The Black Abbot
The Black Abbot is a 1963 film from France and West Germany, directed by Franz Josef Gottlieb, running 89 minutes. reelscum files it under krimi.
- Year
- 1963 · 1960s films
- Country
- France · West Germany
- Runtime
- 89 min
- Director
- Franz Josef Gottlieb
- Updated
- 10 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (51/100)
Defined in the glossary: Krimi
The standard-issue Wallace krimi. Hood, abbey, inheritance, fog.
A textbook Edgar Wallace krimi: a hooded figure haunts a country estate where a hidden fortune and a tangled inheritance have everyone suspicious of everyone else. Fog, secret passages, a comic-relief butler and Scotland Yard all feature, shot in the crisp black-and-white the German cycle favoured.
It is a fine representative of the form, twisty and atmospheric in a studio-bound England that never existed. The masked-killer-and-inheritance formula is exactly the one the Italian giallo would soon inherit and intensify.
A solid entry point to a cycle that shaped more than it gets credit for.
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Where to watch
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On these lists
- Krimi: the German pulp thrillers
West Germany filmed most of Edgar Wallace in fog, with a hooded killer and a wildly overqualified cast. Comfort food with a body count.
Filed alongside
The Sinister Monk
A whip-wielding monk killing heiresses. Closest the krimi got to giallo.
The Inn on the River
The Rialto Wallace machine at full tilt: fog, a harpoon and Klaus Kinski looking guilty.
The Dead Eyes of London
Blind killers, insurance fraud, and the best fog in the series.
The Creature with the Blue Hand
Kinski playing both twins and a killer's claw that snaps shut like a bear trap. The krimi going out swinging.
The Fellowship of the Frog
The first Rialto Wallace krimi, and the reason the other thirty exist.
The Indian Scarf
Ten heirs in a Scottish castle, strangled one at a time. Kinski included.
The College Girl Murders
The point where the black-and-white krimi tips over into full-colour giallo delirium.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much
The one usually called the first giallo. Still half a krimi.