THE STRANGLER OF BLACKMOOR CASTLE is one of the best of the German krimis I've watched, this one based on the works of Bryan Edgar Wallace. The story is relatively straightforward: a masked killer prowls the corridors of Blackmoor Castle, searching for a stash of hidden diamonds and ready to strangle anyone who gets in his way.Veteran director Harald Reinl uses the opportunity to deliver a film that's loaded with atmosphere, murder and action. The killer, who has a penchant for beheading his victims, is truly a sinister creation and the scenes of him prowling through dimly-lit corridors are hugely atmosphere. Some of the set-pieces provide bizarre highlights, such as the motorcycle beheading, and there's even some fisticuffs to keep the story bubbling along.The cast acquit themselves well enough that the viewer is able to distinguish some solid performances despite the atrocious English dubbing. Regular Scream Queen Karin Dor headlines but the statuesque Ingmar Zeisberg wins most of the attention as a scheming barmaid. There are red herrings galore, dogged detectives and intrepid reporters, everything you'd want from a good murder mystery. Add in some broad comedy involving a kilt-wearing "lord of the manor" who's got an obsession for birdsong and you have a great little movie overall.

Enjoyable krimi film; I really need to see more of these. A man in black strangles people and threatens an old man to reveal where the diamonds he stole are hidden. The old man's niece is a journalist, so naturally she becomes interested in the story of the strangler (without knowing how her uncle is involved) and the police also investigate.Reasonable suspects include the old man's strange butler, and the eccentric Lord of the castle, among others.Despite the title, the "Strangler" also carves an "M" into his victims' foreheads and decapitates two of them, one of them right before our eyes.As with the last Wallace krimi I watched, this one has people looking through peepholes, and secret passages.Watched Alpha's DVD of this; no complaints.

The Germans turned out tons of films based on the work of Edgar and Bryan Wallace, father and son authors who wrote in similar styles. The books were old dark house-ish with mysterious villains running about killing people. One enterprising producer even linked unconnected books together by having the villain get away thereby creating his own series.This is not one of those films. However like those films it suffers from awful English dubbing that makes you wonder if its so bad because the film is genuinely dreadful or because the dub is.The plot has an Englishman informed that he is to be knighted. At the same time a masked bad guy shows up and begins killing people and demanding the return of stolen diamonds. There are some interesting twists, where the diamonds are hidden for example, but this is the same old same old from the German Wallace factories.I would say that this is the perfect film if you want to fall asleep, unfortunately its just interesting enough that it will keep you up for its 80 odd minutes.Not really recommended, but as these things go you could do worse, lord knows I have.4 out of 10

Very fun, sinister film. This is the kind of movie I remember waking up and seeing at three o'clock in the morning on television when I was a child--good thing or bad? Anyhow, Karin Dor is terrific, and who wouldn't love the disjointed creepiness of a German version of Britain in which everyone speaks American English--at least in the version I own. Nice use of marking victims with the letter M--reference to Lang? Why oh why can't we find these movies on television anymore?--not even on cable! And, by the way, where the heck is HUNCHBACK OF SOHO?