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Too much of everything

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

"Der Mann mit dem Glasauge" or "Terror on Half Moon Street" or "The Man with the Glass Eye" is a German movie from the late 1960s. The film's director is Alfred Vohrer once again just like in so many others of the Edgar Wallace series. Lead actor is Horst Tappert ("Derrick") and this is also not the only appearance for him in terms of Edgar Wallace. And also the runtime is at under 90 minutes exactly what they usually are. But something unusual is that I did enjoy this one. Most of the other German Wallace films I saw were really nothing special at all, but this one is kinda memorable. The reason is not Tappert's lead performance as I found him fairly bland or the antagonist in the film's title, who almost becomes forgotten the longer the film goes. The heart and should of the movie are the supporting characters, be it the main character's boss, his assistant or the several crew members from a local circus performers group. All colorful characters and they were interesting enough for me to watch. The final scenes involving an evil old aristocrat lady, her son's love interest who may be just as evil or just the very final scene in which a group of girls gets saved from being forced to go into prostitution, it was all interesting to watch and unlike many other films, the comedic parts work fine in here as well. I recommend "Der Mann mit dem Glasauge". This was actually a convincing watch. Thumbs up.

This is a rather late German Edgar Wallace 'krimi', so maybe I should not prejudge the rest based upon this viewing. Actually this begins tremendously with stunning impressionistic credits based upon London night scene neon. We are then introduced to the cast and given a good idea of the storyline involving some leggy lady dancers, a knife thrower, a ventriloquist and sex and drugs. Heroin and the white slave trade to be precise. But, I don't imagine the early 'krimi' relied so much on humour but this one gets just a little too silly. Not helped by an English dub devoted more to trying to out camp each other rather than convince us of any hint of believability. The colour deserves a mention because even if the film could not live up to the opening credits the bright, even lurid colour does and the blood is the very brightest red I've seen in a film. There are hints at the giallo and we see the classic, hat cloaked coat and black rubber gloves but really, this cannot surely be a good guide to the best of this mini genre I have heard so much about but seen so little of.

Merely a few months after "Der Gorilla von Soho", Horst Tappert returned as Inspector Perkins in "Der Mann mit dem Glasauge". The second movie is clearly better scripted than the first and much more exciting. Perkins is this time chasing a gang who trades drugs and girls between England and South America. Much to the dislike of his boss, Sir Arthur, Perkins suspects members of the high society to be involved. Sir Arthur (Hubert von Meyerinck) has a couple of rather silly scenes in the movie which in my opinion are not as convincing as those in several films of his predecessor Siegfried Schürenberg, or maybe the police chief with certain weaknesses simply became a formula that had been used too often. The versatile performance by Karin Hübner (mostly a theater and TV actress) as Yvonne must be mentioned, ranging from cold and calculating to crazy with love. All in all, "Der Mann mit dem Glasauge" is one of the better color movies of the Wallace series and probably Horst Tappert's best.

An Edgar Wallace episode filmed in colour though not overwhelmingly colourful, this film is impressive rather because of its charming touch of humour than creepy thrill. Stefan Behrens, who plays young Sergeant Pepper has a voice as annyoing as some bad German dubber of Jerry Lewis characters, but he has the potential to be funnier than all the guys played by Eddi Arent.Average.