Das Geheimnis der gelben Narzissen (1961)

Das Geheimnis der gelben Narzissen: Directed by Ákos Ráthonyi. With Joachim Fuchsberger, William Lucas, Sabine Sesselmann, Penelope Horner. A Chinese detective breaks up a drug smuggling ring and tries to find the “Daffodil Killer”. The drug smugglers had devised the ingenious method of smuggling heroin from Hong Kong in the stems of daffodils.

“These German Krimi movies, based on the stories of Edgar Wallace, are by definition infamous for their convoluted and hectic screenplays, but with its numerous twists and turns u0026quot;The Devilu0026#39;s Daffodilu0026quot; truly is the cinematic equivalent of a pretzel! You wonu0026#39;t hear me say this is the greatest movie ever made, but there is plenty of exiting stuff going on and you wonu0026#39;t get bored for a second. The film literally opens with a double bang, namely the vicious murder of an exotic dancer in her dressing room and the explosion of a discovered drug cargo in the customsu0026#39; office. The two events are undoubtedly related, since the drugs were hidden in the stems of daffodils and the killer threw a handful of flowers on victimu0026#39;s body; – also daffodils. The murder streak continues, with daffodil-covered corpses popping up all over London, and Scotland Yard teams up with an odd Chinese super-detective. Excellent cast, with Krimi-regulars Joachim Fuchsberger and Klaus Kinski, and the unsurpassable Christopher Lee depicting yet another Oriental character (what he also did in u0026quot;Terror of the Tongsu0026quot; and a handful of u0026quot;Fu Manchuu0026quot; movies). Thereu0026#39;s much less sinister atmosphere than in other Krimi movies I recently watched, but the pacing is good and there are gruesome u0026amp; inventive death sequences. The mandatory comic relief is also missing here, unless you consider Leeu0026#39;s recurring line u0026quot;Thereu0026#39;s an old Chinese saying…u0026quot; as comical.”