This is a solid middle-period entry in the long-running German "Krimi" series, based on the ingenious thrillers of Edgar Wallace. In this case, the film-makers were taking the plot seriously and not trying (much) to dazzle the viewer with the nifty cinematic trickery and vivid violence that would become the hallmark of the series. Fortunately, the plot is a strong one, involving the usual murderous infighting over an inheritance, a girls' boarding school, and the wonderfully avenging titular character who breaks necks with the visually impressive snap of his whip. The style fits best into the Eurospy genre of the 60s, which was director Reinl's forte. Besides the monk, there is a weird caretaker who keeps pigeons and who casts creepy facial masks of people at the school, which turn into death masks after the inevitable murder of their models (shades of "I Bury the Living"). A poisoned water pistol serves as one girl's defense from prospective attackers. Karin Dor, the director's statuesque wife, resembles Barbara Steele in the lead role, and series favourite Eddie Arent, normally the effective comic relief, has a quite unexpected role to play here. More effort than usual is spent establishing the Thames-side background, though the German origin is unmistakable. Best of all is the wild lounge score by retro-hip composer Peter Thomas, with chimes and cascading organ swells (à la Vic Mizzy of "Munsters" fame) to highlight the monk's appearances. A lurid-colour sequel, "The Monk With The Whip", is much more campy and flamboyant, in keeping with the later efforts in the series directed by Alfred Vohrer.
Add a Review
-
goblinhairedguy10 May 2004
-
unbrokenmetal12 April 2007Gwendolin (Karin Dor) inherited a fortune from her grandfather, but doesn't know it yet. Her greedy relatives try to get her out of the way, but that's not as easy as it seems, when a hooded monk sneaks through the night and kills people with his whip. Is it a ghost, a psychopathic killer, or a man with a secret plan? Harald Leipnitz plays the inspector investigating on this case, whilst one of the most famous inspectors of German TV history, Siegfried Lowitz, plays the villain this time. The 20th movie of the Edgar Wallace series (which began only 6 years earlier with "Der Frosch mit der Maske") was the last one in black & white. Somehow the later color movies didn't have the same atmosphere anymore and ran out of ideas. "Der unheimliche Mönch", however, is spooky, foggy fun and absolutely worthy to close this chapter of the classic series.
-
When an old man dies just after making his will, the attorney carrying the will is killed in a car crash and the will is stolen. The will then shows up just before the estate is to be divided. The vultures of the family then scheme to prevent the rightful heir from taking possession of the estate, but a dark monk like figure begins to bump people off. Good Edgar Wallace adaptation is done in by in appropriate Hammond organ music which cuts across the proceedings. The music simply destroys any sense of mood and dread each time its heard. Who's idea was it to use it? It's a shame because this is one of the better later Wallace films. Worth a look if you can discount the music (and a couple of moments the final death- that are just plain silly)
-
The_Void12 August 2008I've only just really started getting into the Krimi genre and most of the ones I have seen so far have been the later entries which were in colour. As such, one of the things I like most about this type of film is the wacky colour schemes; yet although The Sinister Monk is shot in black and white and thus doesn't feature one, it's still a very nice film to look at and also provides an interesting and entertaining mystery - ensuring that The Sinister Monk is one of the very best Krimi flicks that I've seen so far! The plot is, as usual, based on a novel by British crime writer Edgar Wallace and this time focuses on a family in turmoil over the distribution of a family will. It turns out that the late patriarch of the family intended to leave all of his wealth to his favourite granddaughter Gwendolyn; a fact that doesn't exactly go down well with the rest of the scheming family. Naturally, they plot to ensure that the granddaughter doesn't get what's coming to her; but things are complicated when a monk with a whip shows up and starts picking people off!
The plot is not exactly original and has literally been seen a hundred times before in mystery thrillers - but the film is made good by Edgar Wallace's strange approach and we get a plot peppered with things such as the whip wielding monk (evidently a Wallace favourite), a wall full of death masks and a revelation involving carrier pigeons! Naturally, the film doesn't always completely make sense and sometimes you just have to go along with it; but really, that is what makes this film so much fun to watch. There's plenty of entertainment and since the film is only short at about eighty minutes, the runtime is rather crowded - but that is a benefit if you ask me! The cinematography is just great; the black and white picture adds a real foreboding atmosphere to the film and the fog-drenched castle in which most of the film takes place makes for a really great central location. It all boils down to an unexpected and silly conclusion; but it's satisfying enough, despite feeling a little bit too rushed. Overall, The Sinister Monk is an excellent little film and I can certainly recommend it! -
Red-Barracuda14 November 2013I'm not really much of an expert on the German sub-genre known as the Krimi. It seemed to be the predominant European mystery-thriller genre before the Italian giallo went into hyper-drive at the dawn of the 70's. The Krimi was a lot less menacing and flamboyant than their Italian counterparts but they shared a focus on cinematic style. Like many, The Sinister Monk was based on a story by the English writer Edgar Wallace. The story can be summarised as thus - a girl inherits a fortune from her grandfather but doesn't get to know about it as her greedy, scheming relatives steal the will; she is subsequently invited to stay at their boarding school where they intend to deal with her but almost immediately a series of strange murders are committed by a mysterious monk character.
