release title: Chamber of Horrors). Pathe (British), 1940. Banks, Lilli Palmer. Directed by Norman Lee. Based on the 1926 novel. Weekend guests at a country house are involved in an attempt to steal a jewel inheritance.

The Case of the Frightened Lady (U.S. title: The Frightened Lady). Pennant (British), 1940. Marius Goring, Penelope Dudley Ward, Helen Haye. Directed by George King. Based on The Frightened Lady (1932; U.S. title: The Case of the Frightened Lady). Neurotic young Lord Lebanon (Goring) is heard playing the piano wildly as stranglings occur at Mark’s Priory.

During the war decade, Wallace received less attention, and there was only one important adaptation during the 1950s.

The Ringer. London (British), 1952. Herbert Lom, Donald Wolfit, Mai Zetterling, Gynt. Directed by Guy Hamilton. The Ringer, a master of disguises, will not allow a police cordon to keep him from his vengeance.

In 1959 Germany began a series of Wallace adaptations that became that nation’s most popular screen entertainment; in fact, for more than a decade, there was a “Wallace mania.” The films are all similar, and familiar- a stock reservoir of players, sets, and even plot elements only slightly rearranged in an endless succession of films. Initially, they remained close to the novels from which they were drawn (including the most faithful Green Archer ever filmed, in 1961), but the scenarios soon became heavy and distorted; after almost a hundred films, the specific Wallace inspiration is difficult to detect. These films were produced by Berlin’s Rialto, mostly directed by Alfred Vohrer and Harald Reinl (who also specialized in the Dr. Mabuse series of the same period). Joachim Fuchsberger is a recurring hero (often as Scotland Yard’s Inspector Higgins, with Siegfried Schuerenberg as his superior, Sir John), and he is frequently photographed in actual London locations. Klaus Kinski is the perennial neurotic suspect-victim-comedy foil.

Among the very best German films are The Fellowship of the Frog (1960), in which Graham Greene’s Harry Lime is used (unseen); The Terrible People (1960), a somewhat altered version in which the executed criminal returns but the original ending is changed; Forger of London (1961), in which a young aristocrat fears that during an amnesia period he became a counterfeiter; the brooding Inn on the River (1962), in which a harpoon is the instrument in several murders alongside the Thames; Curse of the Yellow Snake (1963), Wallace’s tribute to Fu Manchu (see Fu Manchu, Dr.); The Indian Scarf (1963), a wild mix of The Frightened Lady (the title refers to the strangler’s tool) and an “and-then-there-were-none” theme; and The Black Abbot (1963), with its eerie castle setting. The Wallace film craze continued with only slightly lessened vigor into the 1970s, with such blood-curdling titles as The Mad Executioner, The Phantom of Soho, and The College Girl Murders; a voice identifying itself as Wallace chuckles macabrely under the credits of such films as Hand of Power.

In the meantime, England experienced a Wallace film resurrection of almost equal magnitude. In 1960 Jack Greenwood began producing a series of short screen adaptations, all slightly more than an hour in length, for secondary theatrical release, and ultimately for British and American television use, under the umbrella title Edgar Wallace Mystery Theater. A bust of the author revolved sinisterly in smoke under the credits. In more than forty films (a few actually the unacknowledged work of other writers, including George Baxt; see Garve, Andrew), the compact scenarios sometimes overcondensed Wallace’s complex stories, but often his characteristic twists and surprises survived the constriction. Some of the highlights of the series are listed below.

The Clue of the Twisted Candle. Anglo-Amalgamated (British), 1960. Bernard Lee (the first of several appearances as Superintendant Meredith of Scotland Yard), David Knight. Directed by Allan Davis.