The green archer (novel)

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The green archer, cover of the anniversary edition "30 years of red crime novels", 1982

The green archer (English original title: The Green Archer ) is a crime novel by the British writer Edgar Wallace from 1923. The book is one of the best-known novels of the author and was made into a film in 1961 under the same title . The focus of the novel is the search for the mysterious green archer and for a missing woman.

content

General and formal structure

The novel The Green Archer is entirely fictional. In the German pocket thriller edition, it comprises 192 pages and is divided into 60 consecutively numbered chapters that have no title of their own. The entire book is rendered in the past tense from the position of an omniscient narrator. The story takes place in London as well as in the fictional suburb Garre with Castle Garre and Lady's Manor, with the locations changing depending on the people viewed. The main strands of the plot accompany the various protagonists, above all the reporter Spike Holland, the detective Jim Featherstone, the businessman Abel Bellamy, the petty criminal and administrator Julius Savini and his wife Fay as well as Mrs. Valerie Howett, who is looking for her missing mother. At the same time , the focus of the novel is on the search for the identity of the mysterious green archer, who uses the legends and ghost stories about an archer executed for poaching in the Hundred Years War to cover up his identity.

action

In the 1961 film version, Ahrensburg Castle in southern Schleswig-Holstein was used as "Garre Castle"
The stables of Ahrensburg Castle became "Lady's Manor" in the film

The novel begins with the reporter Spike Holland trying to write a story for his newspaper from the repeatedly reported apparition of the mysterious green archer in Garre Castle, which the American businessman Abel Bellamy lives. He also reports on the businessman John Wood, who lives in Belgium and is setting up kindergartens in a private program. During an interview with Wood in a London hotel, he met Mr. Howett, who was also from the United States, and his daughter Valerie, who had come to London. They are accompanied by Jim Featherstone, Commissioner at Scotland Yard . Since Bellamy also lives in the hotel, he wants to question him about the rumors about the green archer, but gets into an argument between Bellamy and Mr. Creager, a former prison guard who is chased away by Bellamy. When asked about the archer, Bellamy describes the story as a fairy tale and casts off the reporter. Shortly afterwards, he speaks with Valerie Howett, who is looking for a missing woman, Mrs. Elaine Held, and asks Holland to help her find it.

A short time later, Holland tries to visit Mr. Creager to find out the background to the dispute. He finds this murdered in the garden of his house. there is a green arrow in his chest. After Holland has called the police, he finds a second arrow under a tree in the garden. He tells the police about the dispute with Bellamy and Commissioner Featherstone confronts him because of the testimony, but Bellamy replies evasively and claims that Creager wanted money from him. Holland later learns that a young woman was seen taking a taxi to the Creagers estate. He begins to investigate, but is asked by Featherstone to stop it, as the lady was Valerie Howett and he does not want to drag her into the story. He himself monitors Valerie Howett to protect her.

In the meantime, the green archer reappears in Garre Castele and is seen and shot by Bellamy before he can disappear. He leaves behind a woman's handkerchief soaked in blood with the initials "VH", which is found by Julius Savini, Bellamy's secretary and former petty criminal. To protect himself against the archer, Bellamy bought large guard dogs, which he let run around the house at night. A short time later, Spike Holland confronts him with a letter addressed to Bellamy, which was found on the dead Creager:

"Mr. Abel Bellamy - the prisoner Z., whom I have to look after, is known to be a hot lad. I believe I can do what you asked me to do when we last met. But you have to pay me well ... "

