When FBI Capt. Allerman (Sir Christopher Lee) boots gang boss Kerkie Minelli (Eric Pohlmann) our of Chicago, he expects the crime lord to land in Italy. However, Minelli is bound for London along with his hoods … as well as the remnants of a rival gang. Minelli rubbed out the leader of that gang—a dude by the name of O’Connor—but the guy currently in charge, an amiable psychopath called Pretty Boy Steve (Klaus Kinski), seems to have a few cards up his sleeve. However, a turf war is looming.
The Chicago hoods have themselves a sweet deal in merry olde England, sending blackmail notes to rich folks like Lord Arlington (Hans Paetsch), Mrs. Moore (Sigrid von Richtofen), and Lord Oberst Drood (Herbert A. E. Böhme). Hand over 10,000 bucks for protection or you’ll wind up dead. Go to the cops and you’ll wind up dead. Each of the nobles winds up murdered, sometimes in a barbaric Chicago way and sometimes with a massive mirror positioned on the road while they race out of the city for an escape. Scotland Yard’s Inspector Weston (Adrian Hoven) is stymied and decides to call in Captain Allerman for help stopping both gangs.
Of course, when the lords and ladies are gone, their heirs are next up, including Lord Arlington’s pretty secretary and heir Lilian Ranger (Marisa Mell). Can the smitten Inspector Weston or Arlington’s estranged nephew Edwin (Pinkas Braun) get her out of the crosshairs? Will the butler Parker (Eddi Arent) ever serve a master/mistress for more than two or three scenes before they are slain? Will Captain Allerman get his man … err, men … and stop the plague of violence? Or will Miss Ranger have to investigate and solve everything herself? Helmuth Ashley helms a German adaptation of a novel by Edgar Wallace, pitting Chicago gangsters against Scotland Yard in the quirky, comic thriller Secret of the Red Orchid (1962).
Edgar Wallace’s novels have served as the backbones to quite a few screen adaptations over the years. They’ve informed the giallo genre, they’ve served quite a few German krimi (crime) films. I’m not sure how many stateside flicks have taken them as source material, but damn the man was prolific and damn the movies loved his stuff back in the day. Secret of the Red Orchid is a bizarre case in point, being both an adaptation of Wallace’s crime novel (the luridly titled, When the Gangs Came to London) as well as a satiric spoof of its own noir subject matter.
Secret of the Red Orchid is a curious flick because it blends noir mystery, brutal gangsters, a dash of romance, and comic touches. It’s a black and white picture with a mostly German cast pretending to be Londoners(rounded out by Lee), and it certainly has a fun vibe to it as it careens from one set piece to another. The title is kind of misleading, since there’s no red orchid that I can recall and one certainly doesn’t figure into the mystery per se. However, Secret of the Red Orchid still manages to be a fun romp through crime yarns, utterly unlike any noir film I could care to name or conceive of.
Helmuth Ashley had a fairly long career in film, starting out with camera work in the 1940s, moving into cinematography by that decade’s end, switching to directing from the 1960s on into the oughts. He passed away in 2021 a couple of months before his 102 birthday (!), and I’d wager to say that despite having his hand in nearly 100 films, he’s not well known in the United States today.
The handling of the material in Secret of the Red Orchid is pretty good. He balances the very different modes of the story well, giving us crime and heartbreak, romance and yearning, as well as some physical and situational comedy. It’s a heady and unusual brew for a crime film, as least by American standards, and yet it’s got a groovy 1960s sensibility that holds it all together. Really cool stuff.
And the movie has an in-your-face jazzy pulp noir score from Peter Thomas that defies my ability to say whether it’s a spoof or actually taking itself and the material seriously. It’s loud and brassy and it can’t possibly be for real, but there it is, shouting out loud who the heroes and villains are and when we are supposed to be clenching our buttocks in suspense.
Sir Christopher Lee is a delight here, as the stalwart FBI man. He speaks German for the role, performing his own lines this time as opposed to the German production of Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962). His voice is a wonderful one, and what was dearly missed there is appreciated here. The character is crazy—Lee is an American Fed in Britain? However, the actor plays him straight. It’s a wonderful performance, as always.
Marisa Mell is canny, clever, and charming. She’s there almost from the start of the film, first as a secretary, then an heiress, next a damsel in distress/target, then a secretary, then a suspect, and finally an unlikely investigator who manages to identify the baddie and convince him to drop his disguise and come into the open. Also, she’s lovely as all get out, knowing full well how to charm with a look, a walk, a line delivery.
In every way, Mell’s character is a contrast from Christiane Nielsen’s portrayal of the material girl gun moll, Cora Minelli. She plays the kind of ditzy wife of gang boss Kerkie Minelli, and although most of the time her scripted lines center on buying this or that, there’s a keen intelligence behind the appearance. It’s not really much of a surprise upon reflection that she has one of the key actions in the piece’s finale, though it’s a pleasant enough surprise when it actually happens.
And Klaus Kinski is so young! He gets to exude that quirky behavior that would sort of become his calling card, cooing to homing pigeons and thanking them for their service, leading us to wonder if he eats the ones that underperform … He’s a gangster, dresses with the gangster coat, and smiles in an eerie way that tells us he’s up to no good and loving every minute of it.
With some memorable performances and that wonky blend of crime and comedy, Secret of the Red Orchid is certainly a standout picture of the crime thriller variety. It doesn’t have much of a reputation, but the Severin release includes two different commentary tracks from film scholars so hopefully its inclusion in the second Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee collection will introduce it to more movie lovers. It’s offbeat, oddball, yet enjoyable stuff.
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Secret of the Red Orchid is available as a part of The Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee Collection Two Blu-ray boxed set from Severin. As well, there are DVD and VOD editions, though the former is long out of print.
Tomorrow, we take a look at the 1947 adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham’s Nightmare Alley. It is available in DVD and Blu-ray editions.
Writing for “While the Police Bumble, the Secretary Sleuths: Secret of the Red Orchid” is copyright © 2022 by Daniel R. Robichaud.
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