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Terror in the Fog: The Wallace Krimi at CCC - Limited Edition
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Eureka Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (13th May 2025). |
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The Film
 "In the 1960s, a cycle of crime films – or krimis – became hugely popular with West German audiences. Adapted from works by the British crime writer Edgar Wallace and his son Bryan Edgar Wallace, they combined the traditional murder mystery with horror as they depicted enigmatic killers stalking their victims through foggy English landscapes – from the streets of London to isolated rural mansions. Following the early success of the cycle after the release of Face of the Frog and The Crimson Circle, veteran producer Artur Brauner launched into his own series of Wallace krimis with his company CCC Film. Presented here are five key films drawn from CCC’s krimi cycle." The Curse of the Yellow Snake: In Hong Kong, Joe Bray (The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse's Fritz Tillmann) has kept guard over the ancient cursed idol The Yellow Snake which is said to make its owner invincible should they take it into battle. His stepson Cliff Lynn (What Have You Done to Solange?'s Joachim Fuchsberger) foils an attempt to steal it from its hiding place in their land's pagoda shrine and pockets it for himself when his stepfather is reluctant to inform the police about the attempted robbery and the murder of one of his oldest servants. Cliff is eager to find out who is behind the attempt but his stepfather orders him to go to London where he is to be married off to Mabel (Doris Kirchner), the haughty daughter of banker cousin Stephen Narth (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage's Werner Peters) which is fortuitous for Narth whose partner died after embezzling fifty-thousand pounds and financier Spedwell (Mistress of the World's Charles Regnier) is demanding it be paid back. After taking in Cliff's scruffy appearance, Mabel and Narth fob him off on orphaned niece Joan (The Strange Countess' Brigitte Grothum) with the hope that Cliff will help him out with his debts. When Joe passes away before Joan agrees to marry Cliff, Narth is at Spedwell's mercy when he introduces him to St. Clay (Bloodline's Pinkas Braun) – who is actually Cliff's half-Asian half-brother Fing-Su – who pays off Narth's debts while imposing his own future obligation. Cliff is dogged every step by Chinese assassins and suspects his half-brother is involved so he hides the Yellow Snake in the Oriental collection of old pal Samuel Carter (The Indian Scarf's Eddi Arent). When Cliff confronts his brother who reveals his plans of world domination using the Yellow Snake, Cliff refuses to turn it over to him and Fing-Su targets Joan using the reluctant help of her indebted and blackmailed uncle.  The only Edgar Wallace film produced by CCC – its source novel being one of the few that Rialto Film had not licensed for significantly more successful rival series – The Curse of the Yellow Snake is yellow peril stuff that seems to anticipate Harry Alan Towers' Fu Manchu franchise that started two years later with The Face of Fu Manchu (Towers also dabbled in Edgar Wallace adaptations with some West German co-productions that only credited the author on the promotional material elsewhere but not the credits). Helmed by jobbing director Franz Josef Gottlieb (The Curse of the Hidden Vault) who did better elsewhere in both CCC and Rialto series, the film is as dreary as it is tone deaf – without exception every Asian face that emerges from the shaows and London fog is one of Fing-Su's followers and Braun's villain seems more Hitler and Fu Manchu with his emphasis on rallying his followers for war rather than the use of some stolen technology or ancient chemical to conquer the world. The only real appeal being Fuchsberger as a not entirely-likable-adventurer rather than a stalwart police detective as he often was in the Rialto Wallace films – even Arent seems off his game here as comic relief – and Kirchner's character seems more interesting once she thaws than Grothum's shrieking damsel-in-distress. The other CCC Bryan Edgar Wallace and Wallace-esque films proved that the series fared better old dark houses and criminal networks with far more modest ambitions. The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle: When Lucius Clark (Dr. Crippen's Rudolf Fernau) learns that he is about to be knighted for his service in the African colonies, he decides he must pay off all of his debts while also getting rid of evidence of his past crimes in the form of a stash of uncut diamonds which he has been having cut by ex-con butler Anthony (Slaughter of the Vampires' Dieter Eppler) and incrementally sold to fence Tavish (Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace's Hans Nielsen) in regular gifts of boxes of imported cigars. On the night he makes the announcement of his impending knighthood to his wealthy friends, he is confronted by a hooded man who accuses him of a past murder and demands that he turn over the uncut diamonds. Knowing that the gunman will never discover the location of the diamonds if he murders him, Clark refuses and the gunman promises to make his life a living hell from that point on. When the body of the estate's gardener is discovered strangled with an M carved into his forehead, Clark has plenty of suspects from greedy-bordering-on-psychotic Anthony, attorney Tromby (Room 13's Richard Häussler) who is administering both his niece's inheritance which Clark may be plundering for debts and speculations, Tavish who may want more than a commission on his fencing of the diamonds, and even mutton-chopped Lord Blackwood (Fanny Hill's Walter Giller) who has leased them the castle and occupies the tower while skulking around the estate recording bird calls. In addition to the investigation of inspector Jeff Mitchell (College Girl Murders' Harry Riebauer) and his sergeant Watson (Black Gravel's Gerhard Hartig), Clark also worries about the snooping of his own journalist niece Claridge Dorsett (Topaz's Karin Dor) and her rival colleague Mike Pierce (Strangler of the Tower's Hans Reiser). As more murders occur, Mitchell suspects that the motive is intimidation and investigates Clark for any misdeeds in his colonial past and his association with known criminal Tavish and Judy (Ingmar Zeisberg) the barmaid who visit the estate masquerading as the mysterious "Lady L'amour" hoping to get their hands on the stash of diamonds.  