"Das Geheimnis der gelben Narzissen" or "The Devil's Daffodil" is a British/German co-production and there are alternate language versions for both countries out there with British and German actors. This one was made back in 1961, which means it has its 55th anniversary this year. The director is Hungarian filmmaker Ákos Ráthonyi and this is not the only Edgar Wallace film he worked on, even if he was not as prolific in terms of these films as many other German directors in the 1960s. There were a whole lot of writers busy with this one here as many other times with Edgar Wallace films, but (also like many other times) the outcome is an example of too many cooks spoiling the broth. I may be a bit biased as I am not a fan of the film series at all, but this movie here also did not manage to get me interested. The cast is not the problem: Fuchsberger, van Bergen, Kinski and Lee are all really prolific and successful actors. But the story is and the way the character's actions were written. i know these films also go for humor occasionally, but there are so many scenes that feel really bad. Just one example would be how long Fuchsberger's character hesitates towards the end before he follows Kinski's character. Speaking about the latter, I think he is a really good actor, but here his character is bizarre, even more than usual and makes almost no sense at all. He was completely irrelevant and had almost no screen-time until the very end and then we should take him seriously as the main antagonist? Not working. The good guys (i.e. the cops) all seemed fairly bland and uninteresting and it was impossible to cheer for them and I think it is both the actors' and the writers' fault to some extent. Lee certainly was a bit of a scene stealer, but he alone cannot make up for all the boredom and lack of realism associated with these 90 minutes. I don't recommend the watch.
Review of The Devil's Daffodil
