Der Frosch mit der Maske (1959)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Harald Reinl

Writers:

Edgar Wallace (novel)
Egon Eis (writer) ...

Release Date:

4 September 1959 (West Germany)

Genre:

Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

Es ist unmöglich von Edgar Wallace nicht gefesselt zu sein

Plot:

Both Scotland Yard and an amateur American sleuth are tracking a master criminal known as The Frog....

Plot Keywords:

Mask | Amateur Detective | Animal In Title | Based On Novel

Cast

Joachim Fuchsberger	...	Richard Gordon
Elfie von Kalckreuth	...	Ella Bennet (as Eva Anthes)
Jochen Brockmann	...	Harry Lime / Philo Johnson
Carl Lange	...	John Bennet (as Karl Lange)
Dieter Eppler	...	Josua Broad
Eva Pflug	...	Lolita
Walter Wilz	...	Ray Bennet / Bill Carter
Fritz Rasp	...	Ezra Maitland
Erwin Strahl	...	Sergeant Balder aka Nummer 7 (German version) / Sergeant Barclay aka Number 7 (English version)
Ernst Fritz Fürbringer	...	Sir Archibald (as Ernst W. Fürbringer)
Eddi Arent	...	James
Ulrich Beiger	...	Everett
Reinhard Kolldehoff	...	Lew Brady
Michel Hildesheim	...	Mills
Charlotte Scheier-Herold	...	Lady Maggie Farnsworth (German version) / Lady Aubrid Farnsworth (English version)

Also Known As:

Edgar Wallace - Der Frosch mit der Maske (West Germany) (series title)
Face of the Frog (USA)
Faces of the Frog
Fellowship of the Frog
Frøen (Denmark)
Frøen med masken (Denmark)

Runtime:

Germany:89 min

Country:

Denmark | West Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (uncut) (1966) (original rating) | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1966) (re-rating) | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Copenhagen, Denmark

Company:

Rialto Film Preben-Philipsen

Trivia:

Most of the outdoor scenes were shot in Denmark.

Goofs:

Factual errors: All the cars are left-hand drive - even the English police have no right-hand drive cars.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Pastewka: Die Strategie der Schnecke (#2.2)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Nachts im Nebel an der Themse

Certainly not the best, but the first Edgar Wallace "krimi"

The Frog is a master criminal who is sought both by the police and by an amateur American sleuth and his comical butler/sidekick. The Frog falls in love with a young woman and hatches a ridiculous Rube Goldbeg-like plot to get her to give herself him. He uses a singing siren named "Lolita" to ensnare her ne'r-do-well brother into a gruesome murder plot. The brother is convicted of the capital crime and sentenced to death only to find the executioner is someone very familiar to him.

As other have said, this is the first of West German Edgar Wallace krimis. It's certainly not the best, but it is pretty entertaining. The comical sidekick (here played by Eddie Aren't) would become a staple of this series, to the annoyance of some, but personally I don't think this kind of comedy really hurts these films that much because the plots are already delightfully absurd and villains like the Frog are more than a little cartoonish to begin with(but I mean that in a good way). The butler/sidekick here kind of anticipates (perhaps even influenced?) the "Kato" character in the "Pink Panther" series in that he is always sparring with his boss to keep him sharp. The bigger liability here, however, is the "American" protagonist himself. But Joachim Fuchsberger, who was in nearly all these movies, would get a lot better in the future entries in the series, especially when he got to play an "English" detective (a role at which the German actor was much more convincing).

But in addition to the serial-comic strip elements of the plot, there is also a little bit of raciness courtesy of "Lolita" (Eva Pflug), and some surprisingly gruesome violence--the centerpiece murder and a scene where the Frog very violently dispenses with one of his accomplices. In any event, if you enjoy the German krimi series (or the later but the closely related Italian gialli), you certainly won't want to miss this first one.