The first film in the set purporting to be based on a novel by Bryan Edgar Wallace – the author's son who had dabbled in screenwriting in the thirties before starting to write novels in the sixties, and whose name allowed CCC to piggyback on the success of the Rialto series by canny advertising, allowing for further crossover when one of his novels was loosely adapted into the screenplay for Scotland Yard Hunts Dr. Mabuse – The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle is very much in the "old dark house" mold of some of the more popular Rialto entries since although that studio had licensed Wallace the elder's name and much of his catalogue, they took plenty of creative liberties and often fell back on variations on two of his properties: the play "The Terror" about a group of criminal cohorts gathering at the estate of the man who cheated them and being killed off – later adapted by Wallace into the novel "The Black Abbot" and loosely adapted into films with variations by Rialto as The Black Abbot, The Sinister Monk, and College Girl Murders – and the novel and later play "The Frightened Lady" from which Rialto drew the trope of the heiress surrounded by greedy relatives and threatened by a murderous menace. It is also the only Bryan Edgar Wallace film from director Harald Reinl, a director of popular films who helmed the first of Rialto's Edgar Wallace films The Fellowship of the Frog and a number of other entries – along with several productions for Brauner's CCC from the mid-tier The Return of Dr. Mabuse and The Invisible Dr. Mabuse to the big-budget two-parter Niebelungen and The Treasure of the Silver Lake as well as the stunning Gothic horror The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism – but whose visual style was often underrated in the Rialto series next to the works of Alfred Vohrer and the comparatively workmanlike aesthetic of other Rialto/CCC regular Gottlieb. Underneath Reinl's foggy atmospherics is another variation on the usual Wallace Gothic tropes – the killer becomes more and more obvious due as much to whittling the male cast down as the character's general lack of nothing to do but seemingly be a red herring – punctuated by some graphic shocks including a head in a box and an onscreen wire decapitation and the camera's love of seeing Dor in various states of distress and Eppler's crazed countenance in extreme close-up. The male cast is less impressive with Riebauer demonstrating just how much regular Wallace leads like Fuchsberger and Harald Liepnitz (The Creature with the Blue Hand) got by just on mere presence along with the likes of Siegfried Schürenberg (The Horror of Blackwood Castle) and Arent with "guest star" screen time when substituted with perfectly serviceable but unfamiliar alternatives. The Mad Executioners: When the corpse of a man with multiple identities is identified as a unscrupulous builder who fled to South America after his substandard materials caused a building collapse that killed eighteen people, Scotland Yard can no longer hide from the press the existence of "The Executioner of London" who captures, tries – he leaves a transcript of the secret court hearing on the corpses – and executes by hanging criminals Scotland Yard cannot catch or the Crown cannot prosecute. Commissioner Smith (The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse's Wolfgang Preiss) worries about how this will reflect on him, particularly when it is discovered that the rope used to hang three men so far is a historical hangman's rope repeatedly stolen from Scotland Yard's crime museum before each body is found with no leads as to who inside or outside might be involved. Smith assigns young and ambitious Inspector John Hillier (Torn Curtain's Hansjörg Felmy) to the case even though he is more interested in the case of a sex murderer who decapitates women, one of them being his own sister. Hillier's coroner buddy Philip Trooper (The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle's Harry Riebauer) and his girlfriend Anne (House of Psychotic Women's Maria Perschy) try to support him in his off-time but Anne's retired judge father Sir Francis (The Curse of the Hidden Vault's Rudolf Forster) expresses admiration for the killer's acts and master-of-disguise private detective Gabby Pennybacker (Two Undercover Angels' Chris Howland) keeps dragging him into criminal underworld intrigue as both "The Executioner of London" and the sex killer claim more victims.  While the perception of the CCC Bryan Edgar Wallace films as inferior to the Rialto one is not entirely without basis, The Mad Executioners is a true standout, not just being difficult to distinguish from the Rialto films like The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle but boasting a more complex and compelling story to make up for the lack of the more outrageous visual stylistics of the model films. While some Wallace/Bryan Edgar Wallace detectives who are not Joachim Fuchsberger make little impression, there is a motivation for Felmy's dour turn as one of the series' truly haunted protagonists, and while the ending is not a surprise in retrospect in this regard, first time and even seasoned Wallace viewers might be surprised that even an imitator of the Rialto series would take such a dark turn during the climax (while Riebauer was not great shakes as The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle's sleuth, he gets to give a more expressive performance here as both unofficial investigator and possible suspect). With regard to the sex killer, the film does not even try to hide his identity in Dieter Borsche (Females for Hire) from his introductory shot, but he is no less menacing as his motives and methods are revealed in a sequence that is as much a showcase for his acting as it is for the art direction of Hans Jürgen Kiebach (Cabaret, for which he won an Oscar) and becomes even more twisted and horrific before the heroes save the