The damned of the Blue Mountains

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Movie
German title The damned of the Blue Mountains
Original title Victim Five (UK title)
Code 7, Victim 5! (US title)
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 1964
length 88 minutes
Rod
Director Robert Lynn
script Peter Yeldham after the story Victim Five of Harry Alan Towers
production Skip Steloff
Harry Alan Towers
music Johnny Douglas
camera Nicolas Roeg
cut John Trumper
occupation

The Damned of the Blue Mountains (originally Victim Five ) is a British action film directed by Robert Lynn from 1964. Lex Barker plays the role of a private detective who has to solve a mysterious story. The other leading roles are occupied by Ann Smyrner , Dietmar Schönherr and Ronald Fraser .

According to the opening credits and the movie poster, the film is based on the novel of the same name by Frank Forster.

action

The South African mining operator and millionaire Wexler hires the American private detective Steve Martin to solve the murder of an employee. Wexler, a former prisoner of war from Germany, believes he could be the next victim. For Martin, too, the job is fatal. Immediately after his arrival in Cape Town, he barely escaped several attacks by unknown persecutors. His research shows that his client has not fully informed him of the situation. Martin receives more or less active help from the South African police inspector Lean, who seems to be more after young women than after murderers. The policeman shows the private detective a 20-year-old photograph that shows the murdered employee Wexler together with three men in a prison camp during the Second World War. One of the men pictured is Wexler, the identity of the other three and the photographer is gradually discovered by the private detective during his investigation. There is one Italian and three German war comrade Wexler. Wexler thinks it is unlikely that these men had anything to do with the murder of his employee. Even so, one of them is killed before Martin can speak to him. Only Hans Kramer, the fourth man in the photo, is now alive. He works as a game warden in South Africa. Martin meets him during a lion hunt, in which Kramer is attacked by a big cat and mortally wounded. The detective learns from the dying man that twenty years ago Wexler had committed a cowardly murder of a friend in order to acquire the rights to the copper mine that made him rich. Wexler threatened and paid his comrades to testify that the Italian soldier Mario Parelli had committed suicide. Kramer reveals to Martin that the victim still had a child, whom he confessed to in a letter. He does not reveal its name.

The copper magnate Wexler has no inkling that his victim's son is still alive and seeking revenge, nor that he is his personal physician Paul Bryson. So after Bryson has shot Wexler, the showdown on Table Mountain above Cape Town takes place. Paul, who has Wexler's daughter Gina hostage, believes that if he doesn't get the money, then nobody should own it. The doctor puts himself in a hopeless situation on the mountain and asks the nearby Steve Martin for help. However, Martin does not manage to pull Paul up, so that he falls into the depths. Martin and Wexler's personal assistant Helga Swenson want to be married on board the ship that is to take them home.

Production and Background

The shooting took place at the beginning of 1964 in South Africa in Cape Town , on Table Mountain and in the Kruger National Park . The film was shot in the conventional cinema film format of 35 mm, the aspect ratio was 2.35: 1. The sound method used was still mono. It is a film from Columbia Pictures , aka Towers of London.

In some film lexicons, for example in the lexicon of international films , “Table Bay” is given as the original title. The original movie posters from 1964 show the British title "Victim Five" or the American title "Code 7 - Victim 5". According to information at TCM, the English film title has been changed from Table Bay to Victim Five .

The film had its theatrical release in Germany on July 10, 1964; in the USA it did not come to cinemas until May 19, 1965, after its premiere on February 10, 1965 in Detroit. It is given with varying lengths between 81 and 90 minutes. The film was distributed by Constantin Film in Germany and by Columbia Pictures in the USA .

Whimsical and questionable

The plot of the film hardly allows any conclusions to be drawn about the German title. There is practically only one mountain in this film, Table Mountain above Cape Town. Dietmar Schönherr and Véronique Vendell have an "almost completely naked scene", despite which the film was released in 1964 for ages 12 and up. The strip offers a number of bizarre dangerous scenes and ludicrous assassinations. During Steve Martin's visit to an ostrich farm, a herd of male ostriches is chased down on him and two companions, who are supposed to trample them to death. On the beach there is a shark attack on Steve Martin, he fends off a three-foot pajama shark with his diving knife. Pajama sharks, however, only have crabs and small fish in mind as prey. A bad idea of ​​the murderous doctor is to escape from Martin and the police to Table Mountain, from where there is no escape.

criticism

Cinema's conclusion to this film: "Confused story, only visually convincing." It was agreed that the "style-conscious Nicolas Roeg" had at least led the camera.

The lexicon of international films read: “A suspenseful but highly improbable adventure with some atrocities; Photographed remarkably in front of an imposing natural backdrop. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Damned of the Blue Mountains Movie poster for the German premiere in 1964
  2. ↑ Code 7 - Victim 5 at IMDb
  3. ↑ Code 7, Victim 5! Notes at TCM (English)
  4. ↑ Pajamahai at hai.ch
  5. ↑ Die Verdammten der Blauen Berge (The Damned of the Blue Mountains) review and images at cinema.de
  6. ↑ The Damned of the Blue Mountains. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used