In the latest issue (#134) of VIDEO WATCHDOG, Kim Newman provides an illustrated 29-page "Pocket Guide to the Rialto Krimi Series" of Edgar Wallace adaptations made in Germany in the 1960s and early 70s, which are available from TOBIS/UFA on crisp DVDs that unfortunately do not offer English subtitles. Nevertheless, it's great reading from an historical and critical perspective.

Also in this issue:

INGMAR BERGMAN Tribute

Sam Umland goes solo to pay homage to one of our favorite filmmakers, a realist who brought to the screen some of its most penetrating scenes of horror, fantasy and dark psychology. Covered in this article are Bergman's classics THE SEVENTH SEAL, SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT, and a number of nascent gems collected in Eclipse's box set EARLY BERGMAN!

DVD Spotlight: INLAND EMPIRE

David Lynch is back with one of his most maddening mysteries yet!
Kim Newman sorts through the rabbits to get to the core of this story of "A Woman in Trouble"!

Dog Bytes

Al Adamson takes fairy tales into the 21st century and sets the cinema back 100 years in CINDERELLA 2000... But do we stop there? No, we proceed to cover the Al Adamson double feature FIVE BLOODY GRAVES and NURSE SHERRI... then Raymond Briggs' proto-SHREK childrens' book becomes a TV miniseries in FUNGUS THE BOGEYMAN... Orlando James learns to outrun a gigantic crocodile in PRIMEVAL... Hayao Miyasaka animates the classic fable of PUSS 'N BOOTS... and James Houghton protects a dysfunctional family from supernatural attack in SUPERSTITION!

DVDs

Glen Morgan remakes Bob Clark's other holiday classic BLACK CHRISTMAS... Bette Davis murders her twin sister to take her place in DEAD RINGER... Dan Grimaldi (THE SOPRANOS) invites women into his house and torches them alive in the sadistic '80s shocker DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE... more aspiring filmmakers try their hands at horror in the compilation FANGORIA BLOOD DRIVE II... Hammer Films features American actors in four film noir B-pictures: THE GLASS TOMB (John Ireland), PAID TO KILL (Dane Clark), Terence Fisher's TERROR STREET (Dan Duryea), and WINGS OF DANGER (Zachary Scott)... Kara Hui Ying-hung scintillates in the HK action comedy MY YOUNG AUNTIE... Joan Crawford concludes an impressive screen career with Herman Cohen's TROG... plus an HD review of the new remake of THE HITCHER, and an Import review of the Tony Anthony Spaghetti Western BLINDMAN, featuring Ringo Starr!

Ramsey's Rambles

This month, Ramsey continues his fling with Simone Signoret with a discussion of Jacques Becker's period crime thriller CASQUE D'OR!

Audio Watchdog

Douglas E. Winter spins some of the latest Italian movie soundtracks from Digitmovies, including SODOM AND GOMORRAH, WAR OF THE ZOMBIES and the Steve Reeves classic THE SLAVE!

More than 60 Reviews!
All this, and the proverbial much, much more!

Some of those Krimis (though definitely not all) do have subtitles. Young Victor seems to approve in that happy pic. Will he inherit his old man's taste in films?

He seems to have the eyes for the job.

Awww geez Krimi and Inland Empire in the one issue..I think I might hafta buy it!

Plus, he doesn't have to leave his workstation to go to the bathroom. His productivity is through the roof!

VW is usually reserved for my reading material on my regular trips to the cinema (for reasons I went into elsewhere on the board I'm sure) but having not been as much recently, I've now got a few issues to catch up on. Man oh man, I really need to finish them before that one drops through the door so I can get stuck in.

I'm really looking forward to that Krimi guide - partly because Kim's stuff is always informative, partly because I've only recently begun to explore this genre and partly because these sorts of articles are one of the key reasons why I love this magazine so much - I just have to balance out how much I enjoy the big feature articles with how much money in DVD sales they end up costing me...