day. Howland provides comic relief in various disguises and does a music hall number but his comic relief is less pronounced than that of Arent (whose presence is beloved by some and reviled by others). The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle's Rudolf Fernau is on hand this time around as Sir Francis' faithful butler indebted to his master who saved him from the gallows whose duties include indulging the judge's court roleplaying – a sequence that anticipates the more sinister The House of Whipcord – that he may be putting into practice elsewhere. The only true odd note is the resolution which, compared to the more abrupt endings of other entries in the CCC and Rialto series where the end card comes up pretty much after the killer's reveal or the kiss of the detective and his damsel-in-distress, holding on a series of glances following the surviving leads that seems less like an intimation of romance than tension that does not pay off. The Phantom of Soho: Although former police commissioner Archibald Bessell is the third high society victim found knifed in the Soho alleyways, Scotland Yard does not believe that the so-called The Phantom of Soho is anything but a tabloid invention despite sightings of a hooded figure with "gold hands" by less-than-credible denizens of the area. Eager to impress charming mystery writer Clarinda Smith (The Squeaker's Barbara Rütting) with his handling of the case, Sir Philip (The Horror of Blackwood Castle's Hans Söhnker) assigns Bessell's former sergeant and batman in the African colonies Chief Inspector Hugh Patton (The Mad Executioners' Dieter Borsche) to the case and pairs him with Sergeant Hallam (The Black Cobra's Peter Vogel) who has intimate knowledge of the Soho nightlife. They trace Bessell's last moves to the Zanzibar, a nightclub owned by wheelchair-bound Joanna Filiati (The Indian Scarf's Elisabeth Flickenschildt) – whose manager Gilard (The Green Archer's Stanislav Ledinek) has past white slavery connections and physician Dr. Dalmar (The Curse of the Yellow Snake's Werner Peters) also treats high society – who also owns the seedy hotel across the street where her hostesses wind up with gentlemen. Hallam suspects nightclub act knife-thrower Jussuf (The Inheritors' Kurt Jaggberg) since his throwing blades match the wounds of the victims, but he too winds up with one of them in his chest and Patton believes that showgirl Corinne (The Nylon Noose's Helga Sommerfeld) knows more than she claims, especially when she vanishes after the murder of Lord Malhouse (Pyramid of the Sun God's Hans Nielsen). When thought-dead sea captain Muggins (Grand Hotel's Hans W. Hamacher) turns up trying to blackmail Joanna and Dalmar, Patton suspects that the murders may have something to do with a catastrophic yacht sinking that claimed lives and paid out a multi-million pound insurance claim but Clarinda may be putting herself in jeopardy when she claims she has solved the case before Scotland Yard and will reveal it in her latest novel.  Helmed once again by Franz Josef Gottlieb, The Phantom of Soho is lesser Wallace but is drenched in enough smoky and foggy atmosphere finely photographed by Richard Angst that it entertains just enough even as the plot becomes rather sluggish in the middle of the film. Borsche acquits himself well as the detective even though he has less to do and looks less convincing in fisticuffs with the film's requisite hulking red herring with a sinister birthmark (Attack of the 50 Foot Woman's Otto Waldis), and Vogel is a good Arent stand-in conveying humor without becoming distracting. Rütting is given too little material to make much of an impression while Flickenschildt and Peters are simply wasted but the appearances of the phantom make for a couple nice highlights, and eagle-eyed viewers will notice the source of the killer's masked visage glimpsed earlier on in the periphery of a shot. The resolution has a similar twist to The Mad Executioners regarding one of the protagonists but to lesser effect despite this entry also delving into dark areas of human behavior. What stands out is once again the photography of Richard Angst, from its canted Soho alleyway angles to the POV shots of the killer and the spinning camera during the knife-throwing performance. The German version includes some brief glimpses of nudity during the nightclub sequences and a theme song by composer Martin Böttcher (The Creature with the Blue Hand) sung by Tanja Berg from lyrics by Gottlieb's wife Doris Kirchner. The vocal was dropped from the export version making more obvious just how repetitive the underlying music for the theme was during the length of the opening credits. The Monster of London City: While Richard Sand (The Mad Executioners' Hansjörg Felmy) is terrifying audiences on the stage of the Edgar Allan Poe theatre as Jack the Ripper, a modern day copycat is slicing up prostitutes in nearby Whitechapel. The police see the play as an incitement to violence and Sir George Edwards (The Curse of the Yellow Snake's Fritz Tillmann), uncle of Richard's benefactor Ann (A Fistful of Dollars' Marianne Koch), is planning to introduce a new censorship bill into Parliament targeting the play. When the lead actress (The Unnaturals' Gudrun Schmidt) is murdered, Richard becomes the prime suspect for Inspector Dorne (The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle's Hans Nielsen) – in spite of, or perhaps because of, attempts by police coroner Dr. Morley Greely (Code 7 Victim 5!'s Dietmar Schönherr) to defend his best friend (who happens to be seeing his fiancee Ann behind his back) – and private detectives Teddy Flynn (Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies' Peer Schmidt) and Betty Ball (Chariklia Baxevanos) who infiltrate the theatre. A former addict still dependent on strong medications to deal with the stress of the role, Richard too is having a hard time defending his strange behavior and absences during the murders; however, Ann has noticed that her uncle has a habit of going out in a dark coat and slouch hat on the nights of the murders.  