Fog killer
Nebelmörder (occasionally also under the title Der Nebelmörder ) is a German crime film by director Eugen York . The black and white film produced by Waldemar Schweitzer premiered on May 22, 1964 in the Metropol in Baden-Baden .
content
In the state forest near the small town of Hainburg, shortly before midnight on Monday, March 25, 1964, a waitress was killed by several knife wounds. On Thursday, April 8th, a 28-year-old clerk was murdered by the same perpetrator . Both cases were robbery and both nights were thick with fog. The troubled public soon started talking about the “Hainburg Fog Murderer”. The investigations of the homicide squad, which is quartered under the direction of Inspector Hauser in the Hainburg inn "Grüner Hof", have so far remained unsuccessful. Numerous interrogations, nightly patrols through the forest and the use of the police officer Hilde Kment as a decoy did not provide any useful results until April 15.
Unconcerned by all this, some youngsters celebrate one of their wild barn parties until late at night. But shortly afterwards another gruesome murder takes place in the forest. A couple from Munich are surprised by the fog killer on a street - the man is killed instantly, the woman is seriously injured. The police officers who rushed to meet at the crime scene on the Primaner Heinz Auer, who was out after the party and claims to have seen a suspect.
News of the murder spreads across the school playground the next morning. Erwin Lindemann, who is unpopular and jealous with his classmates, suspects Heinz, who has a relationship with Franziska Hillebrand, the daughter of the school principal. Commissioner Hauser also distrusts the unskilled worker Franz Ritzel, who was dismissed by the gardener Ludwig Leitner after stealing a grafting knife . Erwin sometimes meets secretly with the seemingly unstable Franz, who lives with his mother away from the village. After the youngsters learned that Erwin had filed charges against Heinz, they lured him into a trap. Friends Heinz, Robert, Willi and Bert beat up Erwin and bottle him with cognac until he ends up in hospital with severe alcohol poisoning . The following day, Commissioner Hauser, who has long known about the secret barn parties, interrogates Franziska Hillebrand and the four Primaner.
Franziska expresses her suspicion to Heinz that she could be pregnant. He insists on seeing the doctor as soon as possible and, if his girlfriend is really expecting a child, on an abortion. In the evening the officers arrest the gruff Komarek, who has already made himself suspicious. When confronted, the survivor of the third attack thinks she recognizes Komarek as the smoke killer she is looking for. Inspector Hauser is already certain that the case has been resolved. Then, of all people, his colleague Hilde Kment meets the fog killer in the nocturnal forest, from whom she can barely escape.
In the meantime, Erwin Lindemann has succumbed to being poisoned. Immediately after his funeral, Franz Ritzel and Heinz Auer, who were not at home at the time of the crime, were arrested. Both deny the act. Although the above-average intelligent Heinz has an alibi, Commissioner Hauser does not give up. He interrogates the Primaner well into the night. At some point the time has come: Heinz Auer tears confesses to the three murders. Franziska, who learns of the confession, disappears into the darkness of the night.
History of origin
prehistory
The film project goes back to the television director Klaus Überall , who was still at the beginning of his career in the early 1960s. Everywhere he was in contact with the renowned screenwriter Walter Forster , who one day presented him with the template for the film Nebelmörder . The director was thrilled and planned to produce the film himself. While searching for a financier, Überall came across the publisher Waldemar Schweitzer . The first test recordings were soon made in the studio of the newly founded Klaus Überall Produktion GmbH & Co. KG in Sandweier near Baden-Baden with Schweitzer as its managing partner.
The ambitious film project Nebelmörder , which was initially to be shot in color, was conceived with the also founded Waldemar Schweitzer-Produktion . The experienced director Eugen York was commissioned , who for dramaturgical reasons pushed through the production of a black and white film. Schweitzer and Überall engaged an ensemble of well-known actors such as Hansjörg Felmy , Ingmar Zeisberg , Wolfgang Büttner , Alfred Balthoff and Benno Hoffmann . The plot also offered numerous roles for young actors.
