Review: "Der Fluch der Grünen Augen"/Cave of the Living Dead the first (and only) Sexual Vampire Krimi (1964)

 We all know the old discussion about whether or not Suspiria is a "real" giallo, because as much at is kept in the tradition of the Krimis/Gialli, it is a supernatural horror thriller. As such, it would have been impossible to publish a book like that in the original Giallo paperbacks as they only had the classic detective stories. No-one (not even the Italians) had the idea of labelling Suspiria a "Giallo" until american marketing mechanisms came along in the 1990s.

Maria's clothes are still intact. The movie was shot
on location in a real cave and it must have been
terribly cold as you can see the breath condensating 
throughout the movie. Poor Maria.

What if I tell you that already in 1963 we got a movie that takes the conventions of a Krimi and adds a supernatural solution to the murders (and additionally adding full nudity and rape - at least in the uncut version)?

Well... here it is: "Der Fluch der Grünen Augen" (The Curse of the Green Eyes)  sees Inspector Frank Doren, an American who is just enjoying his well-earned vacation in the local stripclub, being recruited again by INTERPOL to investigate the deaths of 6 local women in a small balkan/yugoslav village. 

During the opening credits, and accompanied by some mean jive soundtrack, Doren drives to the village, just in time to experience the power-cut that normally happens during the death of those women. Let me tell you: here already it gets supernatural because power-cuts in the 1960s in the Balkans were that often that no-body would have noticed any connection in the real world. 

Sometimes, the movie actually has some
creepy visuals

The obvious suspect is the brute and deaf Thomas whose main occupation is stalking, groping and raping girls followed by stealing and being xenophobic to foreigners. 

The second suspect of course is Graf Adelsberg who moved into his ancestor's castle half a year back shortly before the deaths occured. He is conducting strange experiments with human blood in his cellar and has a nice assistant called Maria who now and then has to go topless. Until the middle of the movie I was expecting Herr Graf to be Dr. Mabuse who was using his experiments to raise the dead. Of course that is why Wolfgang Preiss is in the movie... I wonder...

Too late, Herr Graf, Maria has already her 
negligé on. Luckily the camera was already
rolling when she put it on.

Third suspect is the servant of Graf Adelsberg John, who is of african descent, which seems to be the only reason for this...

And we have the witch Natty who tells us more about Inspector Doren by reading his palm than the whole movie gave us as exposition...

The Count/Graf invites Doren to his castle where he discovers a secret door leading from his guest room to the cave where... tata. all the six girls hover and dance around somehow. Due to budgetary reasons we never get to see one-two-three-four-five-six girls. I counted 4 at max.

Somehow he and pretty assistant Maria get trapped in the cave and Maria somehow gets her pullover torn for the rest of the movie. Inspektor Doren finally finishes the Graf (who is a vampire) in the good old ways of the wooden stick.

One man, one hammer. Interpol is a marvel
of modern technology.

Well. Oh. I mean this is a 1964 potboiler deep down in depravity. The only good print surviving is the 1:26h BFI dub-neg that has all the good stuff cut out (no sex please... we're british). The original austrian print runs a good 4 minutes of full frontal nudity, rapes and clothes-ripping longer but is only available though obscure sources. The french print under the title "La Nuit des Vampires) goes for a whopping 100 minuits of "terreur et sadisme".... that one has yet to be unearthed... please, anybody???The movie was a huge hit in France and I wonder where Jean Rollin got his inspiration from.....

The Pidax DVD, taken from the BFI print features the british dub and has one cut scene as bonus material which gives you a slight idea of how far the movie went ... and that is pretty far.

Although it drags a little in the middle and the locations are .... uninspiring, the movie somehow manages to be both Krimi and vampire movie and that is adorable. It takes a lot from Bava's "Maschera del Demonio" and Akos von Rathonyi had just made "The Devil's Daffodils" as an english-german Rialto Edgar Wallace movie and both influences are there which is quite impressive. The overall-boldness of this enterprise too, 

How and why this movie was made... that should be investigated.

Really? REALLY???? Come on. The picture to the left
is just atrocious.

The Mexicans obviously liked this one so much that

they later made their own version (Santo vs. Vampire

Women) of it...