A group of gangsters are playing poker in a hotel room. Whiskey, Fedoras, cheap three-piece suits - the whole nine yards. After a few witty exchanges, the door swings open and a group of rivaling gangsters with automatic weapons mow them down. Cut to main credits - it's on. The tenth Edgar Wallace krimi The Mystery of the Red Orchid abandons the murder mystery formula for the first time and comes up with a classic gangster story. And isn't shy of wearing its influences on its sleeves. Chicago gangsters terrorize London millionaires demanding protection money. If they don't pay or go to the police they're murdered. And all through the movie, the British cops underline the fact that these methods are "American" methods. And to counteract, an American detective is brought in. Kinski plays "handsome Steve", right hand man of the mobster boss. Not a very juice role but that probably has to do with the production history.
After the wide-spread success of The Strange Countess, producer Horst Wendlandt wanted to follow up with The Door With Seven Locks. But he wasn't satisfied with the script. The contracts with the entire crew supposed to work on the film, however, were already signed. Thus, In order to fulfill the contracts, and because theater owners in Germany had already reserved the date for the next Edgar Wallace premiere, Wendlandt decided to go ahead with the filming of The Mystery of the Red Orchid instead, as he felt that the script was much stronger. Unfortunately, the movie was not well received and was the least financially successful Edgar Wallace krimi to date.
It has often been mentioned that, although a German production and mostly filmed in Hamburg, none of the main actors in The Mystery of the Red Orchid are German (Kinski is originally from Poland, Marisa Mell Austrian and Christopher Lee is, of course, British) - another oddity in this out and out strange production. Clearly an homage to 1940's and 50's action pics from Hollywood, the movie is an unfortunate melange between the typically convoluted Wallacian "mystery" fare, riddled with plot holes and inconsistencies, and a rather sad attempt at capturing the exciting and menacing atmosphere of American gangster flicks. The script, as well as Helmut Ashley's uninspired directional work are an utter disappointment.
However, The Mystery of the Red Orchid remains a fascinating contemporary document illustrating how the German krimi industry (by 1962 well-alive and swinging) interpreted and aped Hollywood fare. One could, rather boldly, propose that the German postwar fascination with everything American was concentrated on the superficial, as the elements that were lifted from American mobster movies were limited to clothing, mannerisms, plot tropes and zingy one-liners - nothing of substance. If the atmosphere of that type of movie was of obvious interest to the movie makers, Hollywood-type story (what one could tentatively call "substance") was not. But surely I'm reading too much into this. The Mystery of the Red Orchid is, after all, a failure on all counts.
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