German Popular Cinema and the Rialto Krimi Phenomenon: Dark Eyes of London
Published by Lexinton Books, 2022. 211 pages.
By Nicholas G. Schlegel

I had this author’s previous book, Sex, Sadism, Spain, and Cinema, which is on the Spanish genre and really enjoyed it. I loved that he was putting a nice spotlight on a sub-genre that tends to get overlooked. So, when I heard his next book was going to be on the German Krimi films, I was actually even more excited. I had already been a big fan of the Spanish horror film, but knew very little of the Krimi, which means this was going to be a great learning experience for me. It was, as well as expensive, since it has sent me down another sub-genre of films to try and add to my collection! So be warned!

Before we get into the book, there are two quotes at the beginning of it that I just loved, and it really shows the difference about what some critics consider “good” and what the public thinks about them. Author Edgar Wallace had said, “I do not write good books, I write bestsellers.” So, no matter what the critics thought, they sold, which means people enjoyed them. And when it comes to the films based on his work, film scholar Olaf Möller wrote, “Nobody really seems to have liked this cinema other than the public.” Again, critics may have torn the films apart or just didn’t like them, but that didn’t stop people from going to the cinemas to see them. There have been several times in my lifetime that a film was overly criticized upon its release, but yet still made a ton of money at the box office. Or decades later it is now a fan favorite. I guess that shows that opinion is just that. And a critic’s opinion could mean just as much as your neighbor.

At first, I thought that a “krimi” was basically the German version of the Italian giallo. It is . . . sort of, but in the same respect, it is quite different. The word krimi is an abbreviation of kriminalfilm, which means crime film. You’ll find it a lot harder than you think when trying to describe to someone what a krimi actually is. It’s easy enough to say that they are all based on the work of English crime and mystery author Edgar Wallace, or his son Bryan Edgar Wallace. They are crime-based stories, but have elements of horror, mystery, and even comedy, and usually with a big jazz score. Even that is only touching the surface.

Most of the films came from Rialto Films, which is what this book covers. But there were others, from some competitors, such as Central Cinema Company aka CCC. But Rialto is the main one, making krimi films from 1959 to 1972.

The book opens with a good amount of history around German cinema after the WWII. I found myself really wondering what it had to have been like for a country coming off the that, and how a film studio even starts the process of making movies, or if anybody is going to want to go to the theaters. But Schlegel gives a good amount of information there to at least give you an idea of what was going on at that time.

The second and third parts of the book delve into the films themselves. We get the basic plot but not really any spoilers, which is great since a lot of these films have some sort of mysterious figure behind the plot. Schlegel does an exceptional job with mentioning the different people involved and some background info about them. From directors, like Harald Reinl, Alfred Vohrer, or Franz Josef Gottlib, to actors such as Joachim Fuchsberger, Klaus Kinski, Karin Dor, or the resident comic relief actor Eddi Arent, and even the composers, all that help create the final product. These are the same names you’ll start to remember seeing mentioned over and over.

As I mentioned earlier, not knowing a lot about this sub-genre, the more I read, the more I wanted to see the films being discussed. I was going to start a list of films, but then realized this book is that list already. Having started to watch some of these films that I could find so far, it really has opened a whole new and different world of film for me. Honestly, that is exactly what a book on a particular sub-genre should do, which is not only to inform the reader, but make them so interested in the subject that they will want to seek them out. And I have. My wallet isn’t too happy with this, but such is life!