THE RACETRACK MURDERS On Blu-ray From Eureka

 

The final film in Eureka's TERROR IN THE FOG Blu-ray set of 1960s German Krimis is THE RACETRACK MURDERS, also known as THE SEVENTH VICTIM (DAS SIEBENTE OPFER). 

This movie stands out from the other entries in the set due to its many Agatha Christie-style elements. The story revolves around a top racehorse named (ironically) Satan, and the family that owns him. There's deceit, race-fixing and horse-doping, secret identities, bizarre murders, and plenty of eccentric suspects. Much of the film takes place in the daytime and in outdoor rural settings, unusual for a Krimi. 

The male lead is not a Scotland Yard detective this time around--he's Peter Brooks (Hansjorg Felmy), an insurance agent posing as a silly aristocrat. The motive for all the mayhem is a plot of revenge for the execution of a criminal years before. 

THE RACETRACK MURDERS (1964) was written & directed by F.J. Gottlieb, and this time it really was based on an actual novel by Bryan Edgar Wallace (although it appears not much of that book made it up on the screen). The movie was surprisingly shot in a 1.37:1 aspect ratio, making it seem more like a traditional mystery story instead of a Krimi. Perhaps to compensate for this, director Gottlieb uses many weird shot compositions, and the story has plenty of light comedic moments. The movie benefits from having Ann Smyrner as one of the better Krimi female leads--she even gets to competitively ride Satan at the climax, and it is actually her on the horse. (Smyrner also appeared in the notorious giant monster flick REPTILICUS.) 

Once again Eureka provides an excellent-looking black & white uncut version of the film, with its original color main titles, and once again German and English voice tracks are provided, with English subtitles. 

The extras include a German trailer for the film, and another of Tim Lucas' fine introductions. This time Lucas focuses on what makes THE RACETRACK MURDERS stand out from the other films in this set. The brand new audio commentary by Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby also points out the unusual aspects of the feature, and the duo discuss the novel that the story is supposedly based on. 

One other extra given to THE RACETRACK MURDERS (which gets its own disc in the TERROR IN THE FOG set) is a 84 minute talk with Tim Lucas & Stephen Bissette. (When you access the talk, it plays over the film). Lucas & Bissette discuss each movie in this set, one by one, and they also go into the history of the Krimi genre in general. The talk is a fitting epilogue to the overall set, and any viewers should listen to it after they have seen all the films contained in TERROR IN THE FOG, since Lucas & Bissette reveal several plot details for each feature. 

I can't say enough positive things about this set from Eureka. It has plenty of value, with six films, plenty of extras, and an informative booklet. It also includes a set of features that very few people in North America have seen, especially in their original cuts. In other words, it's not a reissue of material that the average film geek has purchased over and over again. I sincerely hope Eureka has more Krimi delights in store for English-speaking audiences.