The creepy monk
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The creepy monk |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1965 |
| length | 86 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Harald Reinl |
| script |
J. Joachim Bartsch , Fred Denger |
| production |
Horst Wendlandt , Preben Philipsen |
| music | Peter Thomas |
| camera | Ernst W. Kalinke |
| cut | Jutta Hering |
| occupation | |
| |
The Eerie Monk is a German crime film by director Harald Reinl and the 24th German-language Edgar Wallace film of the post-war period . The film based on the novel of the same name by Edgar Wallace (original title: The Terror ) was produced by Rialto Film and shot from October 6th to November 17th, 1965 in West Berlin , Hamburg , Lower Saxony and London . The premiere of the film took place on December 17, 1965 in the Passage Kino in Saarbrücken .
action
Lying dying, the lord of Darkwood has his will changed. He leaves the castle to his daughter Lady Patricia, who runs a boarding school for girls there . All of the remaining inheritance goes to his granddaughter Gwendolin Gillmore, the daughter of his son Reginald, who has been imprisoned for murder. The sons of Sir Richard, a lawyer, and Sir William, a doctor, as well as Patricia's son Ronny, are disinherited.
However, through Richard's fault, the notary dies in a car accident, whereby Richard is able to steal his father's will. He blackmails the bereaved to sign a general power of attorney , in which they each get ten percent of the inheritance, whereas he would inherit the rest. Otherwise he would publish the will, which would suspend the legal succession.
To protect Gwendolin from her greedy family, Patricia invites her to Darkwood Castle. In the castle, Gwendolin made the acquaintance of the boarding school pupils with the caretaker Smith and the artist Alfons Short, a pigeon fancier who made death masks. He draws her attention to a hooded figure in a monk's robe wandering around the park at night. Lady Patricia tries to request police protection from Sir John, chief of Scotland Yard, but is turned away from him.
Shortly thereafter, Scotland Yard's Inspector Potter stopped the hooded monk in the car on the Darkwood road to arrest him. In doing so, however, the monk Potter breaks his neck with a whip . Potter has been investigating through a girl trafficking organization . Almost got into the hands of the criminals, the schoolgirl Lola is also murdered with a whip by the monk in the castle park while on the run.
Investigators Inspector Bratt and Sir John initially target Ronny, who molested Lola on the day of her death. The family members also accuse each other. It becomes clear that Gwendolin's father was innocently convicted because of his brothers. Ronny also once killed a girl in France, but was acquitted thanks to his uncle Richard. The French teacher Monsieur d'Arol, who turns out to be the girl's brother, is also suspicious.
Gwendolin also learns through an anonymous letter that her father is innocent. When she is about to leave for London to do some shopping , Richard and William stun her to fake an act of the monk as a diversion from their machinations. A short time later, William himself is murdered by the monk.
In the meantime, boarding school students Mary and Dolores are kidnapped in London. Inspector Bratt then uses a helicopter to monitor the airlines of Mr. Shorts carrier pigeons. At the same time, Gwendolin receives an invitation to the house of a stranger who wants to tell her the truth about her father. Ronny pursues them and is murdered by the monk in his garage. Bratt and his assistant Cunning are captured in the target house of the carrier pigeons, but are able to free themselves. The trail of the pigeons finally leads them to the girl traffickers' headquarters in a junkyard. There the monk turns up, who lures Bratt into an ambush when the police are present. In a disused production hall, however, the monk is shot by Bratt in the fight. Seriously wounded, the monk flees in a car.
In the meantime Gwendolin has arrived at the house of the stranger. After a long time Richard arrives here, who has also received an invitation. Richard tries to blackmail her, like the rest of his family, for a general power of attorney because of her inheritance. He threatens to destroy the will when the monk arrives. With a recorded conversation between Richard and his siblings, Gwendolin is proven the innocence of her father Reginald. Thereupon the monk murders Richard with his whip before he dies, seriously wounded.
