REVIEW: DER FALL X-701 / FROZEN ALIVE (1964) A MARIANNE KOCH SHOWPIECE - THE FIRST CRYO-THRILLER?

 

This is such an odd movie. But let's start with the headline. Marianne Koch (A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS) is clearly the star of the movie and gives a stellar performance, making this strange hodgepodge somehow work. What is it? Is it an SF thriller, a marriage drama, a crime movie, a medical suspense thriller, the first movie about applied cryosleep, or a blunt criticism on how science works? Well, I surely don't know, and neither did, obviously, cameraman-turned-director Bernhard Knowles (MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR), who had worked for Alfred Hitchcock before and provides Anglo-American expertise together with scriptwriter Evelyn Frazer and co-star Mark Stevens, who was dragged out of his Spanish retirement for this movie. 

So what is it about? Professor Stevens and Co-Professor Koch develop a cryo-longevity procedure that is ripe to be tested on humans. The head of the institute is all for it, but the head of the university is all against it. To prevent them from illegally conducting the human experiments, it is decided that Stevens should work on other programs abroad. Which is a shame, as he is secretly in love with Marianne, and she secretly feels the same for him - but they never get together, as Stevens is happily married to the journalist Delphi Lawrence. She, however, has an affair with a crime newspaper columnist, is a severe alcoholic, and is nevertheless pathologically jealous of Marianne.One day she just drinks too much, dresses up in a breathtakingly risqué outfit, and visits an exotic bar with her boyfriend. Later, in his flat, she is unable to stand straight but finds a loaded gun while searching for booze. She takes the gun...

... and turns up at Marianne's workplace (they work 24/7 there!) to make her "talk". Stevens intervenes and bluntly throws her over his shoulder and brings her home. There he finds the gun, empties the magazine, but is not aware that there is still a bullet left in the chamber. He leaves, as he has decided to put himself through the experiment, as this is the last time he and Marianne can work together.

While Stevens is in cryosleep, the journalist boyfriend (who happens to be the nephew of the head of Scotland Yard) arrives at the wife's bedroom looking for the gun. The next day, the wife is found dead with a gunshot wound.

Police turn up and are pretty sure that it was Stevens as - well - they did have a big fight the evening before. But he is in the freezing device, controlled by Marianne. She now has to wake him up to face a certain death sentence or simply let him die, and as more and more information on the death of the wife is delivered to the laboratory - where the police are waiting- things twist and turn, and Marianne has to face some serious revisions of her decisions. 

This is by far the best and most captivating part of the movie, but it really comes out of nowhere. Koch's acting here is superb, and you can already see why she dropped out of acting, studied medicine, and became quite a successful doctor. She is clearly in her element, and basically the whole last half of the movie centers around her  - as the whole first part centers around Delphi Lawrence. The men here are merely props - it is the dynamic of both actresses that makes this movie - strangely - work. If you accept that this is much more a drama than a crime story.

This is a strange attempt to make a female-centered Krimi, which is a paradox, and that is what is so appealing about this movie.

Furthermore, the camerawork is very nice, as expected. Production is taken on by CCC, their subdivision ALFA, and the German-Spanish-London money-laundering production unit of CREOLE-Film. It looks like this movie was to be made by CCC LONDON but then was transferred to Germany when that enterprise folded. Everything about the script tells you Britain, but everything (except for one car) screams GERMANY. There was no effort made to cover the German-language signs, etc.

If you want to go for the odd one out, which strangely features not much sensationalism (although the plot-elements do beg for it), it is for you as it is well crafted, but pretty undeveloped. Knowles would re-use the Cryosleep in 1965's SPACEFLIGHT IC-1. To our knowledge these are the first movies to depict scientific cryosleep and suspended animation (as opposed to THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD or BUCK ROGERS). But that should be researched. Apropos research, the depiction of the less-than-noble dealings and wrestlings among the university staff is pretty accurate and is a recurring theme within the movie.

Pidax has put out a fine scan on their DVD.