So we have a girls boarding school, a family of unpleasant characters fighting over an inheritance, a killer monk whose weapon of choice is a whip which he skilfully strangles victims with, a schoolgirl who carries a water-pistol loaded with sulphuric acid, odd side characters such as a weird death mask making artist who lives in one of the high towers of the school and an ominous new French teacher. Add to this a sub-plot concerning girls from the school seemingly going missing on a regular basis and you have quite a lot of interesting ingredients to make this one up. To make matters even better there is an over-the-top, flamboyant soundtrack that gives off a cool 60's vibe. While the main girl is played by the rather gorgeous Karin Dor who would star later in Alfred Hitchcock's Topaz and the eccentric artist is played by Rudolf Schündler who would turn up several years later as a strange professor of witch-craft in Dario Argento's Suspiria. Despite being a German film, this one is set in and around London. But this was a common trait of the Krimi, used to help sell them overseas. Overall, it's a very good film for those wishing to experience a Krimi for the first time. It's a lot of fun. -
tedg17 May 2019In the heyday of mystery writing, we had Sayers, Christie, Chesterton and a dozen others who were artists of narrative curves. The game was to create a world, but us in it and only later let us know how wrong we were.
And then we had formula pulp writers, many of whom had good formulas. And then we had Edgar Wallace who would dictate a story straight through and never edit. These things were not crafted and were messy in narrative discovery. But they sold, and here is one of the biggest sellers.
This movie is not something where you can guess what is going on, and in the last few moments when it is all 'explained' the shock is not in what happened, but the shamelessness of the construction.
See, there was an injustice committed and a fair, innocent daughter.
There's the old hack of the rich guy, lost will and scheming relatives.
There's a serial kidnapping scheme with a massive gang that preys on schoolgirls, suitably attractive and silly.
And there is a revenge killer in a hood. The only cinematic element is his whip that instantly asphixiates.
What do these have to do with each other? Nothing, except they are mixed into scenes helter skelter. -
jfrentzen-942-20421110 February 2024Immediately before his death, the wealthy patriarch of the Darkwood Manor modifies his will, leaving his entire fortune to his granddaughter Gwendoline (Karin Dor). This upsets the plans of the dead man's greedy relatives, which includes Patricia (Ilse Steppat), who needs the money to finance the girl's school she operates at the manor, brother Richard (Siegfried Lowitz), and her son William (Dieter Eppler). William is the kind of fellow you wouldn't want anywhere near your daughter, and Richard doesn't balk at killing the family lawyer by forcing his car off the road, and stealing the will.
Into this den of malefactors comes Gwendoline, unaware of the events swirling around her. The malice continues: A student is murdered; a mysterious monk stalks the manor, strangling people with a whip; and Gwendoline is sexually harassed by William, whose earlier murder of a school girl was hushed-up by the family. Mr. Short, an oddball character sequestered in the manor's attic, raises carrier pigeons and has made plaster life masks of locals who recently died.
Scotland Yard inspector Bratt (Harald Leipnitz) attempts to clarify the mystery when the monk kills one of his men. After some school girls disappear without trace, he tracks one of Mr. Short's pigeons and discovers a ring of white slave traders, led by the monk. Gwendoline is abducted and brought to Richard, who explains the history of her grandfather's will and attempts to blackmail her. He is interrupted and strangled by the monk, who then dies from his wounds. Bratt arrives too late to do anything other than reveal the monk's identity.
Filmed as part of the Edgar Wallace series of krimis produced by Berlin's Rialto Films, this mildly entertaining thriller was the last black-and-white film of the successful crime series. It was very successful during its initial release, and holds up well more than 30 years later.
Director Harald Reinl, then husband of the film's star Karin Dor, moves things at a fast pace. Though it's not too difficult to guess which character plays the monk, there are numerous red herrings and distractions, and THE SINISTER MONK boasts a high body count overall. The film's "deadly accoutrements" include the whip, which is modified to break one's neck in an instant, and a water pistol that fires sulfuric acid.
