... aka: Edgar Wallace - The Indian Scarf
... aka: Indian Scarf, The
Directed by:
Alfred Vohrer
Elderly Lord Frances Percival Lebanon
(Wilhelm Vorwerg) is
strangled to death with a scarf in his study by a black-gloved killer; a
murder that is blamed on a heart attack. Various estranged relatives then show
up at his country mansion in Scotland for the reading of his last will and
testament. There's bad blood between nearly everyone who shows up. After
all, there's half a million pound to divide up between many people and
some feel like they're more deserving than others. But there's a catch to
the will. Because of the venomous relations and the lot of them soiling
the once-good family name, a stipulation of the will is that everyone
remain in the mansion for six days and six nights to try to patch things
up. If any one is to leave early, they'll be unable to collect. And
if someone is to - say - die, then their share will also be divided
between the remaining family members. Lord Lebanon's lawyer, Frank Tanner
(Heinz Drache), is to oversee and supervise the execution of these
conditions. Immediately after the will is read, a storm breaks out,
cutting out both the phone lines and the electricity, and causing a flood
that
effectively stranding everyone there. It's going to be a
long night... and one of the potential heirs, Reverend Lionel Hastings (Alexander
Engel), won't be
surviving it.
The following morning, butler Bonwit (Eddi Arent) casually relays
the information that the reverend has been strangled to death while
everyone's enjoying breakfast. Suspicion falls upon pretty much everyone.
There's the Lord's bitter wife Emily (Elizabeth
Flickenschildt),
who doesn't understand why she has to split up everything with a bunch of
people she hardly knows. Then there's
Edward (Hans Clarin), Emily and the late Lord's son, who
obsessively plays the piano... and is clearly not
right in the head. The Lord apparently got around as he has both an
illegitimate son, Peter Ross (Klaus Kinski), an intense, possibly
morphine-addicted sculptor, and an illegitimate daughter, Isla Harris (Corny
Collins). And then there's Mr. and Mrs. Tilling (Hans Nielsen
and Gisela Uhlen). He's an obnoxious, brutish jerk and a button
from his jacket is found by the dead Reverend's bedside. She hates him and
wants a divorce... but does she hate him enough to plant evidence to
implicate him? Explorer Sir Henry Hockbridge (Siegfried Schürenberg),
who's brought along a chatty parrot and a poisonous tropical spider from
one of his Amazonian expeditions, and Dr. Amersham (Richard
Häussler),
the Lord's personal physician who discovered his body and may have
falsified the death certificate, round out the group. And what would one
of these things be without a hulking, Tor Johnson-esque cook / chauffeur /
valet / handyman ("Chiko" played by Ady Berber)?
The suspect roster becomes smaller and smaller as various possible heirs
turn up dead; mostly strangled to death by a scarf. Apparently, Lord
Lebanon picked up a dozen of them while in India... and the killer is
going to need most of them in this Ten Little Indians-style krimi
based on the novel "The Case of the Frightened Lady" by Edgar Wallace.
The mystery elements are just middling and the plot set-up is an
all-too-familiar one, but the cast is very good, it features some good art
direction (lots of use is made of catacombs and secret passageways) and is
nicely photographed (most of the murder scenes are done from the killer's
point of view and feature the killer's arms sticking out from behind the
camera twirling the scarf). Despite the many murder scenes and a high body
count, the tone is relatively breezy and there's a good deal of humor. Arent, almost always used as
annoying, bumbling comic relief in these things, gets
to pull it back a notch here.
Director Vohrer
made tons of these films and is the most prolific of all the krimi
directors. His other credits in this subgenre include Dead Eyes of London (1961), The Door with Seven Locks,
The Inn on the River (both 1962), The Squeaker (1963),
The Mysterious Magician (1964), Hunchback of Soho (1966),
The Bloody Dead, The College Girl Murders, The Horror of
Blackwood Castle (all 1967), The Ape Creature, The Zombie
Walks (both 1968), School of Fear, Terror on Half Moon
Street (both 1969) and probably a few more I'm forgetting.
★★1/2
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