The term “Krimi” refers to a genre of movies made in what was then West Germany from 1959-1967. All of the early Krimis were in black and white and resembled the American “film noirs” of the 1940s and early 1950s. The term simply refers to crime dramas although most of these movies also had mystery elements and all were based on the works of the English writer Edgar Wallace (1875-1932). Most of them are set in England but all were shot in Germany with German actors and feature German and English soundtracks although all the latter are all dubbed and usually not very well as is the case with this film.
There were some 32 Edgar Wallace movies and they were made by one company, Rialto Films. Another company, CCC Films, made a series of movies based on works by the writer’s son Bryan Edgar Wallace. The principal director for the Rialto series was Alfred Vohrer who made 14 of the 32 films that they produced. DAS INDISCHE TUCH (The Indian Scarf) was the 14th film in the series and is one of the better ones as it contains all the classic mystery ingredients with comic relief provided by series regular Eddi Arent who usually appeared as an aloof butler or a self-effacing sidekick.
The frequently recycled plot features several greedy relatives hoping to inherit a rich man’s money at the reading of his will. However the will stipulates that they must all spend a week together in his castle in order to inherit any legacy. This gives one of them the opportunity to bump off the others as the week progresses but which one is it? Almost all of the characters are unsympathetic and extremely avaricious so they get, in celebrated old dark house fashion, what is coming to them. Nothing new here. The twist comes from the film’s title as all the victims are strangled with an Indian silk scarf.
The cast of German actors includes the dependable Heinz Drache who was usually the stalwart leading man in many European productions during the 1960s. Here he is the lawyer who not only reads the will but he also winds up solving the mystery. Then there is the one and only Klaus Kinski who brings his celebrated brand of intensity to the role of a temperamental sculptor who may also be a drug addict. Veteran actress Elisabeth Flickenschildt is given the showy role of the widowed matriarch who harbors a dark secret while Hans Clarin is the artistic son who dreams of being a concert pianist.
The murders are committed from the killer’s point-of-view as we see a scarf being rolled tight in front of the camera before something happens. The film is well made and manages to be spooky and tongue-in-cheek at the same time. The ending says it all. Although SCARF isn’t a great movie, it holds a special memory for me as I first saw it with my mother, who was a great mystery fan, on board a German liner during my only trip to Europe back in 1964. I was 12 at the time and this was the first subtitled movie I ever saw. This disc is one of the fully restored EDGAR WALLACE series which was released in 2004.
The Capsule Critic 