The Man with the Glass Eye (Der Mann mit dem Glasauge) is a late entry in the West German Edgar Wallace krimi cycle made by Rialto Film. The krimis had been in tune with the zeitgeist of the early 60s and had enjoyed immense success. By 1969 they were struggling to hold on to their audience and in this film you can see desperate attempts to get in touch with the late 60s zeitgeist.
It has in its favour the fact that it was directed by Alfred Vohrer, probably the best of the krimi directors.
By this stage the connection between the krimis and the works of Edgar Wallace was becoming very tenuous indeed. The krimi cycle would eventually end in 1972 with a couple of Italian-German co-productions, the Massimo Dallanano-directed What Have You Done to Solange? and the Umberto Lenzi-directed Seven Blood-Stained Orchids. What Have You Done to Solange? is a superb movie and Seven Blood-Stained Orchids is quite good but they are clearly gialli rather than krimis.
Which is not entirely inappropriate given that the giallo was a kind of offspring of the krimi. At the very least the krimi was a major influence on the giallo.
The movie opens with a man named Jefferson checking into a London hotel with cute blonde showgirl Leila. While they’re making love a man bursts into the room and knifes Jefferson to death.
Leila is one of the Las Vegas Girls who performs at a night club. That club seems to have been one of Jefferson’s many business interests. The police discover that Jefferson was a very shady character, suspected of white slavery.
Shortly afterwards Leila becomes the second victim.
The police have a few clues – a glass eye and billiard cues.
Other Las Vegas Girls are kidnapped and we get hints that whoever is behind the white slavery racket dabbles in drug smuggling as well.
Showgirl Yvonne Duvall (played by Karin Hübner who is essentially the female lead in this film) has run into an old flame, young Lord Bruce Sheringham (Fritz Wepper). Bruce had wanted to marry Yvonne three years earlier but she disappeared out of his life. He still wants to marry her. This romance subplot will later connect to the main plot, and Yvonne’s disappearance will become significant.
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We know the identity of the main players in the white slavery racket but we don’t know if the guy who seems to be in charge really is the kingpin. And we don’t know the identity of the murderer – it may be a member of the gang or it may be somebody else entirely. The killer seems to want to kill the bad guys.
Many of the iconic krimi stars had departed by this time. Rialto tried to find suitable replacements but it isn’t easy to replace a Klaus Kinski. One of their biggest problems was finding a substitute for Eddi Arent. Arent had provided the comic relief in most of the krimis up to 1966. If you’ve only ever seen English-dubbed versions of krimis you might conclude that Arent’s deprture wold be no great less but when you watch the movies in German with English subtitles you realise that Arent was a fine comic actor and a major asset to the series.
The Man with the Glass Eye offers the audience two comic relief characters. There’s Stefan Behrens as Sergeant Pepper and there’s Scotland Yard chief Sir Arthur’s secretary (and mistress) Miss Finley. They both try too hard but Miss Finley is at times amusing.
Hubert von Meyerinck is not especially likeable as Sir Arthur. On the other hand this movie’s main detective, Inspector Perkins, is played by Horst Tappert and he’s quite good. Karin Hübner is good as well.
The murders, especially the second one, are quite imaginative. Not as bloody as movie murders would become in the 70s but there’s a bit more blood than you’d see in the early krimis.
Maybe the plot is a bit incoherent but I don’t mind that in a krimi (or a giallo) as long it’s fairly outrageous.
Vohrer keeps the action moving along briskly and he treats us to a rather epic fight scene in a billiard club.
There are plenty of nice visual touches. I liked the little mobile glass compartment which delivers the kidnapped girls to the home of Mr Donovan, whose intentions may not be honourable.
There are odd slightly surreal touches, such as the weird ventriloquist’s doll.
The Man with the Glass Eye might not be the equal of the classic early krimis but it’s rather enjoyable.
The German Tobis Blu-Ray release looks terrific and offers both the English dub and the German soundtrack with English subtitles.