Helmed by The Mad Executioners' Edwin Zbonek, The Monster of London City is more visually-accomplished and innovative but less compelling as a story. Inspired by the story of American actor Richard Mansfield who was suspected of being Jack the Ripper since he was terrifying British audiences with a stage production of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" at the time of the murders, the film has some stunningly expressionistic stalking and murder sequences – the killer is only seen strangling the victims with some offscreen straight razor mutilation that seems too brief for the brutality described in the dialogue – across gleaming wet cobblestone streets and looming shadows cast across building walls but Felmy is a bit of a blank slate again and there is not enough time devoted to his confusion so that it seems as obvious that he is being framed as Ann's uncle is a red herring. While there is still the possibility that the film could pull the rug under the viewer with another devastating reveal of a killer, it becomes just as obvious who the real killer is due to the film not attempting in any way to cast them as a red herring and a bit of dialogue early on that is meant for the audience to be taken casually but really is not. Koch does more detective work than Nielsen and pretty much solves the case with Felmy only doing the physical work. The stage production – of which we only see one scene across repeat performances – is supposed to be terrifying but it seems like a saucy comic farce even before the private detective couple bumble through it, so we do not really get much in the way of blurring stage and reality along the lines of Gordon Hessler's Murders in the Rue Morgue or Michele Soavi's Stagefright. The scope photography of Siegfried Hold (Old Shatterhand) is elegant but not as adventurous as the work of Angst on the previous two films in the set while the scoring of Martin Böttcher is less intrusive or distinctive. The Racetrack Murders: Former hanging judge Lord John Mant (Frozen Alive's Walter Rilla) is making a killing on the racetrack with his prized stallion Satan which promises to further enrich his coffers on Derby Day. Rival horse owner and underground bookie Eduardo Renova (The Dead Eyes of London's Wolfgang Lukschy) and his jockey younger brother Giuseppe (The Secret of the Red Orchid's Edgar Wenzel) is heavily-invested in Satan losing the race, effecting the accidental death of the horse's current jockey and trying to blackmail veterinarian Howard Trent (The Mad Executioners' Harry Riebauer) into drugging the horse. While the death of the jockey appeared to be an accident, the silencer shooting of a band trumpeter at Mant's pre-Derby dinner party brings in Scotland Yard with Inspector Bradley (Cross of Iron's Heinz Engelmann) unwilling to rule anyone out as a suspect until he finds a reason for the young man's death, not even Mant himself, his snobby sister Jenny (The Black Abbot's Alice Treff), niece Avril (Reptilicus' Ann Smyrner), butler Irving (The Phantom of Soho's Peter Vogel), stable groom Palmer (Angels of Terror's Friedrich G. Beckhaus) who could ride Satan in place of the dead jockey, or the Reverend Turner (The Monster of London City's Hans Nielsen) who is strangely covetous of a twenty-thousand British Pounds-insured painting of the Madonna already bequeathed to Avril. The arrival of eccentric nature artist Peter Brooks (The Monster of London City's Hansjörg Felmy) and his dietician Molly (Trude Herr) coincides two more murders and the return of presumptive heir Gerald Mant (Merry-Go-Round's Helmuth Lohner). A blood-smeared button at the scene leads Bradley to Ranova who was once prosecuted by Mant but escaped the fate of his partner Falconetti who went to the gallows, but Irving is as suspicious of Brooks and Molly as they are of him, and Avril too is not blinded by the affection of Trent who may have taken Ranova up on his offer. As Derby Day nears, Ranova is as eager to take Satan out of the running as a murderous unknown seems to be removing anyone who might sabotage the contender.  Known in Germany as ""Das 7. Opfer" (The 7th Victim) – and presumably changed for the English version so as not to be confused with the Val Lewton production which was in television syndication where this film also ended up – The Racetrack Murders was not only directed by Franz Josef Gottlieb but also scripted by him and, while one could not call it better-written, it is more cleanly- and more clearly-plotted, feeling even more like a Wallace krimi copy from one of the other studios less prolific in the genre than a supposed Bryan Edgar Wallace adaptation (this is one of the few that cite a specific source novel by "Murder is Not Enough" reportedly has little to do with the film's plot). Smyrner makes for another one of the series' more resourceful heroines while Felmy's range is more suited to his character playing an aloof eccentric while Riebauer once again proves he is more effective as a possible suspect than a detective lead. Rilla is wasted with not enough screen time, although switching his role with another one of the prominent older characters might have given the game away given his presence in CCC's Mabuse series. Vogel's comic relief character is more interesting but given little time to be more than a red herring and Herr seems to be given a bit more depth and a possible romance scuttled by the bad joke punchline of an ending. Harkening back to The Curse of the Yellow Snake is the casting of Finnish actress Ann Savo (Moonwolf) as "Yo Ma" who the viewer is dependent on the dialogue in realizing that she is actually supposed to be a "Chinese woman." Although not lensed in scope, the cinematography of Richard Angst is consistently engaging, composed in depth with only a few of the camera tricks of the Rialto series like a shot of a horse galloping in a circle from the perspective of the lead rope and a few deep focus low angles and frames within frames. The murders themselves are not graphic but they feel brutal, although the body count is off either way. The German title would make sense if the viewer reasons that Scotland Yard did not identify the first two killings as separate killing from the others, but the last line in the German version identifies the eight victim as the seventh whose murder is not committed by the killer of the others. Either way, it is a lame ending to one of the more "British" Bryan Edgar Wallace mysteries.
