The Devil’s Daffodil was the first German-British co-production of the Edgar Wallace series. A German and English version were shot simultaneously in England. I have seen the German version with Klaus Kinski (his character Peter Keene was played by Colin Jeavons in the English version) and was not impressed with it. The murder mystery is utterly uninteresting and the gimmick central to the film (the murderer places a bouquet of daffodils on every of his victims) turns out to be utterly pointless unless I have missed something, which could well be the case as I was three beers in by the end of the movie and barely awake. The daffodils are used to smuggle drugs but the victims in the movie don’t really have any ties to that case, which makes the entire intrigue, well, unintriguing. Joachim Fuchsberger, of course, plays the hero Jack Tarling but his presence in the movie is puzzling. He is a member of the "Global Airways Security Service" but takes the lead investigating the murders, interfering with Scotland Yard and approving the torture of a suspect by a Hong-Kong detective (played by Christopher Lee in Chinese make-up in both versions). What exactly is his authority?
Kinski has a more prominent role than in the previous Edgar Wallace films. He plays an ex-convict who is dim-wittedly devoted to his boss, a shady nightclub owner. Spoiler alert, Kinski is responsible for the murders who were commissioned by his boss (as far as I remember). I don’t know if it’s me looking for more than what’s actually on the screen, but the whole movie is such a labored and stark affair that the non-chalantness and lunacy Kinski brings to his role infuses everyone of his scenes with a freshness the film otherwise lacks. Peter Keene is far from being a major achievement from the actor, but even in this kind of role he could play in his sleep, Kinski’s screen presence is imposing. He is an actor who plays with his entire body. His physique, his posture is radically different from movie to movie, even in these forgettable offerings. In the end though, even Kinski can’t save this film from being a snore from beginning to end.
We get a little bit of location shooting in London, but The Devil’s Daffodil totally lacks any atmosphere or suspense, something Edgar Wallace krimis usually were pretty good at. The sets are often laughable (the nightclub owned by the central bad guy looks like the production designer put a counter, a few chairs and a slot machine in someone’s living room), and Rathonyi’s direction is rather clunky and uninteresting. According to his autobiography, Kinski slept with nearly every actress and female crew member of the Edgar Wallace movies, and the only fun to have while watching The Devil’s Daffodil is to speculate which of the very few female bit-players ended up in bed with Kinski.
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