Beystiman
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
FuzzyTagz
If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
Marva
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Das Phantom von Soho or "The Phantom of Soho" is a West German 90-minute film from 1964, so this one is already over 50 years old. The director is Franz Josef Gottlieb and the writer is Ladislas Fodor and these two were pretty prolific and successful back then. Their work on this film and also the cast are probably the main reason why this is a German-language film in the original (according to IMDb), but these days it may be easier to find the English-language dub than the original. I also watched the dub. The cast includes a handful of actors that were pretty successful back in the day, even if they are almost forgotten now. These would be Dieter Borsche, Barbara Rütting, Werner Peters, Hans Söhnker and others. You probably also find some of the cast members in other Edgar Wallace film as it was pretty rare they they just appeared in one of these. So now I already said that this 1.5-hour film from over half a century ago is based on an Edgar Wallace novel (Soho is mentioned not only in this title here) and these films were really popular back then and if you look for movies defining German cinema back in the 1960s, you will quickly meet Mr. Wallace for sure because of the quantity of films that exist, sadly not really because of the quality. This black-and-white movie here is another example of this. It has relatively little scare factor and humor compared to the other films, but it's a pretty grim little tale about a serial killer being out there and the cops try to figure out for what reason (s)he chooses his/her victims. All in all, a fairly forgettable watch. I did not find the story really that interesting and I give this one a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
rwagn
First off I recommend the Retromedia release as it is struck from a very good print. I might add this is the uncut version of the film. It contains two topless strip scenes and knife kill closeups that are usually missing from other prints. The dubbing is impressive. What I enjoy most is the agile and imaginative camera direction of Gottleib. The camera is almost never static.We are often treated to scenes which begin overhead then move down and envelop the actors. The scene involving the knife throwing act where the camera revolves as the assistant revolves is inventive. The plot is mediocre and you can identify the killer early on but taking the journey is most of the fun. A wonderful recreation of London with plenty of smoke and fog makes an excellent backdrop for this krimi thriller. Add to it an early 60's jazzy lounge soundtrack and you can't spend a better 96 minutes in my book.
Hitchcoc
A German film taking place in England. A nice little plot with some entertaining policemen. The fun is in the investigation, though it does become muddied at times. For some reason, I knew the ending. Maybe I've watched too many movies. Still, there are some nice, stuffy performances and it is a pretty good whodunnit. If there is a criticism, it is editing and pacing. At times you just want to yell, "Get on with it!" But the plot does revolve around a crime for money and it really makes good sense when it is all over. The dubbing isn't bad. Whoever did voice overs did a nice job of trying to match the current scene.
evilskip
In the 1960's two German studios were grinding out thrillers based on the works of Edgar Wallace and his son Bryan.This particular studio finally gave the field over to Rialto in 1964 after Monster Of London City.This is a better than average film in the series as many at this point had become unwatchable.A hooded killer is disposing of clients of a seedy strip club.Government officials are heavily involved.A white slavery ring and revenge tie into the plot as well.The usual red herrings abound and the killer seemingly comes out of left field.Still worth a look.