Finally, Forster's script was revised by Per Schwenzen . For example, a romance between Commissioner Hauser and the detective Hilde Kment and the initially planned happy ending were deleted from the original template .
production
The shooting took place from March 9th to April 13th, 1964. Bühl in Baden served as the backdrop for the fictional place Hainburg. Further outdoor photos were taken in Baden-Baden and in Rastatt and the surrounding area. The studio recordings were made in the Sandweier film studio near Baden-Baden. The Design designed the art director Karl Schneider. Katrin Wille was responsible for choosing the costumes. Günter Haase , who had already created an atmospheric crime thriller atmosphere for the television series Permit, My Name is Cox and Stahlnetz, was hired as cameraman . Werner Schlagge acted as sound engineer . Production manager was Benno Kaminski.
music
The soundtrack comes from Herbert Jarczyk . The basement party Twist sung by a choir (text: Horst-Heinz Henning ) and the instrumental Little Boy were released in the film version on an EP on the Starlet label. The songs of Mary Roos with the orchestra Erwin Lehn ( basement party Twist ) and the orchestra Hugo Strasser ( Little Boy ) appeared as single on the label SABA . The song sung by Mary Roos was re-released in 2011 on the CD Youth Sins.
reception
publication
The film industry's voluntary self-regulation released the film on May 20, 1964 without a public holiday permit for those aged 18 and over. The first performance of the film distributed by Nora-Filmverleih took place on May 22, 1964 in the Metropol in Baden-Baden . The concept of convincing with a film that is critical of the time and society and a psychological build-up of tension paid off. Despite competition from numerous other crime films, the film became a commercial success.
After the first showing, the film was largely forgotten. Waldemar Schweitzer, who only appeared one more time as a film producer ( a vacation bed with 100 hp ), lacked the necessary contacts to the industry. Thus, the film Nebelmörder was not re-marketed or broadcast on television. Based on the last surviving film copy, the film was first released on DVD in 2012. The age rating of the FSK has now been reduced to 16 years.
Reviews
While the lexicon of international films judged that Nebelmörder is a “simple-minded German crime thriller, implausible and devoid of any originality”, the work received positive reviews after its republication. film-maniax praised, among other things, the camera work, which “sometimes serves up images that are atmospherically really dense”. The acting performances on the side of the young people are also "really good". “Great class and a clear highlight” is the final interrogation. This and the other aspects “raise the film to a good average.” Marcus Littwin ( die-besten-horrorfilme.de ) said that the forest scenes with the fog were “quite atmospheric”, but “too rarely”. “Anyone who enjoys classic thrillers” would “get their money's worth” with the film Nebelmörder .
Web links
- Fog killer in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Nebelmörder at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ 90 minutes for cinema projection (24 images / second), 86 minutes for television playback (25 images / second), film length: 2462 meters
- ↑ a b c Hans Schaffner: This is how the film "The Fog Murderer" came about . In the booklet of the DVD The Fog Murderer . Pidax film media Ltd. EAN : 4260158192309
- ↑ a b Schweitzer in the fog . In: The time . No. 15 , 1964 ( zeit.de ).
- ↑ Tarek Fawaka: Crime Scene Buhl - the fog murderer! . Bühler Jahrbuch 2016, Bühl: seitenweise Verlag 2016, pp. 151–156
- ↑ Nebelmörder on sandweier.de
- ↑ Mary Roos: Sins of Youth . Bear Family Records . 2011. Order no. BCD 16521 CH
- ↑ Mist Slayer. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Critique on film-maniax.de/. In: film-maniax.de/. Retrieved April 3, 2018 .
- ↑ Marcus Littwin: Comment on die-besten-horrorfilme.de. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 4, 2011 ; Retrieved January 15, 2013 . 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.
