The rich Lord Lebanon is strangled with an Indian scarf in his room. His disparate family and relatives shows up in his castle for inheritance, but the lawyer Tanner informs them that the last will orders that all of them have to stay six days in the castle, and the wealth will be divided among those who are still there. One by one, the guests get strangled by someone with an Indian scarf. Mr. Tilling, an American, is initially the suspect, but later on even he is found dead. Chiko, the corpulent servant, commits suicide because he was helping in the killings, but his boss in unknown. Ross, the illegitimate son of Mr. Lebanon, is also killed. Finally, Tanner and Isla find out Mrs. Lebanon ordered the murders, so that her son Edward can get all the money. Edward, who was also strangling with the scarf, is killed by the dog that pushes him out of the window. Tanner reads the will: all the inheritance goes to Edgar Wallace.
"The Indian Scarf" is probably the funniest and most twisted of all the German films from the 60s based on the crime novels by British writer Edgar Wallace, which were for some reason popular back then in that country. Like all of these movie adaptations, there are no high expectations for them, but they enjoy cult status due to their wacky, sometimes even unintentionally comical attempts at suspense, and the black and white cinematography even helps in that aspect. The director Alfred Vorher took this to the extreme: the characters are so demented, insane, with distraught looks, weird gestures and, at the same time, dignified behavior, that the viewers are bound to get actually more chuckles than fear out of this film. The character who stands out the most is Ross, played by the eccentric Klaus Kinski: in one hilarious sequence, lawyer Tanner confronts the dozen guests sitting at the table about the Indian scarf he found after another murder: "Did anybody hear anything?" Ross, sitting underneath him and staring at Tilling sitting at the other side of the table, gives a deadpan response: "I didn't hear, but I saw someone going to that room." - "You, of course, couldn't recognize who that was." - "I could of course recognize who that was. It was Mr. Tilling!" Ross continues: "I belong as much to this family... (leans forward, looks towards right) as the Lord seduced my mother... but I still recommend we isolate this Gentleman." Upon hearing that, Mr. Tilling takes a drink from the table and splashes it into Ross' face. The whole exchange is so insane and grotesque it's as almost the authors wanted to make it as comical as possible. German comedian Otto even used numerous clips from "The Indian Scarf" to incorporate and dub it into his comedy TV show "Otto - Die Serie", which worked marvelously at times. This is trash, but when the dog chases the killer across the castle, and into the pigeon coop, it's hard not to have fun.
Grade:++
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