This is my first Krimi, and according to several reviews here on IMDb, it's apparently one of the best; if that's the case, this could also very well be my last Krimi. To say I wasn't impressed is an understatement.
The convoluted murder/mystery plot involves all manner of shenanigans at Blackmoor castle, home to Lord Blackmoor (Hans Nielsen), a bumbling aristo with crazy facial hair, and his two tenants, Lucius Clark (Rudolf Fernau) and niece Claridge Dorsett (Karin Dor). There's some nonsense about a fortune in diamonds, stored in a vault behind a furnace, but the real mystery is the identity of the masked man with nine fingers who has been choking the life out of his victims and branding them with the letter 'M' before cutting off their heads. While this all sounds like a lot of fun, especially with the titular castle featuring hidden passageways and tunnels, I actually found it all rather disappointing. The meandering story and the countless characters meant that I soon became lost and gave up caring.
The many players include Harry Riebauer as Scotland Yard Inspector Jeff Mitchell, Gerhard Hartig as his assistant Watson, Dieter Eppler as suspicious butler Anthony, Hans Reiser as Claridge's reporter friend Mike, Ingmar Zeisberg as sultry barmaid Judy, and Stephan Schwartz as plucky child Phips, but there are quite a few others to keep track of, which only adds to the confusion.
Horror fans will appreciate the film's one or two grisly moments - a severed head delivered in a crate, a decapitated body on a railway line, and a motorcyclist losing his head when he hits a wire stretched across the road - plus there's a cool scene in which the killer opens fire with a machine gun on the cops, causing their car to burst into flames, but these are brief highlights in an otherwise forgettable film.
The convoluted murder/mystery plot involves all manner of shenanigans at Blackmoor castle, home to Lord Blackmoor (Hans Nielsen), a bumbling aristo with crazy facial hair, and his two tenants, Lucius Clark (Rudolf Fernau) and niece Claridge Dorsett (Karin Dor). There's some nonsense about a fortune in diamonds, stored in a vault behind a furnace, but the real mystery is the identity of the masked man with nine fingers who has been choking the life out of his victims and branding them with the letter 'M' before cutting off their heads. While this all sounds like a lot of fun, especially with the titular castle featuring hidden passageways and tunnels, I actually found it all rather disappointing. The meandering story and the countless characters meant that I soon became lost and gave up caring.
The many players include Harry Riebauer as Scotland Yard Inspector Jeff Mitchell, Gerhard Hartig as his assistant Watson, Dieter Eppler as suspicious butler Anthony, Hans Reiser as Claridge's reporter friend Mike, Ingmar Zeisberg as sultry barmaid Judy, and Stephan Schwartz as plucky child Phips, but there are quite a few others to keep track of, which only adds to the confusion.
Horror fans will appreciate the film's one or two grisly moments - a severed head delivered in a crate, a decapitated body on a railway line, and a motorcyclist losing his head when he hits a wire stretched across the road - plus there's a cool scene in which the killer opens fire with a machine gun on the cops, causing their car to burst into flames, but these are brief highlights in an otherwise forgettable film.