Hello!

Here’s something nice that dropped into my in-box today, an interesting come-on for a German magazine, available in English, that digs into Euro-crime pictures in a very serious way, with full-on academic research.

American-International’s 1970 shocker  Scream and Scream Again was released with the title Die lebenden Leichen des Dr. Mabuse: ‘The Living Corpses of Dr. Mabuse.’

An article in a new issue claims that the Dr. Mabuse connection is actually appropriate — scriptwriter Laslo Fodor of the CCC Dr. Mabuse series penned an unproduced screenplay in 1966, intended for Robert Siodmak. Das Horrorkabinett des Dr. Mabuse is the missing link that explains everything.

The magazine is Krimi!  The Magazine for European Crime Cinema Culture, published by Boris Brosowski, who wrote to say,

“Based on that, we were able to establish the link between Bryan Edgar Wallace (who participated in the Dr. Mabuse series) and Stephen D. Frances, the author of the book The Disorientated Man. In short, putting the Dr. Mabuse title on Scream and Scream Again was no mere marketing stunt, but indeed a necessity, as the movie was, in fact, a Dr. Mabuse movie. Even more so, the main story was lined out by Fritz Lang himself, reaching back to the Replicants of Metropolis.”

That claim would certainly explain a lot. It’s sufficiently intriguing to offer a link to Mr. Brosowski’s sales page for his magazine:

The real-life Paris movie location that we billboarded on October 10 prompted some positive responses, so naturally we’re trying it again, this time with a movie that isn’t horror.

Readers that know the city better may not be impressed, but we were. Walking in the Marais after dinner, down an ordinary boulevard, suddenly on our left was a building that we knew very well. And there was no mystery about it … there and ready to open for business soon was the Cirque D’Hiver, a large round edifice with a distinctive look.

The building is grand in every respect … enlarging the photos reveals more beauty.

We know it from umpteen screenings of Trapeze, United Artists’ big-budget 1956 circus movie by Carol Reed, starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis & Gina Lolobrigida. It’s in CinemaScope and color and is quite good. I had no idea that it used an actual circus building. I supoose that after touring Europe, the circus returned to Paris and played the winter months in more comfort, at the home headquarters.

This is clearly no big news to the multitudes … but yes, I guess we’re easily impressed when things so familiar are suddenly, unexpectedly, right in front of our eyes.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson