I had high hopes of this one which I had been trying to track down for a wee while. I had expected a tense thriller with a classic and creepy villain with a nail-biting climax- something altogether superior to the late and largely uncelebrated 50s British film Never Take Sweets from a Stranger which has some similarities in subject matter.
What I watched was a not very good thriller about a retired cop trying to catch a child killer, a villain -albeit a well played one by Gert Frobe- who is less creepy than a protagonist whose scenes with children were the creepiest thigs I've seen in a while. The supposedly nail-biting finale turned out to be as convincing as the finale of one of those old Scotland Yard shorts introduced by Edgar Lustgarten. Never Take Sweets From A Stranger is a far superior movie- better acted, better plotted and far better photographed.
I do wonder if something was lost in translation as the version I saw was the dubbed one and the print on my DVD was poor with breaks in sound at key moments but I suspect I am being more generous than this very disappointing film deserved.
What I watched was a not very good thriller about a retired cop trying to catch a child killer, a villain -albeit a well played one by Gert Frobe- who is less creepy than a protagonist whose scenes with children were the creepiest thigs I've seen in a while. The supposedly nail-biting finale turned out to be as convincing as the finale of one of those old Scotland Yard shorts introduced by Edgar Lustgarten. Never Take Sweets From A Stranger is a far superior movie- better acted, better plotted and far better photographed.
I do wonder if something was lost in translation as the version I saw was the dubbed one and the print on my DVD was poor with breaks in sound at key moments but I suspect I am being more generous than this very disappointing film deserved.