Kinski’s first main starring role, and it would define the type of characters he would embody for years to come. He plays Josef, a serial killer who escapes from a psychiatric institution in Eastern Germany and crosses the border to West Germany to find work on a farm. He can’t remember the murders he committed and is perfectly harmless most of the time. For a reason that is never explained, his killing instinct is only ignited when he sees women wearing a red pearl necklace. Will the police find him? Will the people on the farm find out about his true identity? Will he kill again?
Red Rage can be placed in a long tradition of German made for TV krimis that comment on societal preoccupations at the time of production by rooting the narrative in a theme that can be tied into the larger social and political discourse. It takes the typical “ripped from the headlines” concept one step further in that the films are usually not based on a specific prominent crime, but speak to broader themes being discussed in the public sphere (most recently, for example, the very popular krimi series Tatort addressed the issue of homophobia in the world of soccer).
Red Rage addresses two questions that are typical for the beginning of the sixties: how can one define a “normal” and a “mentally ill” person? And how should society treat the mentally ill? In the movie, we get several long scenes in which a psychiatrist explains that Josef can not really be made responsible for the murders he committed, as he didn’t act consciously. His killings are not the result of a deliberate decision but the unfortunate outcome of an illness Josef can’t control. He can't resist killing. Is he a total nutjob because of it? A psychopath that needs to be locked up until the end of days? Or is he rather a poor individual who needs help and care? These are the questions that come up and the film addresses them in a straight-forward if unsubtle way.
Kinski’s portrayal of Josef is remarkable and, by all accounts, cemented his star status at the time in Germany. I mentioned in my previous post that Kinski performs with his entire body, and Red Rage is an impressive example. The actor seems at times fragile and innocent like a kid, threatening like a maniac, or lifeless like a flat tire. His hands seem to have the ability to grow and shrink on command – they seem deadly when he puts them around a woman’s neck, and consoling when he plays with a child. His eyes are, of course, spellbinding, and the entire cast seems subpar compared to him. The scene in which he is accidentally locked in his room on the farm and he hallucinates being back in his cell in the psychiatric clinic is a fantastic piece of film. As is his recitation of the Oscar Wilde story The Selfish Giant in a scene in which he and a child play with puppets.
In 1962 already, Kinski had a reputation as a maniac. He had raving fits during several press interviews for the film and pretended to live in a tent on a lake for the duration of the shoot while in reality he occupied the same hotel as the other cast members. In the climatic scene of the film, Josef's true identity is discovered and he tries to flee back over the border. The people of the village set the reed on fire and we get several shots of Josef running around a swamp, flames shooting in the sky all around him. During filming, the wind allegedly turned unfavorably and Kinski was trapped in the flames, almost burning alive.
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