The Devil’s Daffodil ** (1961, Christopher Lee, Marius Goring, Penelope Horner, William Lucas, Colin Jeavons, Albert Lieven) – Classic Movie Review 13,333

The 1961 British-West German black-and-white crime film The Devil’s Daffodil is based on a novel by Edgar Wallace, and stars Christopher Lee, Marius Goring, Penelope Horner, William Lucas and Albert Lieven. 

Hungarian director Ákos Ráthonyi’s 1961 British-West German black-and-white crime film The Devil’s Daffodil [Das Geheimnis der Gelben Narzissen] [Daffodil Killer] is based on the novel The Daffodil Mystery by Edgar Wallace, and stars Christopher Lee, Marius Goring, Penelope Horner, William Lucas, Colin Jeavons and Albert Lieven.

Christopher Lee enjoys himself as a Chinese detective called Ling Chu who smashes a gang of vile smugglers exporting heroin into Hong Kong from Britain, hidden inside daffodils.

The Devil’s Daffodil is a modestly successful thriller, filmed in both English and German back to back, starring different actors in some lead roles but otherwise featuring the same cast and crew. William Lucas plays Jack Tarling in the English version and Joachim Fuchsberger in the German one. Penelope Horner plays Anne Rider in the English version and Sabina Sesselmann in the German one. Colin Jeavons plays Peter Keene in the English version and Klaus Kinskiin the German one.

The main character is a bit of a technical tour de force for Lee.

Lee said: ‘I had to learn my lines in English and German. My part was a Chinese detective called Ling Chu in this thriller by Edgar Wallace, who was enjoying a great vogue in Germany. Contriving a Chinese accent when I spoke the German lines was a new problem.’

The screenplay is by Basil Dawson and Donald Taylor, and the German dialogue is by Horst Wendlandt and Gerhard F Hummel.

It was shot in April and May 1961 in and around London, and at Shepperton Studios, Middlesex.

Penelope Horner (born 20 June 1939) played Julie Denver in the 1962 British mystery thriller film Locker Sixty Nine, an episode of the Edgar Wallace Mysteries crime film series.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,333

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