Director: Harald Reinl
Year: 1959
Country: Denmark/West Germany
Alternate Titles: Der Frosch mit der Maske; The Fellowship of the Frog
Genre: Krimi
Plot:
After a daring robbery, a detective realizes that the criminal gang known for terrorizing the city is responsible and must reluctantly bring an amateur detective caught up in the crime spree onto the case involving their investigation into a frog-masked master criminal no one has seen.
Review:
Overall, this was an effective and generally strong effort in the series. Among the better factors within here comes from the wholly enjoyable storyline that keeps the film moving along at a great clip. The way this establishes the true nature of the crime leader and his syndicate, who are running roughshod over the community, ranging from burglary and extortion to jewel theft and murder, gives them an intriguing starting point to get them over as a dangerous, worthwhile organization filled with unscrupulous criminals needing to be brought to justice. Shown pulling off the high-end crimes with expert precision, including a devious robbery at the very start, to showing off the kind of criminal mastermind capable of deducing who among them is an outsider solely there to bring them down, when they’re able to lure the undercover agent into a trap to expose himself and get knocked off, gives the group a seemingly mythical quality to pull off whatever they want so long as they follow the leader’s words. By rapidly providing this kind of setup, it starts the film off on a high note with the organization at the center of everything given the kind of treatment that makes them a threat.
That allows for a strong series of aspects within here to bring the case being investigated to be quite thrilling. Knowing what the gang is capable of and how their ruthless efficiency is terrorizing the community, the few bits of information we get here are handled quite well. Offering up the information on the gang being given away with their trademark tattoo on victims’ arms, the same symbol of which is used to impart a special message on stolen items or murder victims, the starting point comes together rather nicely. As the inspector and investigator put their knowledge together to try to get closer to the master criminal's identity with a series of ambushes and special operations designed to get his men off the streets so he’ll be fully revealed, brings up some wholly enjoyable setpieces that involve the police inspectors bringing their numbers to the nightclub where she works or the full-scale foot-chases and brawls that take place on the fog-enshrouded streets of London trying to put their plan into motion. Giving this a lot of action to go alongside the series of twists present in the final half leading to the final reveals featured there, these all come together with a lot to like.
There are a few drawbacks here that manage to bring this one down. The main drawback with this one comes from a seriously convoluted main plan by the main villain that feels incredibly convoluted for someone shown to be in far more control of this kind of plan than we have been shown. The context of everything here involves the criminal appearing to the intended victim, he wants to kidnap and get her on board with setting up a friend of hers with a worker at her nightclub, so they’re out of the way for his plans, making little sense in the grand scheme of things, and leaves this section of the film to also suffer from a slight case of sluggishness that hasn’t been the case until this point. The convoluted nature of everything, as well as the sluggish nature of what’s going on, makes the film feel like losing some of the more unnecessary secondary characters and storylines in the second half to streamline everything, and with the film’s cheesy humor, which isn’t always funny, serves to bring this down overall.
Overview: ***.5/5
An effective if convoluted start to the genre, this is a wholly enjoyable and effective beginning to the Krimi phase that proves the lasting impact of the genre to come. Those with an affinity for this phase of the genre’s history in general, who are curious about the movement, or just general Eurohorror fans, will have a lot to like here, while most others should heed caution.
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