Alfred Vohrer Movies

Anna and Otto Quangel (Hildegaard Knef and Carl Raddatz) are an elderly couple during the time of the Nazi domination of Germany. When their son is killed while fighting to occupy France, they are shocked out of their complacency and begin sending postcards all over Berlin with the inscription "The Fuhrer has murdered my son." This earns them the ire of the Gestapo -- and a death sentence. With the help of friends, this brave couple manages to meet their deaths with a rare dignity. On its initial release in Germany, this movie was met with open weeping and cheers for the performance of the seldom-seen but highly regarded actress Hildegaard Knef. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this German detective thriller, swindlers using a false charity as a front send a hit man around London to murder wealthy people whose deaths can benefit the organization. This film is one of a very large number of German Scotland-Yard thrillers based on the novels of Edgar Wallace. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Part international spy thriller, part social commentary, this German film is adapted from the best-seller by Johannes Maria Simmel. After the Russian re-occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968, large numbers of people flee to German refugee camps. Some of those people are wanted by Soviet intelligence services, others are wanted by Western ones. Many are wanted by both groups. A reporter with a German scandal-sheet decides to pursue the story, but he gets involved with some of the people being pursued (even saving some of their lives), and grows increasingly disgusted with the phony objectivity he is forced into. That "objectivity" would have required him to let all of his subjects be killed. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This German language suspense film is based on a quite long best-selling novel of the same name by Johannes Mario Simmel and condenses the novel's complex story using flashbacks and rapid movement between locations. When a young man (Alain Noury) goes to Vienna to try to solve the mystery of his industrialist father's assassination, his investigation leads to events that took place in Vienna in 1939. It also infringes on secrets important to all the Allied Force secret services (French, Russian, American and British), so much so that they forget their natural antagonism and join forces to try and stop the young man in his quest for answers. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A Scotland Yard detective investigates a series of murders of gangsters and girls. Inspector Perkins (Horst Tappert) is the prim and proper but cynical sleuth who knows the killings are drug-related. The trail first leads to Yvonne (Karin Huebner), a former victim of the white slave trade who seeks revenge on those who sold her into human bondage. Perkins must convince his stuffy superior Sir Arthur (Herbert von Meyerinck) that there is more to the case than is first apparent. Perkins dodges bullets, deals with double-crossing gangsters, and jealous career-minded agents as he searches for the man with the glass eye in this suspenseful crime thriller. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A group of students at a posh private school spend the majority of their time heckling their instructors and frequenting a local prostitute. In a shocking discovery, the father of one of the students is found brutally murdered. Shortly afterward, two more people, an instructor and the son of the murdered man, are found dead as well. As terror grips the small but affluent community, a detective investigates the crimes. The prime suspect is a medical instructor at the school who was involved in Nazi experiments. The first murdered man recognized the man and foolishly confronted him, giving him a week to turn himself in, hence the title. Not wanting to face a war-crimes tribunal, the medical maniac decides to take matters into his own hands. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

The Ape Creature is one of a mid-1960s series of German suspense films, loosely based on the works of Edgar Wallace. As the title indicates, the principal character is a large gorilla. Terrorizing the London waterfront, the ape may be answerable to a higher, more sinister power. That's what we find out after several waterfront denizens have been pummeled and mangled, with appropriately gruesome sound effects. Horst Tapper and Uschi Glas head the "human" cast. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Adapted from an Edgar Wallace story, the plot of The Creature with the Blue Hand concerns an innocent man who is accused of murder. The real perpetrator is, of course, the title character. Since Klaus Kinski plays both roles, it's understandable why the authorities are confused. One of several German-produced Edgar Wallace films, Creature With the Blue Hand was one of the few to attain widespread American release. The film has also been known as Die blaue Hand and The Bloody Dead. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this western, a brave cowboy and his loyal partner Winnetou agree to help Mexican villagers defend their home from a vicious bandito gang. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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, Rovi