Yes, Richard, this is one of VW's finest issues in recent memory.

One quick point: Didn't I read somewhere that some of the features in the box set have either English subtitles or alternate English language tracks? Tim or Kim, could y'all help with this? At 47, I am beginning to forget, hallucinate, and/or perceive the world as I yearn for it to be.

Thanks!

As Anthony noted above, some of the films are subtitled in English. Not all of them, though.

I'd like to see similar coverage of the BRYAN EDGAR WALLACE sets even though there is absolutely no English audio or subtitles on them.

I'm planning to pick up some of the German discs but are there any English DVDs I've missed, even though they might not be in good condition? So far, I've seen:

SECRET OF THE RED ORCHID (Retromedia)
MONSTER OF LONDON CITY (Retromedia)
PHANTOM OF SOHO (Alpha - but forthcoming in 16:9 from Retromedia along with FELLOWSHIP OF THE FROG, MAD EXECUTIONERS, and CURSE OF THE YELLOW SNAKE)
COLLEGE GIRL MURDERS (Dark Sky)

and I've just Netflixed DEAD EYES OF LONDON (Retromedia) and STRANGLER OF BLACKMOORE CASTLE (Alpha, I think).

I have the sets. Now all I need is the time to re-watch and write about them.

It's too bad no one has licensed these sets for US release. I think they'd sell better as double features or individual titles rather than as a series here (as opposed to Germany where Edgar Wallace's novels are still in print - I typed his name into eBay.de's book section and got over 500 listings - most of them NEU).

I picked up two of the box sets (Vols 3 & 4, in which all the films have English translation) a few months ago and am finally now finding the time to go through them. The first couple I watched in German, but the last three I've watched dubbed into English. I think only after watching the films can you know which language is best for each individual film. While it might seem the obvious choice would be to watch them all in their original language (especially as some of the dubbing is, well, what you might expect), the London settings and English characters can make the spoken German seem as out of place as Italian does in the late 19th Century American West.

All the films are of interest, some moreso than others, though they do have their share of problems...did I hear someone mention the name Eddi Arent? I look forward to hearing Tim's thoughts on these films, and to reading Kim's overview of the series, though the latter may have to wait a little while as my VW subscription just elapsed and having to have 1000 DVD's pressed has taken its toll on my bank balance!

I'm not a fan of Eddi Arent's "comic" stylings either, although in at least one of the films (I forget which, as the Wallace films tend to blur together in my head), he plays a straight character and does a pretty nice job of it.

This issue arrived last week and I must concur after skimming through that it looks delightful. Now I just need to catch up on the previous issues (a three-film day out at the cinema yesterday saw me finish off #129)...

Cheers to all involved.

I beg to differ: Eddi Arent is wonderful. He may be a jarring presence at first, but as you make your way through the series, I think it's hard not to take him into your heart. I'm also fond of Chris Howland, who was sort of the Eddi Arent of the competing German studio's krimis -- and evidently a British expatriat who became West Germany's first pop music deejay.

He's no Tina Fey.

Blerg.

One does become used to him (like Klaus Kinski, he's as much a fixture of this series as...Edgar Wallace!), and I'll agree he is not unlikeable, but his antics are often so out-of-place with what's going on around him and sometimes a bit of slapstick will be thrown in at a decidely uncalled for moment (eg. during the suspenseful finale of THE BLACK ABBOT). Who to blame? Did the producers think Arent's brand of comedy an essential ingredient, as it's hard to imagine the individual directors wanting such moments in all of their films?

For those who've not seen Arent or any of the krimis, it's a little like casting Charles Hawtrey in TASTE OF FEAR/SCREAM OF FEAR or having Jerry Lewis (and yes, I'm a fan!) appear in PSYCHO. Slapstick and horror can co-exist - THE GHOST BREAKERS, SCARED STIFF (with Lewis) - but I think most entries of this series would work far better without Arent.