THE CARPET OF HORROR (1962)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

This film was among the earliest of the West German krimis said to have begun in 1959 with the successful film FELLOWSHIP OF THE FROG. But though CARPET was directed by Harald Reinl, who helmed FROG and a number of other krimi-films, CARPET fails to provide any solid thrills. I don't know anything about the source-material the film adapts, except that it was not authored by Edgar Wallace, whose novels of the 1920s proved very profitable for West Germany in the fifties and sixties.

In contrast to the later giallo films, many of which sported bizarre titles that were barely if ever explained to the audience, the meaning of CARPET's odd name is right up front. A unseen killer permeates a Persian carpet with a deadly chemical, exposes a victim to it, and watches as the man dies of poisoning. Eventually it will be revealed that the killer is tied to a criminal conspiracy, and that the members of the conspiracy talk to their chief through a TV screen that displays typed instructions (in German, though in theory the story takes place in Great Britain).

Having tossed out this bizarre crime for a starter, though, the script becomes preoccupied with the conspiracy's attacks on young Ann Learner (Karin Dor), a pretty young thing who, for once, has already inherited a substantial estate rather than being in line for said inheritance. Two cops, Harry (Joachim Fuchsberger) and his Black partner Bob (Pierre Besari), work to protect Ann, and whenever possible Harry puts the moves on the young woman. 

Though Reinl occasionally manages some atmospheric shots of German locations standing in for London, the script is hopelessly confused and dominated by talking head scenes. It's never very clear what the villains expect to get if they knock off Ann, and it may be that the trope of the mysterious mastermind was inserted just because that was what krimi-loving audiences expected. Sensuous Italian beauty Eleanora Rossi Drago provides some of CARPET's few thrills, both in trying to seduce Harry and getting into a brief struggle with Karin Dor's character.