Horst Janson Movies

When a secretary comes up missing after she witnessed a murder taking place, an unlikely couple of "relative-sleuths" (a duke and his uncle) team up to find the kidnapped woman. ~ All Movie Guide

Released directly to video, this action film features John Phillip Law as Ted Barner, a low-level employee of a corporation in Indonesia who is charged with testing a new laser weapon. Accompanied by an engineer who works for the corporation and a friend, Barner heads out to the test site with the laser in tow. Before the three can get very far, they must outrun an evil Texas industrialist who intends to grab the laser for himself. They are joined by a female reporter and end up at the site of the test, where their problems are just beginning. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A late entry from the foundering Hammer Studios, this intriguing and highly original twist on the vampire motif -- featuring for once a hero more charismatic than the vampires with which he does battle -- was the first in a planned series of Kronos films, but poor planning on behalf of its overseas distributors killed the franchise's great potential in the American market. Kronos (Horst Janson) -- a kind of swashbuckling Sherlock Holmes of the occult sciences -- and his hunchbacked companion Professor Grost (John Cater), arrive in the village of Durward where the local young wenches are being victimized by a family of vampires that drain youth, not blood, from their victims, turning them into withered old hags. Kronos' mystical intuition and powers of deduction lead him to the elderly Lady Durward (Wanda Ventham) and her pompous children Paul (Shane Briant) and Sara (Lois Daine), and he soon squares off against his vampiric foes with a lethal sword (fashioned from a sacred cross) and a bag of occult tricks (including an interesting use of dead frogs). Well-photographed and cleverly directed by Brian Clemens (Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde), this is one of Hammer's few attempts to broaden its audience in the 1970's -- a trend which reached its zenith of zaniness with everybody kung fu fighting in the Hammer/Shaw Brothers collaboration Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

An underwater treasure hunt for gold coins is threatened by the presence of sharks. ~ All Movie Guide

This German drama is a star vehicle which was apparently created specifically for the venerable and beloved German actor Heinz Ruhmann In it, he plays a freight-ship captain, Ebbs, who is given an opportunity to captain a Mediterranean luxury liner. The liner's passengers are "toffs," upper-class people, and the captain would much rather be with his greasy freighter crew than have to deal with these fussy people. This movie marks Joseph Offenbach's last appearance on film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Peter Yates directed this quirky World War II war drama starring Peter O'Toole as Murphy, an Irishman who survives the torpedoing of a merchantman ship off the jungle coast of Venezuela by a German U-boat. Murphy is rescued by French oil engineer, Louis Brezon (Philippe Noiret), who reluctantly takes Murphy to a nearby Quaker mission hospital. Nursed back to health by a missionary nurse (Sian Phillips), Murphy himself nurses a grudge against the German U-boat that blew up the British merchant ship. Meanwhile, a pilot is brought to the mission whose plane had been shot down by the Germans. He begs Murphy to find his airplane to keep it out of enemy hands. But after the pilot dies, Murphy has another idea -- to find the plane, locate the hated U-boat, and blow it to smithereens. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The McKenzie Break is an unusual POW escape drama in that the would-be escapees are German prisoners, held in a Scottish camp. When a Luftwaffe pilot is murdered in the compound, British major Ian Hendrey investigates. He suspects that the killing is tied in with a complex escape plan, engineered by German commander Helmut Griem. Before the inevitable break, the prisoners form into the sort of separate factions and pressure groups that fomented the Nazi upheaval in Germany in the first place. Based on a novel by Sidney Shelley, The McKenzie Break was actually filmed in Ireland rather than Scotland. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

German youths travel to a coastal resort in France to revel in their sexual promiscuity. After drinking copious amounts of alcohol and swearing, they pair off for a series of voyeuristic sexual escapades. One woman decides to become a lesbian because she concludes women are less difficult than men. She becomes the manager of a hotel that caters to women who love women. A threadbare plot serves as little more than a framework for this tawdry exploitation film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

An uneven comedy that opens well and then slows down, Der Teufel Hat Gut Lachen features three tramps, Barbarossa (Max Haufler), Clown (Ruedi Walter), and Duerst (Zarli Garigist). The hoboes are leading a fairly carefree life considering their extreme poverty, but when the Devil appears to tempt them with a stash of cash they forget their present happiness and snatch it up. The new-found fortune leads them first into one adventure and then another, and all the while their bankroll is inexorably unrolling. It looks like the trio are heading right back to their starting line. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

When Swiss veterinarian Dr. Holm (Carl Möhner) volunteers his dog, Wolf, to enter a space project, the space capsule comes down in the Arctic region where a former love of Holm lives. The successful rescue mission also sees the reunion of Holm and the woman. Though it premiered in West Germany in 1959, Moonwolf didn't receive an American release until 1966. ~ All Movie Guide