THE BLACK ABBOT (1963)

Pay attention, there might be a quiz. Lord Harry Chelford, whose mother died under mysterious circumstances a couple of years ago and who may be going mad, needs an heir and he wants the much younger Leslie Gine to marry him, though she's actually sweet on Dick Alford, the estate manager. Lord Harry also believes the legend that there is a buried treasure somewhere on his estate. Meanwhile, Arthur, the family's attorney and Leslie's brother, is being blackmailed by his bookie Gilder who wants Leslie for himself. Mary, Harry's former secretary, wants Harry for his money and claims to know where the treasure is. Thomas, the butler, seems always to be engaging in suspicious behavior. The family doctor breezes in and out. Oh yeah, and there’s the title character, a mysterious robed figure who stabs a man to death in the opening scene. This brings Scotland Yard in to try and sort out all the threads and find out: who is the Black Abbot? Where is the treasure? Who is the robed older woman wandering around at night? 

This German krimi, based on an Edgar Wallace story, is ridiculously convoluted but, when you clear away the red herrings, fairly easy to follow. The tangled romances, brought in perhaps to make things feel even more Gothic than they would, wind up having little to do with the outcome, but here, it's really the atmosphere that matter most. It's not immediately clear who the good guy is going to be, but if you’ve seen other krimi films, you’ll know that the presence of Joachim Fuchsberger as Dick marks him as the hero. His usual sidekick, Eddi Arent, is a comic relief cop. In the crowded supporting cast, Werner Peters is a standout as the slimy bookie Gilder, and Klaus Kinski brings his unsettling creepiness to the relatively unimportant role of the butler. Though the pace drags a bit, the ending is nicely done. Lovers of the Gothic melodrama should especially like this one. Pictured are Fuchsberger (Dick) and Grit Boettcher (Leslie). [YouTube]