As a change from the many Edgar Wallace crime novels, producer Horst Wendlandt from Rialto Film probably wanted to have another writer make a film. And so Alfred Vohrer got to work and brought "Pay or Die" (Mission to Siena) by James Hadley Chase to the wide screen (Ultrascope). It was shot in black and white in the Hamburg studio as well as in London and Trieste.
What's it about? A rich lord (Hans Paetsch) and his lady (Adelheid Seeck) are blackmailed by the turtle gang. Her smart nephew Donald (Götz George) rushes to help, but cannot prevent the uncle's nasty murder. Together with his friend (Hans Clarin), the smart sonny boy goes looking for murderers and meets a sophisticated social snake named Laura Lorelli (Hildegard Knef). Can this enchanting lady who pays her respects to the young dynamic hero with a cucumber mask on her face or in the bubble bath have something to do with the turtle's devious machinations? Lorelli certainly knows her way around the darkest corners of London. There she also surrounds herself with the darkest guys (Carl Lange, Klaus Kinski). The inspector (Heinz Reincke) from Scotland Yard doesn't know what to do next.
Change of scene!
With a tip, the nephew and his friend manage to follow the sunglassed beauty to Trieste. There it turns out that the good woman is married to Margrave Mario (Richard Münch) and resides at Miramare Castle. The Margrave is more than respected in Trieste, but secretly a little Doctor Mabuse has been lost to him. The surveillance equipment he installed in the castle is impressive. Nephew Donald also feels this. And what role does the margrave's obscure secretary (Pinkas Braun) play, who so conspicuously sneaks around the moody Lorelli? Questions upon questions...
Alfred Vohrer had a top cast at his disposal for this production, and yet this film didn't really work at the box office. The great Hildegard Knef is a dream for this role, opaque, lascivious, capricious. Plus the agile Götz George, young and wiry. From the beginning, there is an underlying eroticism between the two, but this is repeatedly interrupted by scratchiness.
A certain thematic and spatial division of the film is certainly problematic. The shots in London are gloomy, the areas shown are rancid and dilapidated. In Trieste, flooded with light, everything takes place in a castle. But here the Dr. Mabuse-like aspects of the story come into their own wonderfully. Things get really wonderful when Knef and George end up in a room whose ceiling keeps coming towards them and threatens to crush them both. Delightfully creepy!
Even if the film isn't entirely successful, it's something of a little gem. Having world star Hildegard Knef and the chanting action guy Götz George together in a horror thriller by Alfred Vohrer is too much fun to rate below 9 points. Scary beautiful!!!
What's it about? A rich lord (Hans Paetsch) and his lady (Adelheid Seeck) are blackmailed by the turtle gang. Her smart nephew Donald (Götz George) rushes to help, but cannot prevent the uncle's nasty murder. Together with his friend (Hans Clarin), the smart sonny boy goes looking for murderers and meets a sophisticated social snake named Laura Lorelli (Hildegard Knef). Can this enchanting lady who pays her respects to the young dynamic hero with a cucumber mask on her face or in the bubble bath have something to do with the turtle's devious machinations? Lorelli certainly knows her way around the darkest corners of London. There she also surrounds herself with the darkest guys (Carl Lange, Klaus Kinski). The inspector (Heinz Reincke) from Scotland Yard doesn't know what to do next.
Change of scene!
With a tip, the nephew and his friend manage to follow the sunglassed beauty to Trieste. There it turns out that the good woman is married to Margrave Mario (Richard Münch) and resides at Miramare Castle. The Margrave is more than respected in Trieste, but secretly a little Doctor Mabuse has been lost to him. The surveillance equipment he installed in the castle is impressive. Nephew Donald also feels this. And what role does the margrave's obscure secretary (Pinkas Braun) play, who so conspicuously sneaks around the moody Lorelli? Questions upon questions...
Alfred Vohrer had a top cast at his disposal for this production, and yet this film didn't really work at the box office. The great Hildegard Knef is a dream for this role, opaque, lascivious, capricious. Plus the agile Götz George, young and wiry. From the beginning, there is an underlying eroticism between the two, but this is repeatedly interrupted by scratchiness.
A certain thematic and spatial division of the film is certainly problematic. The shots in London are gloomy, the areas shown are rancid and dilapidated. In Trieste, flooded with light, everything takes place in a castle. But here the Dr. Mabuse-like aspects of the story come into their own wonderfully. Things get really wonderful when Knef and George end up in a room whose ceiling keeps coming towards them and threatens to crush them both. Delightfully creepy!
Even if the film isn't entirely successful, it's something of a little gem. Having world star Hildegard Knef and the chanting action guy Götz George together in a horror thriller by Alfred Vohrer is too much fun to rate below 9 points. Scary beautiful!!!