THE PHANTOM OF SOHO On Blu-ray From Eureka

 

It's back to Eureka's TERROR IN THE FOG Krimi Blu-ray set with THE PHANTOM OF SOHO, originally released in 1964. 

This entry is one of the better Krimis overall, with a well-constructed script and a setting making use of the shady (if somewhat fanciful) environs of Soho, a notorious suburb of London. A number of murders have taken place in the vicinity of a tawdry nightspot, and once again Scotland Yard is on the case. The killings have been committed as an act of revenge for a horrid event that took place years ago, and there are plenty of surprises along the way before all is revealed. 

THE PHANTOM OF SOHO has a lurid, noirish aspect to it--it's the type of movie that is best seen late at night. The film even has a title tune (sung in German of course)--a bluesy torch song that immediately establishes the story's milieu, and the atmospheric score by Martin Bottcher follows the same pattern. Despite all the seedy elements of the featured nightclub (including some brief nudity from the exotic dancers performing there), THE PHANTOM OF SOHO could still actually play almost uncut on prime time TV today. 

The movie does have a knife-wielding killer who wears a fright mask and shiny, spangly gloves, which obviously brings up many Giallo conventions--but this murderer isn't after gorgeous young women. THE PHANTOM OF SOHO also goes against the grain but not having a leading-man type of investigator--the two main police officials involved in the case (Dieter Borsche and Hans Sohnker) are middle-aged men, and they also happen to be suspects themselves. Barbara Rutting gets the best role as a best-selling mystery author who makes a great impact on the proceedings. 

THE PHANTOM OF SOHO is the only film in the TERROR IN THE FOG set that is presented in SD (it is listed as a "bonus feature" on the disc case). Despite that, the overall black & white 2.35:1 widescreen transfer looks excellent. This is the original uncut German version of the film, with the main credits in color. The credits have a cameo by none other than Bryan Edgar Wallace himself, although according to the extras, the story wasn't really based on anything he wrote (the movie's screenplay was by Ladislas Fodor). The movie has, like the others in this set, German and English voice dubs, and English subtitles. (The English dub is missing some dialogue, which is filled in by the German track with subtitles.) 

The extras include another introduction by Tim Lucas, who surmises that the film might have influenced Dario Argento. Lucas also discusses the movie's director, Franz Josef Gottlieb. The new audio commentary features Barry Forshaw and Kim Newman. The duo drift into a number of subjects, such as the differences between the actual Soho of the 1960s and the one portrayed in the film. Three trailers for THE PHANTOM OF SOHO are provided--German, International, and American. 

The American version of THE PHANTOM OF SOHO made its way to a DVD from Retromedia which I owned, but this one released by Eureka is the definitive version, despite not being in HD. I'm glad that its SD status did not prevent Eureka from including it on this set, since it is one of the better Krimis made in the early 1960s.