Traitor’s Gate [Das Verrätertor] ** (1964, Albert Lieven, Gary Raymond, Margot Trooger, Klaus Kinski, Catherine Schell) – Classic Movie Review 11,274

Director Freddie Francis’s 1964 black and white West German-British co-production Traitor’s Gate [Das Verrätertor] is a decent, compelling, atmospheric Edgar Wallace crime thriller about two brothers who organise a group of criminals in a scam to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.

It stars Albert Lieven, Gary Raymond, Margot Trooger, Klaus Kinski, Catherine Schell [Catherina Von Schell] and Edward Underdown, who plays the inspector who has to investigate.

Director Francis keeps it moving along nice and smartly, with the benefit of considerable location shooting around London. The studio filming is at Twickenham Studios on sets designed by art director Tony Inglis.

Jimmy Sangster writes the script as John Sansom.

Also in the cast are Eddi Arent, Anthony James, Tim Barratt, Heinz Bernard, David Birks, Alec Ross, Peter Porteus, Julie Mendez, Maurice Good, Katy Wild, Marianne Stone and Beresford Williams.

The striptease scene at the Soho strip club Dandy Club with Kinski shooting someone was removed in Germany and finally restored in 2004 on DVD.

It is made by Rialto Film and Summit Film Productions, using Hammer Films’ Freddie Francis and screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, who updates the 1927 novel The Traitor’s Gate by Edgar Wallace to the mid-1960s, and it is released by Columbia Pictures and Constantin Film.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,274

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