Der grüne Bogenschütze (1961) User Reviews

Good Edgar Wallace adaptation is enjoyable, if a bit messy in the telling. A Good introduction to the German Wallace films of the 1960's

[dbborroughs · 7/10 · 27 January 2007]

This is an adaptation of one of Edgar Wallace's most famous stories. The plot has Valerie Howett and her family moving into a mansion somewhere in England. The estate next door belongs to Abel Bellamy (Gert Frobe), an American of questionable background. Bellamy would prefer that no one live near by, especially the Howetts. In typical Edgar Wallace fashion there are multiple seemingly parallel story lines, Scotland Yard investigating Bellamy, Valerie trying to find out what happened to her long lost mother, and the mysterious and legendary Green Archer of the title, who appears to get vengeance on enemies of his family; which all converge in the final act. The while the plot is needlessly convoluted, it keeps things interesting for its 90 minute running time (it also prevents a simple explanation of the story).

Well acted by the entire cast this is one of the better Wallace adaptations to come out of the German Wallace cycle. Gert Frobe, best known as Goldfinger, is listed last in the credits, but is probably the one character on screen the most. He gives a performance that makes you wonder why we didn't see more of him in other films. The movie moves along at a good clip with some wonderful set pieces on a ship and in a flooding basement that keeps things moving along. If there are any real complaints about the film, its the attempts at humor, especially by the television reporter that acts as a sort of Greek chorus bookend to the film. Simply put its just not funny.

If you have a desire to see a good mystery this is worth a shot. Its probably the best introduction to the Edgar Wallace series that ran in Germany all through the 1960's.

The Green Archer (1961)

[trimbolicelia · 7/10 · 29 April 2018]

Not bad early 60's black-and-white West German-made, English-dubbed Edgar Wallace thriller/mystery. A rather convoluted story which I won't go into because, though I finally understood it, it's rather too involved to go into. Needless to say the bad guys ultimately lose and the good guys win. The Sinister Cinema DVD-R is very good quality, probably the best that will ever be available. Recommended for Edgar Wallace

Green Archer

[coltras35 · 6/10 · 11 February 2023]

The country estate of American emigre Abel Bellamy (Gerd Fröbe, in fine intimidating form) is haunted by the ghost of the Green Archer, a 14th century Robin Hood type figure who terrorised the former lords of the manor. Now, with the gangster coming home on vaguely defined business and his niece Valerie (Karin Dor) arriving with her adoptive father to take up residence in the adjacent mansion, much to Bellamy's annoyance, the archer has returned. Who is he and what does he want?

An improvement over the Squeaker as it is a bit more lively, but it still a bit confusing, hard to keep up with the array of characters, and the plot veers away from the "Green Archer" and focus is on as Gert Fröbe steals the scene as a quick-tempered man - they should have stuck with the "Green Archer" plotline instead, it could have been a good castle set whodunit. Still its enjoyable enough. Karin Dor is great as the heroine. She and Frobe make that Bond connection.

Arrow back in the day

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 3 May 2016]

"Der grüne Bogenschütze" or "The Green Archer" is a German movie from 1961, so it is already 55 years old. It is another addition to the Edgar Wallace crime movie series that was produced in great quantity at this period. But not great quality sadly and this one here is another example. it is one of the earlier installments and still in black-and-white. It runs for slightly under 90 minutes as they usually do and the main antagonist in here is once again mentioned in the title. In terms of the general plot, it is very generic and basically the same like the other films. A police detective is investigating and occasionally we see some more policemen. There are so many suspects and in the center of it all is a woman who seems very closely connected to the crime, but is never a suspect. The cast includes more names than usual here: Wussow, Dor, Aren't, Völz and maybe others that you may know and I don't. But the biggest name for me here is definitely Gert Froebe, who was very prominent in crime films during that era, also in the newer Mabuse films. He was great as usual, but I personally found the crime story and everything around it so weak that not even Froebe's quality acting as usual could not save this film from becoming a disappointment. I give it a thumbs down. Don't watch.

The Green Archer misses the target

[feindlicheubernahme · 2/10 · 5 September 2023]

Look, I've been through all the colour Edgar Wallace films and now, having conquered my fear of Black & White, am watching the old ones starting from the very beginning, so I know the deal. I know they have their template which they rarely diverge from and I'm fine with that, even if some elements grate on me. But in The Green Archer the obligatory elements clashed so badly with the storyline that nothing worked.

To start with, the whole thing revolves around a woman who's been kept locked in a room, alone, for 20 years by a man who's upset that she chose his brother over him. 20 years! That's just too depressing an element for a film which is required to have broad comedy running through it and end with blissful romance.

Then, the Archer himself. We find out towards the end of the film that the Archer is none other than Valerie's thought-dead brother. He kills the bad guy and activates the mechanism to save our heroes... just to be offed by a policeman's regulation Molotov cocktail! A pretty unsatisfying fate.

At the very end, our chronically kidnappable heroine learns that her brother was actually alive the whole time, often saving her life, but now he's dead. She frowns a bit for all of a few seconds but then it's time for the legally required romantic ending so to hell with big brother, let's make doe eyes and smile seductively at our hero detective. No rush at all to see mum after 20 years (20 years!)

And speaking of our detective, what exactly has he actually done by the end of the film? Searched a lot, found nothing, tried to rescue the girl, failed and got caught, had to be rescued; searched a lot again, found nothing again, tried to rescue the girl again, failed again and got caught again, had to be rescued again. It takes a special sort of guy to achieve nothing at all and still be the hero!

So, you may be unsurprised to hear that I hated The Green Archer. I rate it as absolutely the worst of all the EW adaptations I've seen (ironically, Klausjürgen Wussow also starred in one of my absolute favourites - The Crimson Circle) and my 2 stars are only for the cast, who try their best with what they've been given to work with.