Heinz Drache Movies
Character actor Heinz Drache was sort of a German Peter Cushing or Michael Gough, lending erudition and dignity to the most skin-crawling of horror and mystery films. In movies as early as the '50s, Drache was seen in such florid productions as The Rest is Silence (1960), an odd Teutonic modernization of Hamlet, and the British-filmed Brides of Fu Manchu (1965). He was best known for his many appearances in a series of German thrillers based on the works of prolific British author Edgar Wallace. Under the less-than-sedate directorial guidance of Alfred Vohrer, Heinz Drache played leads in Wallace adaptations like The Avenger (1960) (as Michael Brixan), Door with the Seven Locks (1962), The Black Panther of Ratana (1963), The Indian Scarf (1964), and The Mysterious Magician (1965). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1969
In this children's drama, a loving lighthouse keeper finds a stray seal and brings it home for his children to raise. Meanwhile, the kids try to run heartless poachers out of town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Based on an Edgar Wallace murder mystery this chiller centers on a Scotland Yard investigation of a series of puzzling deaths plaguing a traveling circus and the hunt for loot stolen from an armored car robbery. Suspects include the mask-wearing and disfigured lion tamer, a vengeful ringmaster, an insanely jealous knife-thrower, and a blackmailing dwarf called "Mr. Big." The film is also known as Circus of Fear. A German version was shot simultaneously with Psycho-Circus but used a different director. Though available in color in Great Britain, most of the American copies of the film are in black-and-white. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Lee, Leo Genn, (more)
- 1967
In this drama, a Yugoslavian journalist is hired by a German policeman to find the last surviving ex-inmate of a concentration camp. The cops want her because they believe she witnessed atrocities at the hands of the camp physician. The journalist finds her and the cops and prosecutors try to persuade her to testify at the trial. The woman refuses, and they begin persecuting her until the poor woman commits suicide. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Papas, Heinz Drache, (more)
- 1966
Hypnosis is a psychological thriller reminiscent of themes found in Magic and Dead of Night. Erik (Jean Sorel) is the assistant in a ventriloquist/hypnotist act starring Magda (Elenora Rossi-Drago) and her fiancé Georg (Massimo Serato) Because of his secret love for Magna, Erik kills off anyone who gets in the way of his obsession. He becomes increasing unbalanced and frightened as he is tormented by the sound of the ventriloquist's dummy laughing at him. This Italian-German production, directed by Eugenio Martin, has an interesting premise, but the acting and production values of the are poor and the plot remains cliche-ridden and implausible. Hypnosis will disappoint even the most hardcore fans of the genre. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- 1966
The nefarious Fu Manchu strikes again in this crime drama. This time the megalomaniacal Manchu plots to earn the money he needs to build a world-dominating ray gun by abducting the daughters of 12 important world leaders. His dastardly daughter assists. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Lee, Marie Versini, (more)
- 1965
The crime novels of Englishman Edgar Wallace have been adapted into several dozen movies, possibly more in Germany where they were enormously popular for a very long time. Though the author died in 1935, he has been given "screenwriter" credits on a great many of these films. Der Hexer is based on one of his more popular and critically acclaimed works, The Squeaker, which also gave rise to an English film in 1930. In the story, a supposedly respectable man is forced to murder his lovely secretary when she finds out too much about his real business, which is white slavery (forcing women into prostitution). The girl's brother comes from Australia to find out what happened to her and goes on a rampage against the criminals, confounding the increasingly dismayed functionaries in Scotland Yard. Not only is he impinging on their turf, but they are unable to discover who he is. Meanwhile, he must evade not only the police, but the powerful criminals he is working against. Thanks to some fancy plotting by the filmmakers, even readers of the original novel will not be able to guess his identity. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alfred Vohrer, Herbert Reinecker, (more)
- 1965
In the mid-1960s, Richard Todd starred in two British films based on Edgar Wallace's Sanders of the River. Coast of Skeletons was the sequel to Todd's earlier Death Drums Along the River. Playing insurance investigator Harry Sanders, Todd comes upon an insidious scheme to steal the valuables from the sunken ships insured by Sanders' firm. The mastermind behind the plan is one A. J. Magnus, played by the usually heroic Dale Robertson. Since we know from the get-go that Sanders will be triumphant, suspense is minimal in Coast of Skeletons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Heinz Drache, Marianne Koch, (more)
- 1965
Tissot (Pierre Brice) is French secret agent No. 11011 in this James Bond-style spy thriller. He is sent on a mission to retrieve stolen plans for a newly developed steering mechanism for rockets. The typical genre mix of comedy, sex, and fight scenes overcomes a sometimes confusing storyline. Distaff interest is provided by Jana Brejchova and Daliah Lavi. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Brice, Heinz Drache, (more)
- 1965
Based on an Edgar Wallace story, this is the story of a psychopath known as "The Wizard." Thought to be dead by the Scotland Yard, murders with his exact mode of operation in London suggests that he is not. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- 1963
In this suspense film, two heirs visit the isolated estate of their benefactor and find themselves hunted by a strangler with an Indian scarf. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1963
The German The Squeaker is the third film version of the Edgar Wallace mystery novel of the same name. The title character is an omnipotent "fence" who has cornered the diamond-smuggling racket. The fence travels in polite society under the guise of a wealthy philanthropist. A Scotland Yard detective pretends to be an ex-convict in order to infiltrate the Squeaker's gang and to track down the stolen gems. The Squeaker was one of several German Edgar Wallace adaptations of the 1960s, ground out simultaneously with Britain's long-running Wallace B-picture series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Heinz Drache, Barbara Rutting, (more)
- 1962
This West German production is the second film based on the Edgar Wallace novel of the same name (the first was the 1940 Chamber of Horrors). The story -- which owes a great deal to The Cat and the Canary -- concerns the potential heirs to an eccentric's fortune, whose potential wealth (and fate) is tied to the acquisition of seven keys that will purportedly unlock a secret treasure vault. When the heirs begin turning up dead with said keys in their possession, a Scotland Yard inspector (Heinz Drache) attempts to assemble the puzzle. Things are further complicated by a series of abductions involving a sadistic mad scientist and his diabolical experiments. This threadbare but lively pulp thriller benefits from effective black-&-white photography and features an early appearance by Klaus Kinski. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1960
If you're into stories about disgruntled postal employees, you'll probably get an extra kick out of the gory German melodrama The Avenger. The "hero" is a criminal who uses the European mail services to (literally) dispatch his victims. First he slices off the heads of his enemies. Then he neatly packages up those heads and sends them through the mail. We'd like to say that he's foiled by insufficient postage, but we'd be fibbing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1959
The Rest Is Silence, a German-made attempt to update Shakespeare, is one of the best and least self-conscious of this minor genre. As indicated by the title, the film's script is a "mufti" version of Hamlet, with young Hardy Kruger trying to prove that his uncle (Peter van Eyck) has killed his father. Direct references to the Shakespeare original abound, right down to the re-enactment of the crime for the benefit of the Uncle and the periodic appearances of the ghost of the hero's father. Interestingly, this 1960 film was released at the same time as a "straight" German version of Hamlet, made for television and starring Maximillian Schell. The original title of Rest Is Silence was Der Rest Ist Schweigen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hardy Kruger, Peter Van Eyck, (more)
