Dead Eyes Of London

Dead Eyes of London (Die Toten Augen Von London) (1961)

Runtime: 98 minutes

Directed by: Alfred Vohrer

Starring: Joachim Fuchsberger, Karin Baal, Wolfgang Lukschy, Dieter Borsche, Eddi Arent

From: Rialto Film

Featuring blind people, a Tor Johnson type, Klaus Kinski, knitting, and someone named FLEABITE FRED

In the past I've seen only a few krimi films; for the first time I saw a classic entry in that subgenre for this time of year. This predecessor to the giallo films were based on stories by writer Edgar Wallace and were wildly popular in Germany. Many were set in England even though they were German-language productions. This was selected because one of the genres listed on IMDb was “horror.”

Another hallmark for krimi: plots that twist and turn more than a roller coaster at a Six Flags park. It starts off w/ a hulking blind brute (the guy I referred to as being reminiscent of Tor Johnson) kidnapping someone who can barely see due to the London fog; other kidnappings happen indoor after Not Tor knocks out the lights, which was a nice touch. What followed included insurance fraud, old men insured at a small company all dying under suspicious circumstances, a Home for the Blind, giant sugar cubes, Braille, & probable real life villain Klaus Kinski as a-get this-henchman to the villains.

It is an engrossing ride through a moody London that is represented by many shots of fog-choked streets late at night. It was a pulpy delight-in fact, one day I should track down some of those pulp novels if they are as much fun as a typical Krimi film. The direction was interesting at times-in a moment that you literally see popular accounts on YouTube do, a scene transition was done by moving a hat towards a camera as a fade to black, then pulling it back seconds later. There's also the immortal shot of... seeing someone brush their teeth and using mouthwash from the perspective of inside their mouth-weird flex, but OK.