Popular reviews

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  Review by Blaze the Action Junkie ★★

  This one has some solid reviews for its age and video quality. The characters were distinct and the murder mystery was competent. There was even a bit of a running fight sequence that was pretty entertaining. However I found the bits where the lead analyzed a scene or questioned suspects so boring they were sleep inducing. It was easily a textbook murder mystery, so textbook that in fact much of the story revolved around a murder mystery book being written. I just prefer my stories to vary a bit more from such a cookie-cutter example of their genre.

  1964 Ranked
  1960's Ranked
  Horror Ranked
  Horror in the 1960’s Ranked
  Crime and Law Enforcement / Investigation films Ranked
  Serial Killers Ranked

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  Review by threepenny ★★★★

  Someone is killing punters who frequent a stripclub, and Dieter Borsche is on the case. I knew I was in good hands when the stripper is doing some kind of avant-garde strip next to hands jutting out from behind a curtain, sultry Martin Böttcher music playing, the marks are deep in their cups at the bar, and behind a bar length one-way mirror stands Werner Peters, weaselly as ever, and next to him shrouded in black, seated in a wheelchair, the enigmatic Elisabeth Flickenschildt. Out in the club Helga Sommerfeld, in her first movie role, wears almost nothing as she wanders around photographing the patrons. Not sure if that's a normal feature of strip clubs, seems like maybe the patrons…

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  Review by Gregor Kreyca ★★★ 4

  The Phantom of Soho is a dark, seedy and for its time quite sleazy little Pre-Slasher/Giallo-like Krimi based on the Bryan Edgar Wallace novel. It very reminiscent to The Monster of London City from the same year. Both evoke memories of “Jack the Ripper” with a knife-wielding killer stalking the back alleys of London and more precisely, Soho in this case. I think I liked Monster of London City a little bit more but for an enjoyable, pulpy late-night watch Phantom of Soho does just fine.

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  Review by Dennis Vehlen ★★★★ 2

  After making three Edgar Wallace adaptations director Franz Josef Gottlieb also went on to make one of the Bryan Edgar Wallace movies that Artur Brauner produced as a way to cash in on the Rialto films - and delivered what may be the best of his Krimis.

  This is full of foggy atmosphere and sharp blades while also being the sleaziest one of the bunch (we even see a stripper's breasts), taking place in the seedy world of crime and prostitution. The cast is really good, even though Werner Peters and Elisabeth Flickenschildt are the only real Wallace regulars here. We have Dieter Borsche and Hans Söhnker on the case, with Peter Vogel in a role that was obviously written…

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  Review by ᴊᴀᴍᴇꜱ 🍿🩸 ★★★★

  This sleazy little 60's krimi thriller set in the strip clubs of Soho features some of the most stylish, inventive camerawork for its era, with the whole aesthetic amazing to look at - flashing neon illuminating foggy London backstreets as a knife-wielding killer stalks his victims, all to that seedy little piano number.

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  Review by Kerry Maxwell ★★★½ 2

  Der Krimi Gesellschaft Versammlung - Oktober 2014

  My first venture into the genre, and an entertaining Saturday afternoon film. A mix of 40's series detective film, lurid and jazzy 50's noir-ish sleaze, proto-giallo gloved knife-wielding POV killers, and post production code Exploitation Titillation. Great cast (I've become an instant fan of Elisabeth Flickenschildt) and some amusing gags.

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  Review by Laurie ★★★

  This entertaining Krimi see's a glitzy gloved killer (das Phantom...) knocking off a seemingly random selection of VIP's around a seedy Soho thoroughfare in 60's London. In contrast to the other Krimi's I've seen The Phantom of Soho is inventively directed by Franz Josef Gottlieb and the shadowy dark alley photography is certainly a cut above average. There's not much to distinguish it in terms of plot or character, but it's good in the same way that all of these weirdly discordant Krimi mystery movies are, featuring well-to-do English folk speaking German and deviously killing for the most bizarre reasons.

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  Review by Dan ★★

  2019 Horror x 52 Challenge

  17. Made In Germany
  Progress: 28/52

  I'm counting this as horror since it was in a Mill Creek 50 Horror Films collection. It's kinda Jack the Ripper-ish, as a killer is stalking people outside of a London club and Scotland Yard is investigating. I had never heard of this "krimi" genre, and apparently there's a whole bunch of German crime films like this, focused on one killer, typically masked. I didn't find this particular one to be very interesting, although I did kind of like the mask that was used. It just felt like it was mainly conversation going on with very little stalking or killing or anything, and some of the acting was pretty laughable. But now that I know there are others I'm intrigued enough to try some to see how this compares.

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  Review by Nikola Gocic ★★★½

  A missing link between neo-noir and giallo, ‘The Phantom of Soho’ is one of numerous ‘krimi’ adaptations of Bryan Edgar Wallace’s novels, boasting some brilliant camerawork by Richard Angst, and tight editing by Walter Wiscchniewsky, with Martin Bötcher's sultry jazz score perfectly matched to the striptease club milieu. Violence is pretty tame when compared to the Italian murder mysteries, so no blood is shown in any of the stabbings, and killer’s glittering gloves don’t look as threatening as the leather ones, but the film is a solid chunk of pulp cinema nevertheless.

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  Review by Marcin Z. ★★★

  Beautifully shot and scored. The atmosphere is noir-ish and cool, yet the plot itself is rather average, just like the characters, while the titular killer, promoting the film on some posters and lobby cards, emerges in his/her/its full glory only in the great finale (however, the surprisingly fatalistic ending is quite nice).

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  Review by Christopher Feldmann ★★★½

  In den 1960er Jahren versuchte sich Arthur Brauner mit seiner CCC FILM an der Edgar-Wallace-Welle zu bereichern und nutzte den Namen des Sohnes, Bryan Edgar Wallace, um im Fahrwasser von Wendlandts Krimi-Reihe Kasse zu machen, mit durchwachsenem Erfolg.

  Von allen Wallace-Plagiaten dürfte DAS PHANTOM VON SOHO eines der stimmigsten sein. Ein ordentlicher Plot, falsche Fährten, eine gute Besetzung und eine erstaunlich versierte Regie, die es schafft, Spandau wie Soho aussehen zu lassen. Und der Titelsong von Martin Böttcher ist ein Ohrenschmaus!

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  Review by Pek Mi ★★★

  There are more inventive shots in this than you'd expect for a '60s foggy thriller. It's almost like the spirit of the New Wave married a mystery film with the budget of a high-end TV production. (It was also surprising to see it had nudity too; I always pegged that, in America at least, to The Pawnbroker.)