Overview: In the 1960’s, a cycle of crime films -or krimis- became hugely popular with West German audiences. Adapted from works by the British crime writer Edgar Wallace and his son Bryan Edgar Wallace, they combined the traditional murder mystery with horror as they depicted enigmatic killers stalking their victims through foggy English landscapes - from the streets of London to isolated rural mansions.

Following the early success of the cycle after the release of Face of the Frog and The Crimson Circle, veteran producer Artur Brauner launched into his own series of Wallace krimis with his company CCC Film. Presented here are five key films drawn from CCC’s krimi cycle.

In The Curse of the Yellow Snake, a mysterious cult wishes to lay its hands on an ancient artefact that has been brought to London from Hong Kong. The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle sees a masked murderer stalk the grounds of a vast British estate - one who brands his victims’ foreheads with the letter M. London is faced with dual threats in The Mad Executioners, as a gang of hooded vigilantes roams the streets while a sadistic serial killer is on the loose.

Jack the Ripper lives on in The Monster of London City, as a series of brutal murders brings panic to the British capital. Finally, in The Racetrack Murders (or The Seventh Victim), people are dropping like flies in and around a stately home - and the murders might just have something to do with the owner’s prized racehorse.

With its masked killers, labyrinthine plots and gothic atmosphere, the Wallace krimi blended crime, thriller and horror elements into a potent mix that had a significant influence on both the Italian giallo and the American slasher film.

The Masters of Cinema series is proud to present five of Artur Brauner’s Wallace adaptations for the first time on Blu-ray in the US from new restorations provided by CCC Film, alongside a wealth of special features - including a bonus film presented in standard definition, The Phantom of Soho.

Blu-ray Verdict: This brilliant new set opens on The Curse of the Yellow Snake (1963) and was director Franz Josef Gottlieb’s Edgar Wallace debut; and which he actually co-wrote. Gottlieb had only done a couple comedies and a couple musicals before taking his first of many stabs at the krimi and it does not disappoint.

The story moved quickly and had enough complexities to it to keep me engaged. I actually enjoyed the two women and that whole subplot. Werner Peters gets his best role yet, in my opinion — he really had an opportunity to show his range by the end of it.

Eddi Arent is fantastic as always, and here he plays a character literally named Eddie (Samuel Carter), which might be a very meta wink to the audience. The soundtrack was eerie and unsettlingly minimalistic. And the camerawork, well, I found it more intimate than a lot of these krimi’s have been so far.

Some shots have the camera actually step into a scene and look around from place to place. There are even a couple character POV shots, including one inside a car. But my favorite had to be the dizzying shots that track a character as they go around in circles. I’ll have to keep an eye out for these things in Gottlieb’s future movies, but all in all, he struck me as a mix of Reinl, Vohrer, and Ashley.

Along next is he Strangler of Blackmoor Castle (1963) which is a fun but ultimately mid-tier (Bryan) Edgar Wallace krimi directed by Harald Reinl. The film starts pretty strong but has a few pacing issues and confusing plot elements along the way that keep it from being one of the greats.

The cast is a bit hit and miss - we have the always lovely Karin Dor in the female lead, while actors Harry Riebauer and Hans Reiser are competing for the handsome lead without quite pulling it off, because neither of them is naturally charming or charismatic enough, sorry.

The supporting roles fare a lot better, with Walter Giller being the clear stand-out as Lord Blackmoor and Dieter Eppler giving an intense performance as the mad servant. Sadly Hans Nielsen, who is usually a great actor, doesn’t get used enough here. And while all the kills were entertaining, it’s a bit much that the titular strangler not only strangles but also beheads and marks his victim’s foreheads with an M.

Then we get The Mad Executioners (1963). With none of the regular Edgar Wallace series cast or directors on hand, and a story adapted from a story by Wallace’s son, Bryan, The Mad Executioners nevertheless leapfrogs over the films it is attempting to imitate to land as one of the best in the cycle so far.

Part of the reason is because Bryan Edgar Wallace’s stories, at their best, incorporate more modern concerns. So instead of the usual inheritance schemes, there will be drug labs or sex criminals. Here, two cases run parallel - a hooded group of executioners are kidnapping criminals, sentencing, and hanging them one by one, using a rope that was on display as an exhibit in Scotland Yard’s crime museum, which feels like a usual Edgar Wallace plot.

Meanwhile, a sex killer is kidnapping women and decapitating them, and suddenly we’ve got something a lot more modern. Hansjörg Felmy is assigned to both cases, but he really wants to crack the sex offender case, since his sister was one of the victims. His fiancé, the stunning Maria Perschy, wants to help him so badly she’s willing to be a target - never a great idea.