After entering the house, Bratt vented the monk's mask under which the caretaker Smith was located. He founded the girl trafficking organization out of hatred for women. Filled with vengeance, he used the symbolic disguise of a monk and, with his accomplice Alfons Short, accepted jobs in other boarding schools for girls, communication with their accomplices was carried out by carrier pigeons. The death masks were used to identify the girls. Inspector Potter and Lola knew of his secret, respectively recognized the criminals, and were murdered for it. When Smith fell in love with Gwendolin, he wanted to prove her father's innocence. With the lead bullet on the whip, Smith also broke the neck of the legacy stalkers in order to preserve their rightful inheritance.
After the case is solved, Bratt and Gwendolin become a couple.
Reviews
"The cast with Harald Leipnitz, Hartmut Reck at the helm, the majority of the dark, opaque types are great, that makes the film even more exciting than it already is."
“A new Wallace from Harald Reinl's criminal cabinet who has it easy to captivate his viewers. Reinl is a specialist in this type of art. He masterfully converts the elements of tension calculated by the master of the crime story into filmic processes, creates visual moods, uses optical surprises until the viewer is finally mistaken in all his assumptions and the secret is only revealed shortly before the end of the day learns. "
“Exciting and full of smirking comedy. (Rating: above average) "
"Harald Reinl's humorous film adaptation of the novel" The Terror "was the last black and white production in the successful Edgar Wallace series."
"A real classic in the crime thriller series."
"Quite cleverly designed for suspense, spiced with humor and comedy from the Edgar Wallace series."
Others
- Harald G. Petersson had already written the first draft of the script. This was later fundamentally revised by Jochen Joachim Bartsch and Fred Denger .
- Harald Philipp was initially planned as the director . For Harald Reinl , who ultimately directed the film, this was the last directorial work for an Edgar Wallace film. At the same time, "The Eerie Monk" was the last Edgar Wallace film from the Rialto Film in black and white. However, the opening credits have already been shot in color.
- The actors Heinz Drache , Karin Dor , Grit Boettcher , Agnes Windeck , Elisabeth Flickenschildt and Klaus Kinski were named in various advance announcements . Instead of the sick Grit Boettcher, Uschi Glas , who is announced in the opening credits as Ursula Glas, got her first film role. Her voice cannot be heard in the film, however, as she was dubbed due to her strong Bavarian accent.
- Rudolf Schündler , Uta Levka and Susanne Hsiao appeared for the first time in an Edgar Wallace film. Siegfried Lowitz , Dieter Eppler and Karin Dor said goodbye to the film series with this film.
- The outdoor shots were taken at Hastenbeck Castle , the Hittfeld mill , in the port of Hamburg-Harburg , in Berlin-Wannsee and in London. The interior shots were shot in the CCC-Film studios in Berlin's Spandau district .
- The film was approved by the FSK for ages 16 and over without any restrictions. In 1991 they were approved for children aged 12 and over. Although the film does not contain any additional scenes, an age rating of 16 and over is given on the DVD, which was released in 2004.
literature
- Kai Gurski: The eerie monk at Hastenbeck Castle - The creation of the Edgar Wallace classic in Hameln in 1965. Hameln 2015
- Joachim Kramp , Jürgen Wehnert: The Edgar Wallace Lexicon. Life, work, films. It is impossible not to be captivated by Edgar Wallace! Verlag Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89602-508-2 .
- Joachim Kramp : Hello! This is Edgar Wallace speaking. The story of the legendary German crime film series from 1959–1972 . 3. Edition. Verlag Schwarzkopf and Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89602-645-3 .
- Edgar Wallace: The Eerie Monk / The Curved Candle / The Three Righteous . Three novels in one volume. German translation. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-442-55508-6 .
Web links
- The Sinister Monk in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The creepy monk at filmportal.de
- The uncanny monk ( memento from December 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) at deutscher-tonfilm.de
- Sound carrier with the film music
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Creepy Monk. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 23, 2016 .