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Bellamy denies knowing the letter. A short time later, he dismisses his caretaker, who wants to point out a potential error in the gas bill, as being too curious. Meanwhile, Valerie Howett persuades her father to buy and move into the Lady's Manor adjoining the Garre Castle property, which was originally built for a mistress of a lord of the castle. Your real goal, however, is to look for Elaine Held at Garre Castle. She also pays Julius Savini for information about Abel Bellamy and Garre Castle; At a meeting with him in a London dump, they are surprised by Julius' wife Fay, and an argument ensues. By chance, Bellamy learns shortly after that the Howetts are his new neighbors. He asks Spike Holland and assigns him to take Valerie Howett to the castle. Jim Featherstone had meanwhile been hired as the new caretaker and began to systematically examine the castle and the surrounding area. While he is placing thermometers in the evening to measure the ground temperatures around the castle, Valerie Howett enters the garden of Garre Castle and is seen by Bellamy and mistaken for the archer. He chases the dogs on the intruder and Featherstone tries to catch up with Valerie and protect her - but shortly before the first dog reaches her, the green archer appears and kills him with an arrow. Valerie collapses unconscious and wakes up the next morning in her bed in Lady's Manor. Together with Holland she visits Bellamy and confronts him with the accusation that he knows where her mother Elaine Held is and that he kidnapped her from her mother as a baby. He denies all allegations:

“No, I have no idea where your mother is. But even if I did, I wouldn't tell you. [...] Let me tell you - most of the people whose traces have been lost are no longer among the living. There is no better hiding place than the grave. "

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Shortly afterwards, Valerie and Mr. Howett explain the story to Commissioner Featherstone. According to this, Valerie was given to the Howetts by Bellamy as a young child when they were looking for an adoptive child. Valerie later found evidence that she was not the Howett's daughter and that her actual mother has disappeared. A few days later, Featherstone gives up his cover as a caretaker and confronts Bellamy with the charge of keeping Elaine Held imprisoned in his castle. He orders a house search, which is unsuccessful. When he comes back later and checks his thermometer, he discovers a warm spot in the ground and suspects that Elaine Held's prison is there. This is actually held there by Bellamy, who takes revenge for not wanting to marry him and preferred his brother who died in the war. Shortly thereafter, Elaine Held manages to escape with the help of the green archer.

Bellamy also sends for the club operator and criminal Coldharbour Smith, who visits him a short time later. When Featherstone visits his club "The Golden East", he tries to have Featherstone ambushed, which fails. He talks to the captain of a South American freighter to kidnap Valerie Howett and take her out of the country. He also wants to win Fay, Julius Savini's wife, for this plan, which she and her husband refuse. Fay reports the plans to Featherstone, who is too late to intervene. Valerie is kidnapped by a man who poses as a police officer and tells her that Featherstone has found her mother. Savini sees the vehicle drive off from Lady's Manor and swings onto the carrier of the vehicle that is taking Valerie to the port and onto the “Contessa”. However, when the police searched the ship and received a tip, she could not be found. Savini tries to free them, but is caught and arrested himself. A short time later, Valerie and Savini are freed by the green archers who kill Coldharbour Smith on the ship. Valerie and Savini flee to the police.

Julius Savini later returns to Garre Castle with his wife, Fay, and Bellamy lures them into the dungeon under his library. Shortly afterwards he succeeds in trapping Featherstone in a dungeon under the kitchen. Holland and Valerie notify the police, who arrive in full force and want to break into Garre Castle. However, they are shot at by Sen, Bellamy's chauffeur, and are unable to advance. Shortly afterwards, Bellamy has Valerie kidnapped again, this time by the henchman Lacy in the costume of the green archer, and taken through an underground passage to Garre Castle. He also locks her in the hiding place and opens the main water pipe to flood the cellars and the prisoners try to escape onto the landing. Shortly afterwards the green archer appears at Bellamy and kills him, then he opens the trap door and disappears. The prisoners are released by the police. Shortly thereafter, Featherstone meets Mr. Howett, Elaine Held and John Wood and learns that he is the biological brother of Valerie and the son of Abel Bellamy's brother. He was the person Creager tortured in prison and he was also the green archer. Featherstone decides not to investigate this case further and not to pass it on to Holland for the press. Instead, he would like to marry Valerie and Mr. Howett also hopes that Elaine Held does not reject his proposal.