The movie is an adaptation of Edgar Wallace's novel "The Terror," which had previously been offered as a stage play in London in the 1920s, followed by three forgotten film versions in 1928, 1934 (as RETURN OF THE TERROR), and 1938. THE SINISTER MONK was itself remade two years later, as DER MÖNCH MIT DER PEITSCHE (1967), directed by Alfred Vohrer. -
After having enjoyed my intro to the Krimi sub-genre with the fun The Secret of the Black Trunk (1962-also reviewed),I decided the for my next taste of the Krimi cream that I would take a look at one of the titles that starred "the queen of the Krimi's":Karin Dor.
View on the film:
Showing colour to seep into the opening credits of this otherwise black and white film,director Harald Reinl makes his and Reinl's then- wife Karin Dor's departure from the Krimi sub-genre one that goes off with real style that brings the curtain down on the "B & W" era of the genre with a real elegance.
Keeping the film mostly confined to Lady Patricia's boarding school,Reinl creates a wonderful mysterious atmosphere by placing each of Gwendolin's family members around the edges of the screen,so that the viewer may pick up a piece of the puzzle from the corner of their eyes when the family members drop their mask at the very corner of the screen.
Soaking the Krimi in a Film Noir fog,Reinl displays a strong,ultra stylised pop-art eye for each of the appearances from the black wove wearing sinister monk,with Reinl making the monk's white whip slash across the screen like a lightning bolt,as the monk's killing of the family members,leads to the person behind "the monk" getting closer and closer to wrapping the deadly whip around Gwendolin's innocent neck.
For their smart adaptation of the Edgar Wallace novel The Terror,writer's Fred Denger and J. Joachim Bartsch (who sadly died just before the movie came out) deliver a superb screenplay that combines Film Noir,Giallo and Krimi elements that make the nail-biting murder- mystery plot a truly tense,edge of the seat thrill ride.
Backed by a suitably weird sounding Hammond organ score by Peter Thomas,Denger and Bartsch smartly inject off-beat Black Comedy moments into the film, (from one of the boarding school girl's filling a plastic gun with acid for protection,to one of the family members being obsessed with making "death masks"!) so that they can also subtly place clues to the real identity of The Monk,without completely raising the viewer's alert on their first viewing.
Along with the great off-beat comedic moments in the movie,Denger and Bartsch gradually push a Film Noir mood right to the front,with the blood-thirsty,money hungry bond that each of the family share slowly unraveling across the screen.
The writers open the monk's killing spree to creating a rough friction between each of the family members,which leads to them not being able to tell "shadows" of Gwendolin apart,and also causes the family members to drop their mask to Gwendolin one by one,to reveal the ruthless,vicious darkness that lurks behind each of their cheerful smiles.
Marking her official farewell to be the "queen" of the Krimi, the very pretty Karin Dor gives an excellent performance that balances Gwendolin's inner nativity with a striking Gothic Horror like outer appearance.
Keeping Gwendolin's smile on the corner of the lips,Dor shows Gwendolin's smile to fade away as she starts to unknowingly investigate the slots that each of her family members fit into,which leads to Karin showing Gwendolin search around the darken corners of her family,whilst also becoming extremely determined in unmasking the identity of the Krimi Sinister Monk. -
"Der unheimliche Mönch" or "The Sinister Monk" is a German movie from 1965, so it is already over 50 years old. The director is Harald Reinl and he made this one before moving on to Winnetou when Vohrer continued with the Edgar Wallace franchise. This one here is among the earlier German Edgar Wallace film from roughly half a century ago and it also shows because this one is still in black-and-white. Also it has lots of suspense, but the horror aspects from the latter films are missing completely. However, monks (especially with whips) were a famous thing apparently in these films and I must say this one here is not worse than the one about the monk that they made a couple years later in color. Honestly, the antagonist (=title character) is not as foolish in this older version. But unluckily, the story isn't more interesting either and I dare say both films are pretty underwhelming. The comedy aspect is also still missing in this older film here. The most known cast members here are certainly Karin Dor and Ilse Steppat (still a while before her appearance in a James Bond film and untimely death). But sadly, this duo is not good enough either to make this a rewarding watch. I give it a thumbs-down and I am actually glad it only runs for slightly over 80 minutes. Not recommended.
-
Frank-872 July 1999This 34 year old german movie probably is not a timeless piece of art, yet it still is very entertaining. Check out the music, too!!!
Among the Wallace movie series during the 60s this is one of the best entries. -
trimbolicelia20 March 2022Pretty good mid 60s West German-made, English-dubbed black-and-white mystery thriller. A murderous, black shrouded monk wielding a whip haunts a girls' school. Meanwhile the sweetly avaricious family that runs the school are trying to outdo a young heiress of the fortune she doesn't know she's received. The Sinister Cinema DVD-R is good quality but the picture has black bands all around. Also the title credits are in good quality color. Would be nice to see this film released to a good quality DVD or Blu-Ray. Recommended.