THE RED CIRCLE

 

This is another Krimi thriller from Germany, one of the earlier ones, actually the second in the Rialto series of Edgar Wallace films. THE RED CIRCLE (1960) was based on Wallace's THE CRIMSON CIRCLE. 

The movie gets your attention at the start, with a sequence showing a botched attempt at an execution in France by guillotine. The criminal who was sentenced to die later escapes from prison, and years later winds up in London, where he blackmails several affluent folk, and kills them if they don't pay up. His calling card is marked by a red circle, and the fiend is given this moniker. A veteran Scotland Yard inspector named Parr (Karl-Georg Saebisch) is assigned to the case, but the Red Circle seemingly continues to commit crimes at will, even after a smooth private eye (Klausjurgen Wussow) agrees to help out. 

THE RED CIRCLE isn't as outrageous as the later Edgar Wallace Krimis of the 1960s, but it has most of the basic elements, including sharp black & white photography, rain-slicked streets, plenty of suspicious characters, and a jazzy music score. The title menace is one of the many main Krimi villains who dress all in black, wear a hood, and speak in a low, threatening voice. One of the main plot points here is that the Red Circle consistently commits crimes right under Inspector Parr's nose, causing Scotland Yard to be embarrassed by the state of affairs. (In all honesty, Scotland Yard doesn't come off very effective in any of the German Krimis.) The combination of the pudgy, middle-aged, thoughtful Parr and the more leading-man type P.I. is a good one, although it might have been better if the duo were played by genre mainstays Gert Frobe and Joachim Fuchsberger. 

The one familiar Krimi face in THE RED CIRCLE is comedic actor Eddi Arent, who plays a police sergeant whose main function appears to be annoying his superiors at every opportunity. The leading lady role is played by an actress named Renate Ewert, who shows plenty of spunk and screen presence as a young woman named Thalia, who gets involved in the various schemes going on and keeps the audience guessing as to what her ultimate agenda is. German silent screen legend Fritz Rasp gets a supporting role. 

THE RED CIRCLE isn't as fast-paced as later Krimis, but there's plenty of story threads going on....so many that at times it's a task to keep track of everything. The best part of the film is the climax, which springs a major surprise as to the identity of the Red Circle, and also provides a couple of other clever twists as well. 

I don't think THE RED CIRCLE belongs among the best of the Edgar Wallace Krimis, but it is a decent mystery story, and one will appreciate it more if you stick all the way through the end.