"Das Amulett des Todes" is a West German film from 1975, so this one is already over 40 years old. It was made by Ralf Gregan and Günter Vaessen and it is one of Dutch actor Rutger Hauer's rare journeys into the world of German cinema. The two people I mentioned already are German and same can be said about pretty much the entire cast, such as female lead actress Vera Tschechowa and the eternal Sedlmayr. The film is fairly short, only runs for 80 minutes and the story is as follows. A man get violated by a bunch of crooks and a woman is watching. The men see her and take her hostage, but she manages to flee with the injured and from that moment on, a love relationship grows and they are always trying to get away from the bad guys and when they can't then Hauer's character fights them (sometimes they appear completely out of nowhere) with all he has, while Tschechowa's is usually tied up somewhere crying and being very scared. In theory, I like films with simple plot lines, so I believe this could have turned out a decent movie. But it did not. The plot was pretty ridiculous at times and Tschechowa is the perfect example here of how stereotypically bad female character were written around that time. Not even Hauer can save this film. It's bad through and through and there are very few solid moments only. 4/10 was still really generous here. I do not recommend the watch and I was pretty glad this was over so quickly. At best, a guilty pleasure, but not even as something like that it delivers.

OK, I've read the other reviews for this film (there's eight on this board as I write mine), and no one brought up the way this thing ended. I got the impression that the whole story was a dream by the picture's leading lady, Vera Tschechowa. That tends to put me in a surly mood, because I hate investing my time in a flick if it's going to turn out to be a non-story. So am I missing something here? My summary line by the way, comes from the guy who owned the decrepit mansion in the woods where Cris (Rutger Hauer) and Corinna (Tschechowa) hung out while the gangsters were moving in. I didn't catch his name, so take your pick, he's either the guy who plays Franz or Man in the credits. It doesn't make much difference. You know, I wasn't fooled for a second, I knew that Boss Himmel (Horst Frank) would make a comeback after being stabbed and dumped by the side of the road earlier in the picture. The guy must have had amazing recuperative powers after taking that hit to the lung, he fought like a trooper. I guess that didn't bother him a bit, just like Cris/Blondi was none the worse for wear after having the bullet from his shoulder removed.Anyway, the film was OK for a couple of good throwaway lines, like "The sky knows no frontiers" and "A fox never sleeps, he only catnaps". Those must be German expressions I never heard before. Here's another one I just made up - Beware of empty suitcases.

Hum, I don't know if Rutger Hauer "good" role was only in Blade Runner movie, but in Cold Blood, like many other movie, his role is boring.Like the movie of course. The only thing I find funny about "Cold Blood" was people in this movie smoke a lot. And in today movie people stop smoke.But yesterday like today people continue to drink (like it's not a problem too).Like I say if you want really appreciate the acting of Rutger Hauer rent or buy "Blade Runner". But the Original version and not the stupid "Director's Cut" version. The version where at end we see "Rick Deckard" (Harrison Ford) and "Rachel" (Sean Young)in car on the highway and where we hear all during the movie the voice of Harrison Ford in "background".Concerning "Cold Blood" it's really a bad movie. And I give it 1/10. Like often in many movie, the story have no sense. Acting are bad. Music is bad. Technical is old and not good.If you are insomniac well it can be good to buy this movie. Cause you are sure to sleep in each day and fast if you put the DVD in the reader each night.

A sinister German sports pilot is getting a job by a gang of smugglers to fly some millions of Marks abroad but tries to escape with the money on his own. Now the gangsters are chasing him and an innocent female eyewitness through the woods.The plot of this German 1974 production sounds so old-fashioned as the film really is - just boring. In the beginning, the action is nearly non-existent, the pacing is just dumb and uninteresting, and only in the second half of the movie, when you're possibly waking up again and trying to get hold of what it's all about.... Ralf Gregan's direction and Michael Ballhaus' photography are missing everything you're expecting from a simply crime thriller, and it's no wonder that the German cinema of the seventies was no highlight at all except for stupid sex comedies and boring art house student films with no space left for well-made mainstream entertainment.There is also some sex and crime involved, notably a hot sex scene between Dutch main actor Rutger Hauer of later Hollywood fame (Blade Runner, Hitcher, Flesh and Blood etc.) and sexy Vera Tschechowa. Especially in the end during the fight between Hauer (ridiculously named "Blondi" here) and the gangster boss, German b-movie standard villain Horst Frank, lots of blood and guts are all around (although these scenes are badly edited in later TV screenings).You will wonder how such actors became involved in such a boring stuff. Other notable supporting actors are Bavarian star actor Walter Sedlmayer (who gets beaten to death like in his real life later on during a spectacular homosexual killing affair), "Tatort" detective Walter Richter and Edgar-Wallace-movie veteran Gunther Stoll. The movie was mainly filmed in the Black Forest woods and some private houses which gives him a really cheap and home-made touch. And nobody really knows what the "Amulett des Todes" (the bracelet of death), worn by lovely looking Vera Tschechowa, really stands for... probably a touch of horror which cannot save the movie at all.O.K., enough words for such a boring movie, but if you get the occasion to watch this film in groovy seventies fashion and hair styles with its driving Moog synthesizer score and some famous European actors in some of their worst roles just do it once and forget it afterwards!