Das Verrätertor

Neither the writing of Jimmy Sangster nor the directing of Freddie Francis can lift this Edgar Wallace inspired co-production out of the very ordinariness that is its dismal B movie status. Even Klaus Kinski cannot save it though he does well despite seeming to have forgotten to have been given many lines or just forgotten to deliver them. There is one excellent sequence and that features Kinski shooting someone while a scene in a Soho strip club proceeds. Both are cut together most effectively and the club looks most authentic. There is a fair bit of location shooting but mainly the main tourist spots. And I can avoid no longer mentioning the main drag, the deadeningly annoying central plot here of the attempted stealing of the jewels from the Tower of London. As if the whole notion was not preposterous enough the way they go about it is farcical. Also the Germans might have been interested to watch all the marching about of soldiers and yeoman but I don't think many others would be.