme music 0:56
  2. The diamond treasure 1:04 attracts the strangler
  3. Old Scavenger Inn melody 0:50
  4. Escape into the moor 1:52

reception

publication

The FSK gave the film after a meeting with the production manager Eberhard Meichsner on June 18, 1963 from 16 years free, although the Commission, in particular a young psychologist who has pleaded for release from 18 years. In 2006, the age rating of 16 and over was confirmed for the DVD release.

The film, which premiered on June 21, 1963 in the Ufa-Palast in Cologne, was launched nationwide with around 50 film copies. He was in direct competition with the Edgar Wallace film The Black Abbot, which was published a short time later . The film was nevertheless able to hold its own at the box office and meet the expectations of Artur Brauner and the Gloria film distributor. On June 19 of the same year, the shooting of the film Scotland Yard chases Dr. Mabuse , a combination of the Bryan Edgar Wallace and Dr. Mabuse films. Realization of the Bryan Edgar Wallace films The Executioner of London and The Phantom of Soho also began in 1963 .

Others

The film contains some weaknesses and oddities.

  • Lord Blackmoor wants to make tape recordings of a thrush nesting there on a tree defoliated in winter; the fake bird, clapping its beak, is more embarrassing than amusing.
  • The motorcyclist, whose head is torn off by a wire rope stretched across the road on the way to Blackmoore Castle, is suddenly higher than before when the rope is reached.
  • The gardener's corpse is found on a railroad track, which has the typical power rail of the Berlin S-Bahn and clearly a German formal signal in the background.
  • Claridge Dorsett is harassed by the butler Anthony and cries out twice, even though the butler covers her mouth.

Reviews

“Impossible to tell a Wallace from a Wallace. This could be real, but it's from Bryan, the son of the famous Edgar. His late inclination to take over father's crime patent brings us new ghost and horror stories of the Wallace world brand. Here, too, the castle vaults, wafts of mist and the secret of the masked, which has been preserved to the very last, as proven suspects. But the heads of the victims roll a bit drastically, which does not seem appropriate to a strangler. Director Harald Reinl provided plenty of shock effects and had an accomplished twilight figure in Rudolf Fernau. Furthermore the distinctive Karin Dor, Ingmar Zeisberg, Harry Riebauer, Walter Giller and many others. "

- Hamburger Abendblatt , July 1963

"From a relative of Edgar Wallace's ironic side lights but also real cut heads, so stylistically inconsistent, conceived and staged story that [...] provides some thrills."

- Paimann's film lists , October 1963

"A series crime thriller based on Edgar Wallace [sic], trimmed with horror effects."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. 87 minutes for cinema projection (24 images / second), 84 minutes for television playback (25 images / second), film length: 2388 meters
  2. a b movie poster .
  3. program booklet .
  4. ↑ Daily report from April 26, 1963  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 166 kB), CCC film@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.filmportal.de  
  5. ↑ Daily report of April 30, 1963  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 167 kB), CCC film@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.filmportal.de  
  6. Telex to CCC-Film London from May 15, 1963  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 90 kB)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.filmportal.de  
  7. CD Oskar Sala: Subharmonic Mixtures . Earth sound. 1997. Order no. 70962
  8. CD crime film music No. 4 . BSC Music. 2000. Order no. 398.6560.2
  9. Internal correspondence from Eberhard Meichsner on the FSK approval of June 19, 1963  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 248 kB)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.filmportal.de  
  10. Release certificate for The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , August 2005 (PDF; test number: 30 373 DVD).
  11. Internal correspondence from Artur Brauner on the release of the film on May 3, 1963  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 275 kB)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.filmportal.de  
  12. The Blackmoor Strangler . In: Hamburger Abendblatt . July 20, 1963, p. 21 ( abendblatt.de [PDF; 2.4 MB ]).
  13. The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle . In: Paimann's film lists . No. 2818 , October 30, 1963 ( Reizfeld.net ). Reizfeld.net ( Memento of the original from January 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / nano.reizfeld.net
  14. The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used