Video
The Curse of the Yellow Snake was unreleased in the U.K. and went straight to television in the United States. 16mm TV prints were the source of gray market releases while Retromedia's The Edgar Wallace Collection Volume Two's anamorphic widescreen 1.78:1 widescreen transfer was presumably a 16:9 crop of one of those prints given the softness and incomplete credits. As the one authorized CCC Edgar Wallace film, it was not remastered for the Tobis set of the Rialto films nor for the three Universum Bryan Edgar Wallace box sets, turning up in a separate Universum DVD and later in the Edgar Wallace Collection two-disc set with Jess Franco's The Devil Came from Akasava in an anamorphic widescreen 1.66:1 version and was not upgraded to Blu-ray until its inclusion as a bonus disc in Tobis' Amazon-exclusive thirty-six disc (thirty-four Blu-ray, bonus DVD, and bonus CD) Edgar Wallace Gesamtedition 1959-1972. Eureka's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen transfer is presumably from the same master which is a massive improvement on what was previously available stateside with the 1.66:1 frame not only revealing more vertically but more on the sides as well over the 1.78:1 U.S. DVD (the 16mm TV print source of which may have already been cropped to fullscreen). Sharpness, clarity, and shadow detail are vastly improved, allowing the audience to assess the difference between Fuchsberger's objectionably "scruffy" and more acceptable "debonair" looks in the first and second halves of the film as well as the unflattering make-up applications to Braun to make his eyes look more "oriental" (that is, narrow). The German transfers also restore the color opening credits which were crudely replaced on the English version with a few cards on bare backgrounds.  The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle went straight to television in the United States, with softish prints turning up on the VHS gray market and budget bin label DVDs. Universum's Bryan Edgar Wallace DVD Collection 1 sported an anamorphic widescreen 1.66:1 transfer but it was not English-friendly, nor was Pidax Film's 2021 Blu-ray, the master of which was presumably the source of Eureka's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen transfer. The German DVD was great for the time and the 2K restoration improves with a broader range of blacks, whites, and grays while losing a sliver of picture on the right side of the frame while opening up slivers on the top and bottom of the frame.  The Mad Executioners was released in the United States by Paramount Pictures two years after the German release, and a letterboxed transfer turned up on the gray market while a full scope transfer without English options was part of Universum's German Bryan Edgar Wallace DVD Collection 2 and an American 35mm print was the source of Retromedia's anamorphic transfer in the The Edgar Wallace Collection Volume 1 (which also included Rialto's first Wallace film Fellowship of the Frog) which was softer but still a massive improvement over the gray market transfer. Pidax Film in Germany debuted CCC's HD remaster on Blu-ray in 2021 but did not include English options. Eureka's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen transfer from CCC's HD master allows one to fully assess the beauty of Angst's noir-ish scope photography (making all the more regrettable the absence of an HD remaster for The Phantom of Soho also shot by Angst on some of the same CCC sets). Cinematographer Angst uses close-ups sparingly so the greater resolution reveals more than just detail in the sets and location but nuance to the performances. As with the German DVD and Blu-ray, Eureka's transfer is of the full German cut of the film (93:52) which runs two minutes longer than the English version (91:06) restoring a German-language musical performance by Howland that has no English-language equivalent. The Phantom of Soho was released in the United States by Producers Releasing Organization – sometimes in a double feature with The Monster of London City – in 1967, three years after the German release, while the U.K. released it in 1968 by Golden Era Film Distributors, the latter with BBFC cuts. A semi-letterboxed transfer turned up stateside on the gray market and made its way to DVD from bargain bin labels before the better-framed, anamorphic transfer from Retromedia in the aforementioned The Edgar Wallace Collection Volume Two while in Germany, a better-looking, more complete version with the color title sequence was put out by Universum in the aforementioned Bryan Edgar Wallace DVD Collection 2, albeit without English options. The film was one of the Bryan Edgar Wallace films that CCC did not upgrade to HD, presumably due to materials issues – the color title sequence might have been inserted from a projection print source – with Pidax only putting out a DVD at the time of the other Blu-rays and Eureka has included it here upscaled to 1080p from the standard definition PAL master slowed down and pitch-corrected to the original framerate The image looks generally slick but the the lower resolution holds up about as well as the actual German DVD with some faint blocking in the blacks and fuzzy fine lines and patterns starting with the Gloria Film logo. Despite the seedy settings, it is a film with relatively high production values so it is regrettable that we could not get an HD restoration.  