The Curse of the Yellow Snake

A father and son in Hong Kong talk. The younger man wants to fight, but the elder insists his duty is to go to London and marry one of two girls which his cousin has been raising. When the son arrives in London, he -- Joachim Fuchsberger -- settles on Brigitte Grothum; their marriage will assure that her uncle, Werner Peters, will be a wealthy man, so he urges her to accept. Fuchsberger and she, however, go through a more normal albeit high-speed courtship.

However, Chinese guys keep following Fuchsberger around and trying to kill him. His half-brother, half-Chinese Pinkas Braun, is searching for the "yellow snake" Fuchsberger has, which will enable him, with his army of hundreds of thousands of Chinese, to conquer the world. He also wishes to marry Miss Grothum.

It's one of many German productions based on Edgar Wallace story, with as much "Yellow Peril" content as a Fu Manchu flick. Lots of action, and lots of good humor, particularly a comic turn by Eddi Arent as a memory-addled collector of Chinese antiquities. It's more than 90 minutes long, but goes by quickly.

I remember this film well, though I saw it a long time ago. I was interested in seeing the film because in Leonard Maltin's film book he said it was something like 3 out of 4 stars, maybe even 3.5.

Well after seeing the film, I wonder if Mr. Maltin actually sees the films that he gives recommendations for. He said it was atmospheric, and the beginning of the film does start out promisingly.

However, that is that. The film really plods boringly along. First you have a European actor playing a Chinese villain in one of the most horrible makeup jobs you could ever see. It is absolutely revolting.

They try to add humor to the film. Perhaps something was lost in the English translation. Watching it was not fun, and did not elicit any laughter. It was in fact embarrassing to look at.

Some of the other Edgar Wallace films are not to bad. But do yourself a favor, and make sure you skip this one. Shame on you Leonard Maltin.

This is another Edgar Wallace based krimi produced by the Germans in the early 1960's. While I am a fan of this series this movie is probably the worst of the lot that I have seen up to this point.This is even worse than The Indian Scarf(see my review of that one).This should have been titled "Curse Of The Boring Movie".

The plot deals with a fanatical cult of Chinese bent on world domination.They believe that a yellow snake charm has the "power" to give the possessor the ability to win any fight they start according to Chinese legend.Of course the intrepid white folks are shaking in their boots at the thought of world peace being threatened. But the cult looks like it only had about 100 members so there are some heavy logistics to work out on the ability to wreck world peace.

The usual stable of German actors are in this film. As usual the comic relief is played by Eddie Arent and you wish he would have gotten a dagger in the back.The comic touches in this series are heavy handed and irritating.The hero isn't really a guy you would like.In fact I didn't care about any of the characters.

There is a nice use of fog and dank atmosphere.But it doesn't help much. The source material may have been weak for this one. Either way, skip this cursed movie.