There’s also a goofy quick-change disguise detective named Cabby Pennypacker who dresses like a woman (among other things), played by Chris Howland. But though he’s the Eddi Arent type, because none of the leads are played by the usual cast, they all become more deeply suspect than otherwise possible.

The chief of police is played by Wolfgang Preiss, who has played Dr. Mabuse so many times that he also becomes suspect. The mock trials are occasionally hilarious - the details of some of the crimes come out of left field sometimes, especially the guy who hid his friend’s body in a museum.

There’s also a mad scientist, which should also be funny, but he isn’t, he’s terrifying. And the way he sees nothing wrong with the crimes he has committed is deeply chilling to see. This one gets the right mix of humor, inventiveness, suspense, and mystery.

The comes The Monster of London City (1964) where someone is murdering prostitutes like a modern-day Jack the Ripper while Hansjörg Felmy performs the role on stage and has blackouts at night. He tries to keep it together with the help of his doctor and friend (Dietmar Schönherr), and his girlfriend (Marianne Koch), whose father (Fritz Tillmann) is trying to shut down his play and is appealing to parliament to censor such lurid violence.

It wouldn’t be a Bryan Edgar Wallace movie if all the men who appear weren’t suspects, along with the director, the stage manager, and everyone else. I prefer murder mysteries where the victims are actually a guilty party as well, like for example the previous film in the series The Phantom of Soho, where they at least to some degree may even deserve their fates.

Here, they definitely don’t deserve it, they are just trying to live their lives. I appreciate that even though they are just random murders of women who otherwise have no relation to the plot and therefore not people we know, most of them are allowed brief moments beforehand that humanizes them. One girl is wolfing down a sandwich on a fire escape, for example, before she hears someone coming and straightens up to try to look appealing.

Another is in a working-class apartment, a young child playing on the stairs nearby whom she is friendly with. By the end, it’s impossible to have any sympathy for the killer at all. Meanwhile a working-class couple, Betty and Teddy, decide they are going to solve the mystery themselves, and provide a fresh kind of comic relief as they end up wrecking a couple performances of the play in their determination.

Finally we get The Racetrack Murders (1964) where after two slasher films, the Bryan Edgar Wallace series goes back to its roots for its last entry of the sixties, an inheritance scheme in which everyone is getting murdered one by one. A gangster is putting pressure on the owner of Satan, the fastest horse, to throw the race.

It’s all done by the numbers but there is something comforting to watch the familiar story beats, and it’s still a mystery as to who done it and why right up until the end. In the opening 10 minutes you meet about a dozen characters, and they are all bastards you’re pretty sure could murder someone in a heartbeat.

There’s Walter Rilla as the rich and stern family patriarch, Hans Neilson as the good reverend who is insistent on a substantial donation to his parish, Harry Riebauer as the veterinarian who gives dubious injections. The beautiful Ann Smyrner is the girl mixed up in it all, and Hansjörg Felmy the detective.

In truth, this is probably my favorite of Felmy’s performances so far, pretending to be an artist looking for inspiration with his dietary consultant nurse (the very funny Trude Herr), a rare comedic role for a woman in this series. But if there’s a reason to go back for a re-watch here on this new blu-ray it would be for Anneli Sauli, playing a nightclub girl at The Silver Whip and the gangster’s moll.

She’s got a dress so sexy even Riebauer can’t resist sticking his hand in, for which he doesn’t even get a slap (but he should have).The Rialto Edgar Wallace series continued in 1965, all the way up into the 70’s. But the copycat series all ended in 1964. The Edgar Wallace films captured the zeitgeist of the early sixties in Germany, and everyone wanted to copy it.

Bonus Features:
Limited Edition of 2000 copies
Limited edition hardbound slipcase featuring new artwork by Poochamin
Limited edition 60-page collector’s book featuring a new introduction to the Wallace krimi cycle by film writer Howard Hughes, a new essay on Edgar Wallace and Bryan Edgar Wallace by crime fiction expert Barry Forshaw and new notes on each film by Holger
All five films presented in 1080p HD from 2K restorations of the original film elements undertaken by CCC Film
The Phantom of Soho (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1964) – bonus feature (presented in SD)
Optional English subtitles, newly revised for this release
Optional English dubs for The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle, The Mad Executioners, The Monster of London City and The Phantom of Soho
New introductions to each film by genre film expert and Video Watchdog founder Tim Lucas
New audio commentaries on The Curse of the Yellow Snake and The Phantom of Soho by Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw
New audio commentaries on The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle, The Mad Executioners and The Racetrack Murders by Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby New audio commentary on The Monster of London City by Kim Newman and Stephen Jones
Bryan Edgar Wallace: An Era – new interview with Alice Brauner, producer and managing director of CCC Film and daughter of Artur Brauner
Passing the Blade – new video essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas exploring the influence of the Wallace krimi on the Italian giallo and American slasher film

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