When the opening credits rolled, I noticed
that the director was credited as Jess Frank and I thought hmmm. Could it
really be and it was, Jess Franco. I prepared myself for an incoherent narrative
with some intriguing style and perversion thrown in. And to some degree that
is what I got but the perversion is minimum and toned down, the style and
cinematography in a few scenes is quite noticeable and the narrative mainly
makes sense. Al least for a Krimi. Yes, Franco directing a German Krimi.
It sounds like a perfect symbiotic relationship, but as far as I can tell
this is the only Krimi that Franco was involved in. Seems like a missed opportunity
and I read that this is considered the last Krimi made. The end of an era
stretching back to the early 1960s. The Italian Giallo films and police crime
films probably made them seem old fashioned and tame by the 1970s. And this
is though still enjoyable.
In a prelude to murder, guests in hotels
are finding their suitcases already packed by some unknown person as they
are preparing to leave. As they check out and get ready to enter a taxi,
a knife from some distance is thrown straight into their heart. Scotland
Yard Inspector Redford (Fred Williams) is on the case with no clues. In the
latest murder outside The Bishop Hotel he is still perplexed. What is tying
these men together? He comes into contact with Dr. Bladmore (Siegfried Schürenberg,
a Krimi regular) who keeps showing up at these murders. His attractive secretary
Helen (Elisa Montés) and Redford go out to dinner where she tells
him that her husband was an FBI agent investigating the drug Mescadrin (a
made up name), when he was framed and murdered.
Redford's friend, the well-known mystery
author Charles Barton (Horst Tappert) seems to be investigating on his own
and it takes him to the Flamingo Club where sexy women writhe on the stage
and private rooms are available with company. A Krimi sort of club
where the bouncers are deadly with a setting of confusing hallways and doorways
where a woman hidden by shadows warns Barton to stay away but let's show
him what will happen if he doesn't. The hostess Celia (Barbara Rütting)
seems to take particular pleasure in having him beaten. It gets convoluted
and a bit stupid as nothing is quite what it seems. Based on the novel Death
Packs a Suitcase by Bryan Edgar Wallace as was the earlier Krimi, The Secret
of the Black Trunk. Franco has a cameo as the knife throwing consultant.
