Tag Archives: Klaus Kinski

Shadows and Fog: The Forgotten History of the German Edgar Wallace Krimi

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Dead Eyes of London

Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies – London

Instructor: Jim Harper

Date: 12 November 2015

Time: 7-10pm

Venue: Horse Hospital

Address: Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1JD

Prices: £10 advance / £8 concs / £11 on the door

Miskatonic website

Between 1959 and the early 1970s, German film companies released more than fifty low-budget crime thrillers inspired by the works of British writer Edgar Wallace. Featuring some of Europe’s most well-known cult and horror actors (including Christopher Lee, Klaus Kinski and Gert Fröbe) the Edgar Wallace krimi combined fast-paced action, surprising violence and zany humour. Sold en masse to US television and shown in an edited and badly dubbed form, these films have rarely received the attention they deserve. Jim Harper explores the background and history of the Wallace krimi, from their beginnings to their long-term influence in Germany and beyond, discussing the charm and appeal of these quintessential European cult favourites.

About the instructor:

JIM HARPER is a writer and film critic specializing in cult cinema from around the globe. He is the author of Legacy of Blood: A Comprehensive Guide to Slasher Movies (Headpress, 2004) and Flowers from Hell: The Modern Japanese Horror Film (Noir, 2008). His work has appeared in many publications and websites, including Midnight Eye, MYM, Electric Sheep, Necronomicon, V-Cinema, Deranged, Alternative and Scream, and he has contributed to Intellect’s ground-breaking Directory of World Cinema series, writing for the Spanish and Japanese volumes. Currently Harper is working on a revised and updated edition of Flowers from Hell, and preparing the first English-language book about the German Edgar Wallace films of the 1960s.

About the Miskatonic Institute:

Named for the fictional university in H.P. Lovecraft’s literary mythos, The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies is a non-profit, community-based organization that started in Canada, founded by Kier-La Janisse in March of 2010. The school currently has branches in Montreal and London, with Miskatonic London operating under the co-direction of Kier-La Janisse and Electric Sheep Founder/Editor Virginie Sélavy.

All classes take place at the historic Horse Hospital, the heart of the city’s underground culture. Individual class tickets are £10 advance / £11 on the door / £8 concessions and will be available 30 days in advance of each class.

The last course date of the autumn semester is 10 December. For the full details of the course please check the Miskatonic website. For all enquiries, please email Miskatonic.london[at]gmail.com.

Electric Sheep Film Club: For a Few Dollars More

For a Few Dollars More

Date: Wednesday 9 June

Time: 8:15pm

Venue: Prince Charles Cinema, London

Price: £6.50/£4.00 Prince Charles members

Certificate: 15

Dir: Sergio Leone, Italy, 1965, 126 min

Prince Charles Cinema website

WEDNESDAY 9 JUNE, Prince Charles Cinema 8:15pm : FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE

In Sergio Leone’s masterful follow-up to A Fistful of Dollars, Clint Eastwood is a laconic money-driven bounty hunter who forms an uneasy partnership with Lee Van Cleef’s justice-seeking Colonel Mortimer as they pursue Gian Maria Volonté’s deranged, psychotic bandit. Add Klaus Kinski to that already phenomenal cast, and you have one hell of a movie, with Leone’s cynical world view, sadistically inventive violence, black humour and epic grandeur enriched by Ennio Morricone’s lush score. This one absolutely has to be seen on the big screen to appreciate its full splendour!

Guest speaker: Comic artists Tim Keable and Andrew Cheverton, creators of the ongoing West series, are no longer able to attend the screening but we are very pleased to welcome Ian Rakoff, screenwriter, film editor, comic book collector, author of Inside The Prisoner: Radical Television and Film in the 1960s, and writer of the Western episode of Patrick McGoohan’s TV series The Prisoner, who will introduce the screening with a discussion of Westerns with Electric Sheep’s Alex Fitch.

FILM WRITING COMPETITION:
Film students and aspiring film writers are invited to enter our film writing competition: write a 200-word review of For a Few Dollars More and send it to ladyvengeance [at] electricsheepmagazine.com, marked ‘Film writing competition’ in the subject line. Howard Hughes, author of Spaghetti Westerns (Kamera Books), a well-researched, detailed analysis of the genre illustrated with rare colour posters and stills, will select the best review. Deadline: Thursday 24 June. The selected review will be published on the Electric Sheep website in July. Read the April winning review of Battle Royale.

Next screening: WEDNESDAY 14 JULY: Blaxploitation classic Foxy Brown!

Electric Sheep Magazine Autumn 09


‘Ther’s tha devil movin’ in my blood’. The autumn 09 issue of Electric Sheep looks at religious extremes on film from Christic masochism to satanic cruelty. The extraordinary White Lightnin’ explores the Old Testament world of demented mountain dancer Jesco White while Klaus Kinski disastrously reinterprets the New Testament in Jesus Christ Saviour – and subversives Alejandro Jodorowsky and Kenneth Anger dynamite divine myths.

The magazine is no longer available and we are no longer published by Wallflower Press.

Also in this issue: Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Raindance 09, political animation, and louche mariachi rockabilly Dan Sartain picks his top films!