reception

Edgar Wallace (1928)
Movie logo The Green Archer (1961)

The book is one of the author's most famous novels and has been translated into several languages. In Great Britain The Green Archer first appeared as a series in 14 parts in The Detective Magazine from July 20 to October 23, 1924. In Germany, the novel was published in a translation by Karl Siegfried Döhring under the pseudonym Ravi Ravendro as a German first edition in 1928 Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag published in Leipzig. In the series "Goldmann Taschenkrimi" (later known as Rote Krimis) it was published as a translation by Gregor Müller with issue number 150 in the 1st edition in 1958. Later numerous new editions and editions of the novel appeared, some together with other novels in one volume.

The novel was filmed several times. In 1925, The Green Archer appeared in an American film version as a Pathé production directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet and based on a script by Frank Leon Smith , in Germany the film was published as Der Polizeenspitzel von Chicago . Another time the novel was filmed in 1940 as a serial in 15 episodes by James W. Horne for Columbia Pictures .

In 1961, the novel was made into a film for a third time, this time by the German director Jürgen Roland under the title The Green Archer . It was part of a series of 32 Edgar Wallace films by the Danish film company Rialto Film on behalf of Constantin Film , which followed the filming and the popular success of The Frog with the Mask . The main actors for The Green Archer were among others Klausjürgen Wussow as Inspector Featherstone, Karin Dor as Valerie Howett, Gert Fröbe as Abel Bellamy and Eddi Arent as Spike Holland.

expenditure

Title page of the first German edition
Selection of German-language editions
  • The green archer. Translated into German by Ravi Ravendro. Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, Leipzig undated [1928]
  • The green archer. Translator Ravi Ravendro. Swiss printing and publishing house, Zurich [1952]
  • The green archer. Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag Munich, 1958 (Goldmann Taschenkrimi 150)
  • The Avenger & The Blue Hand & The Green Archer. German house library, Hamburg 1962
  • The green archer. 15th edition (anniversary edition 30 years of Rote Krimis), Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1982
  • The Thief in the Night / The Green Archer / The Avenger Book and Time, Cologne 1983
  • The Four Righteous / The Green Archer / The Dead Eyes of London. Edgar Wallace anthology 4. Heyne Verlag, Munich 1983
  • The green archer. 23rd edition (Edgar Wallace anniversary edition No. 31), Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag Munich, 1990
  • The green archer. (Blue crime novels). Heyne Verlag, Munich 1993
  • The green archer. Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, Munich 2000
  • The frog in the mask / The inn on the Thames / The green archer. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-442-05538-5 .
  • The green archer. Air Play-Entertainment Gm Jun 2007 (Audiobook)
  • This is Edgar Wallace speaking: The Frog in the Mask & The Green Archer. Audiobook read by Peer Augustinski . (Series: crime thriller classics). paletti, Cologne & Random House Audio, 2012

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Edgar Wallace: The Green Archer. Edition VIII, Goldmann Taschenkrimi, undated; P. 49.
  2. ↑ Edgar Wallace: The Green Archer. Edition VIII, Goldmann Taschenkrimi, undated; P. 87.
  3. ^ "Green Archer, The (Film I)." In: Joachim Kramp, Jürgen Wehnert: Das Edgar-Wallace-Lexikon. Life - work - films. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004; Pp. 274-275. ISBN 3-89602-508-2 .
  4. ^ "Green Archer, The (Film II)." In: Joachim Kramp, Jürgen Wehnert: Das Edgar-Wallace-Lexikon. Life - work - films. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004; Pp. 275-276. ISBN 3-89602-508-2 .
  5. ↑ The green archer in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  6. ^ "Green archer, The (film)." In: Joachim Kramp, Jürgen Wehnert: The Edgar Wallace Lexicon. Life - work - films. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004; Pp. 284-287. ISBN 3-89602-508-2 .

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