The College Girl Murders

Alfred Vohrer was the flashiest director the krimi cycle had, and this is his most delirious entry. A killer in red robes murders young women, poison gas hisses out of hollowed-out bibles, and a whip-cracking figure lurks behind a courtroom, all shot in lurid Eastmancolor the earlier black-and-white entries never risked. The plot is the usual Wallace machinery of heirs and hidden villains, but the presentation is pure proto-giallo, closer to Argento than to Scotland Yard. If you want to see exactly where the German mystery becomes the Italian one, it is right here.