The Monster of London City was released stateside by Producers Releasing Organization and in the U.K. by Golden Era Films. The film turned up stateside on VHS and DVD-R from various gray market labels while Retromedia released the film twice, first in a double feature DVD with with the krimi imitator Strangler of the Tower and then as a double feature DVD with the Rialto Wallace Secret of the Red Orchid, both featuring a darkish overmatted 2.60:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer of the U.S. release with the "Walter Manley presents" card as a 35mm print source running the length of the German theatrical version; however, when CCC remastered the film for the Bryan Edgar Wallace DVD Collection 2 box set and again for the 2021 Pidax Film Blu-ray, the German masters restored a minute of footage trimmed from the German theatrical release. Like the German DVD, Eureka's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen Blu-ray features the color opening titles sequence and is a massive improvement over the U.S. releases while also featuring minutely different framing from the German DVD SD master. The darkest scenes boast better shadow detail, making the Ripper's onstage visage more visible during his opening scene as well as allowing the viewer to better assess the white face mask the real killer wears in one scene shot from the POV of a victim. The increased resolution makes better sense of the delirious sequence under the stage when Teddy is trying to pursue who he believes to be the real killer only to actually be going nowhere because he is walking on the underside of a revolving set.  The Racetrack Murders went straight to television stateside and 16mm-sourced transfers appeared on the gray market and is presumably the source for Retromedia's double feature with the British thriller The House in the Woods. Universum's Bryan Edgar Wallace DVD Collection 1 and Pidax's 2020 2021 Blu-ray were not English-friendly. Presumably derived from the same 2K master, Eureka's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.37:1 pillarboxed Blu-ray reveals some slight framing differences from the German DVD – with one or two shots where the image is shifted upwards revealing more on the top of the frame than the bottom compared to the earlier master. Brightness appears to be the same as the DVD but detail is superior apart from the film's opticals which are grainier as expected, and the shot that transitions into the color opening credits is particularly degraded although this seems to be due to the optical printing rather than any patchwork reconstruction. 
Audio
Each film in the set features both the original German dubbing – the international cast and some of the German actors are dubbed by professional voice artists – as well as the English dub tracks which were usually done in France. The German tracks are consistently clean and crisp, suggesting not only access to original elements but also probably some restoration done for the domestic DVD and Blu-ray releases, more effectively conveying in the case of the first two films the electronic music Oskar Sala (The Birds), the replacement of which on subsequent films with more traditional accompaniment seems less of a budgetary decision than the chance to work with more Rialto collaborators. The English tracks, on the other hand, appear to come from lesser sources with differing volume levels apparent when switching back and forth via remote. The rough edits of The Phantom of Soho's title music track to loop the instrumental part without the German vocal are part of the original production of the English track but The Monster of London City has some buzzy passages and one of the reels for The Racetrack Murders appears to have been partially damaged resulting in a cyclical warping sound underneath the dialogue in addition to the expected hiss. The English track is also helpful in showing where trims were either made from the German version – The Racetrack Murders' English track drops Trent's ruling of the first victim as "dead" before the credits sequence as well as the last line of dialogue, the titular punchline – or possibly damaged areas in the English materials that could not be patched. Optional English subtitles are free of any obvious errors except for garbling the place name "Akasava" on The Phantom of Soho. 
