This one had Edgar Wallace sprayed across it in neon paint. Red neon paint. This is pure Wallace  - a killer in a red pointy hood and gown with a bullwhip, a mysterious unseen mastermind with a lair of tropical fish and crocodiles, hidden passageways, lots of odious men fawning over young girls and young girls being murdered. This is good fun from the opening scene when a mad scientist crows that he has invented a non-detectable poison that will kill within seconds. When his assistant asks if this is a good idea the inventor says please open the book and write this down. He does and poison gas kills him. The inventor then hands the poison over to someone and behind him we see the red hooded person appear with whip and we know his minutes are numbered. Produced by the German studio Rialto who seem to have specialized in Krimi and directed by Alfred Vohrer who was their main go to guy for these films. This one is in color which is a nice change. Blood should be red.



At a girl's school - all very nice looking coincidentally - girls begin to drop like pigeons at a shooting gallery. One opens her bible at worship and is gassed to death. The mastermind is able to get killers out of jail to do his bidding and his main man (Günter Meisner, who you would recognize in a heartbeat from films like Funeral in Berlin and The Quiller Memorandum) is always there to kill anyone who makes a mistake. The school is filled with creepy teachers who all seem to be letches involved with the girls. One constantly sweats and gropes. Lots of suspects. Not to mention the gardener and the head mistress who seem to have a few secrets of their own. And a peering eye through a knothole and the person in red who can strangle with the whip in one easy motion.


This brings in Scotland Yard (Joachim Fuchsberger and Siegfried Schürenberg) who spend a lot of time theorizing and snooping but with very little success as the murders mount up. They don't seem at all bothered by this. Oddly, none of the girls leave for home. You would think a few dead girls and a few dead teachers might make them consider leaving. One girl does - of course at night down a lonely misty road and our person in red is hanging out. It really doesn't matter what the motive is or who the killer is and when you do know it doesn't make all that much sense - it is the getting there that makes it worthwhile.