Extras
Extras start off with the primer "What is a Krimi?" (5:51), an introduction by film historian and author Tim Lucas who notes that just as the term "krimi" like "giallo" fits a broad range of mystery and crime films in its native country but that in English-speaking territories the term is ascribed to a certain subset of German thrillers, particularly those by Edgar Wallace and various films that attempted to duplicate the success of the Rialto films with similar titles and tropes particularly those by Artur Brauner's CCC – sometimes by either taking the works of similar authors or taking enough liberties with the adaptation so as to resemble a Wallace story including the Bryan Edgar Wallace films whose plots barely resemble the sources and some of which were only purported to be based on treatments by him. The Curse of the Yellow Snake preceded by an optional introduction by film historian and author Tim Lucas (12:26) in which he reveals that Rialto had only started licensing parts of the Wallace library at the start of their series so that CCC was able to get the source novel for the film while Karl Anton independently licensed the source for The Avenger (from which Rialto poached actor Klaus Kinski), and the presence of Rialto series players, directors, and crew, as well as the presence of CCC contract player Arent as Rialto's regular Wallace series comic relief. The film is accompanied by an audio commentary by authors Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw who suggest that both Rialto Film in Germany and Ango-Amalgamated in the U.K. - who made a series of B-feature "Edgar Wallace Presents" films often mistaken for television movies – might have deliberately stayed away from the source novel and discuss how it differs from the film version. They also discuss the "yellow peril" genre and suggest that Wallace was trying to do a Fu Manchu-type novel – noting that one of the motivations for his writing so prolifically in a range of genre was his gambling debts from horse racing – and that Christopher Lee was intended to be cast in the Braun role (although the Towers Fu Manchu series had not yet started, Lee had previously played an Asian character in Hammer's The Terror of the Tongs). They also discuss the London of German krimis "frozen in the 1920s" and point out the things the filmmakers got right and wrong, some attempts at nuance in the Fu-Sing character as well as how his plot had to be updated for the Cold War era. While they attempt to defend much of the film, they do note that Arent had better material in the Rialto series but here is at his worst and simply a distraction from the plot. The disc also includes the film's German theatrical trailer (3:12).  The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle is also preceded by an optional introduction by film historian and author Tim Lucas (10:05) in which notes that the film is not based on a Bryan Edgar Wallace novel but a screen treatment by Bryan Edgar Wallace that had been deliberately intended as a pastiche of his father's works, the presence behind the camera of Reinl who started the Rialto series and directed other large films for Brauner, the casting of Reinl's then-wife Dor, and the atypical male cast. The film itself is accompanied by an audio commentary by authors Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby who also discuss the German idea of England filtered through the Wallace novels and the various amusing inaccuracies including Giller's Scottish lord, a pub advertising striptease outside of Soho, and ponder just where in a real England it would be set given the signage. For those unfamiliar with the Rialto series, they do note that Brauner's ersatz Wallace approach here is pretty much indistinguishable from the model and note the presence of series regulars behind the camera (and that it was released by the same distributor Constantin Film in competition with The Black Abbot despite their previously agreeing to release The Curse of the Yellow Snake at a time when it would not go up against a Rialto entry). They also point out the presence of the then twenty-six-year-old Peter Nestler (The Hunchback of Soho) in a small role as the first victim who had already directed a documentary and would go onto a career of acclaim as a documentary filmmaker whose subjects also included British rural and working class lives.  The Mad Executioners's extras start off with an introduction by film historian and author Tim Lucas (11:12) who notes the unusual sophistication of storytelling in this entry – a feature that he feels distinguishes CCC from Rialto – its dual plots, more ambiguous characterizations, and various dualities as well as the unusual choice of director in Edwin Zbonek who was primarily a theater director who had a few feature credits and more television ones. The film is accompanied by an audio commentary by authors Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby who compare the film favorably with "classic Edgar Wallace" thanks to the Gothic touches – noting the tendency of Londoners in Germany's fanciful view of England to ignore horse-drawn hearses and hooded, robed figures stalking through the London fog – the contribution of cinematographer Angst, the film being two movies in one, and how it leans into the sadistic violence of the Rialto series (apparently production notes survive for the film in which director Zbonek instructed the writers to lean into the Grand Guignol since there was little chance of an all ages rating). They also note the dull role for Preiss who elsewhere at CCC was the cunning Dr. Mabuse, the rapid turnaround for the Wallace and Bryan Edgar Wallace productions and their sometimes delayed release overseas – the film was the B-feature in 1965 for Amicus' The Skull stateside and the support feature for two spaghetti westerns in the U.K. 10,000 Dollars Blood Money and My Name is Pecos in 1968 and paired with The Phantom of Soho in 1972 – with The Phantom of Soho starting production before The Mad Executioners was even released. The disc also includes the German theatrical trailer (3:46) and the U.S. theatrical trailer (1:48). The Phantom of Soho is accompanied by an introduction by film historian and author Tim Lucas (8:45) who notes that the film is attributed to a nonexistent Bryan Edgar Wallace novel "Murder by Proxy" but is actually an original work by screenwriter Ladislas Fodor – chief architect of CCC's Mabuse series from The Return of Dr. Mabuse onward – and modeled after the Rialto series entry Inn on the River as well as discussing the casting choices including Vogel as comic relief who gets the girl. The film is also accompanied by an audio commentary by authors Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw in which they reveal that Brauner had at the time a script called "The Man with the Glass Eye" based on an Edgar Wallace novel and that the later Rialto film of that title is a virtual remake of The Phantom of Soho. They observe that the film functions less as an adaptation of Bryan Edgar Wallace than as "Edgar Wallace fan fiction" with references throughout the film to his works including fictional places like Akasava from Wallace's Sanders novels and stories – one of which was loosely adapted by Jess Franco for CCC in The Devil Came from Akasava – and the film's setting as a "Threepenny Opera" version of Soho, the casting of lesser-known series actors in the leads given the shifting of audience sympathies, as well as the likely influence of this film in particular on the gialli of Dario Argento. "Bryan Edgar Wallace: An Era" (9:58), an interview with Alice Brauner, producer and managing director of CCC Film and daughter of Artur Brauner, who reveals a beef between her father and Rialto's Horst Wendlandt (The Devil's Daffodil) who had worked at CCC and allegedly ran off with three Karl May screenplays Brauner had, and concedes that while Bryan Edgar Wallace was a good writer, her father bought his brand rather than his ideas. She discusses the evolution of the series, which provided German audiences with escapism compared to more domestically-situated German crime films, including her young impressions of seeing the Italian co-productions, particularly What Have You Done to Solange? and The Etruscan Kills Again. The disc also includes the German theatrical trailer (2:55), the international trailer (2:55) featuring an instrumental version of the title song, and the U.S. theatrical trailer (1:14).  The Monster of London City is accompanied by an introduction by film historian and author Tim Lucas (7:44) who notes that it seems to exist in the same universe as The Phantom of Soho due to more than just the reuse of the same sets and studio backlot – including shots of the Sansibar club – as well as the reduced input of Scotland Yard, the parallel stories of the play and the real-life killings, and the ways the camerawork seems to bend reality to the theatrical. The film is also accompanied by an audio commentary by authors Kim Newman and Stephen Jones who expand upon the Mansfield anecdote – suggesting that the perception of Jack the Ripper as a "Jekyll and Hyde" double life might have mislead subsequent conspiracy theories. They also cite the film as the first to feature a modern day Jack the Ripper copycat (noting that the killer of Robert Bloch's "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" was a reincarnation). They too discuss the German pop culture depiction of London and its confused geography – as well as dating the second unit footage in the opening credits to 1961 – which extends to the blurring of time periods with Jack the Ripper's half-cape, hat, and boots a regular outfit for some of the characters to wear out and move about without anyone batting an eye. Jones does provide a helpful "template" of krimi plotting that incorporates several of the story elements common to the films in this set. "Passing the Blade: From Krimi to Slasher" (18:24) is a video essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas who provides an overview of krimi and the giallo – along with their literary origins – and while their status as antecedents to the slasher are noticeable, Nicolas does seem to be reaching a little in directly relating any of the specific films in this set to specific slasher films, noting the body count element and The Racetrack Murders revolving around a "holiday" setting. The disc also includes a German theatrical trailer (3:28).  The Racetrack Murders is preceded by an optional introduction by film historian and author Tim Lucas (7:42) who discusses the transition from scope to full frame for this film – noting the switch in distributors from Gloria Film to Nora Film and the possibility of exploiting television sales (although the film played on television stateside but not in Germany until the 2000s) – and the film's casting, including Savo's Asian character. The film is accompanied by an audio commentary by authors Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby in which they discuss how the film tries to do something different, noting the aspect ratio as well as the citation of a specific source novel. They point out cameo appearances by series regulares Werner Peters and Dieter Borsche who turn up just long enough for series fans to recognize their faces – along with real-life playboy Rolf Eden as Renova's bodyguard – and outright satire of the German conception of British aristocracy rather than minor comic relief. They note that Brauner actually had a screenplay before the publication of the supposed source novel and simply plugged in some names and may have retooled a few scenes to vaguely resemble those in the book. A fourth audio track features "Terror in the Fog", a discussion between film historians Tim Lucas and Stephen Bissette over the first 84:28 of the film in which they discuss the influence of the krimi on the giallo but also the influence on the krimi of the comedic treatments of Agatha Christie's stories like the 1945 And Then There Were None, the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple films – specifically the first one Murder, She Said based on Christie's "4:50 from Paddington" – and the Tony Randall vehicle The Alphabet Murders. They also discuss the competition and collaboration between Rialto and CCC, including the crossover cast, crew, and directors as well as the production and release schedules before providing an overview of each of the six films in the set. Video extras close out with the German theatrical trailer (3:16). 
Packaging
The limited edition of 2,000 copies (US and UK) features four discs housed in two separate keep cases in a hardcase featuring new artwork by Poochamin and a 60-page collector's book featuring a new introduction to the Wallace krimi cycle by film writer Howard Hughes – who discusses the popularity of Wallace in the U.K. in the earlier half of the twentieth century and in Germany, the krimi cycle going up against Hollywood imports in the German box office, the tenuous links to the source material of the films, the stock company of players employed by both studios, the London of the German films, and the works of Bryan Edgar Wallace. There is also a new essay on Bryan Edgar Wallace by crime fiction expert Barry Forshaw from his early screenwriting career to his later novels and CCC's use of his name rather than his works. The booklet also includes notes on each film by Holger Haase, co-editor of Krimi! magazine. 
Overall
Consisting solely of CCC's krimis, Eureka's Terror in the Fog: The Wallace Krimi at CCC similarly trades on the confusion between Edgar Wallace and Bryan Edgar Wallace, providing English-friendly versions of films previously available on German-language-only Blu-ray (and far lesser-quality English-language editions of dubious legality) as well as whetting appetites for more.
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