An early Jesús Franco film shot atmospherically in black & white by Godofredo Pacheco and with a fine jazzy soundtrack from Jess and his
Longtime collaborator frenchman Daniel White. I love Jess early 1960's films shot in black & white, as the 1961 Gritos en la Noche, The Diabolical
Dr. Z made in 1965 and this 1962 film. He made almost normal films then although with some added exploitation elements as the nude scene in
The Awful Dr. Orloff, the torture nude scene in this film and the needle torture and almost nude Estella Blain scenes in Diabolical Dr. Z.
He showed visual style and restraint in his direction, even though with some morbid moments as crazy surgery, torture and macabre murders.
No abundant use of zooms diving into muffs, no women in prisons or nymphomanic nuns or filming without scripts and based on improvisation.
Yet. Jess soon found his own unique style of filmmaking, the one most of us Hate ... and Love, and went on to become a indie filmmaking legend.

Paula Martel and Fernando Delgado

The Sadistic Baron von Klaus is a Murder Mystery about a serial killer on the loose in a small Alp town, almost as an early Giallo or perhaps
even more as a Spanish Krimi (the German Krimi movies were a sort of proto-gialli). Where this film is supposed to take place i haven't found
out as the road signs and other signs shifts between being in German and in French and it could be in an Italian northern town too.

This Italian Sinister Film DVD edition of the film could be an "alternative market" release, but it looks nice and this, and other Italian, companies
releases most often has really cool sleeves. This DVD edition has a French or Italian audiotrack but NO English subtitles (only Italian subs).
The film has got a for its time (1962) surprisingly sleazy scene in it and one wonders how Jess got that one past the censors.
The extras has an alternative opening scene in the Italian 16 mm version, a trailer and a gallery.

Story: There has been a series of murders in and around a small Alp town and the villagers has suspicions towards the Baron von Klaus
family living in a castle outside of the village (in Austria perhaps?) but the Baron Max von Klaus (Howard Vernon) has got an alibi for the
latest murder as he has been with his mistress at the village hotel, with Lida (Anne Castor) the hotel hostess.

The family is gathered at the castle when the old baroness dies, the brothers Ludwig (Hugo Blanco) with his fiancée Karine (Paula Martel)
and his older brother Max, the Baron. The dying lady whispers to Ludwig that the Baron is a sadistic murderer.
The Commissaire Borowski (Georges Rollin) investigates (unsuccessfully) and the crime reporter Karl Steiner (Fernando Delgado) is the one
to sleuth around on the right tracks and to finally crack the case.

Gogo Robins play the unlucky hotel waitress Margaret (pic above) also with name Gogo Rojo, and born in 1942 she was another Argentinian
beauty that appeared in Spanish Cult Cinema, as i.a. Mabel Karr (1934-2001) seen in The Diabolical Dr. Z.

Anne Castor, playing Lida here, would turn up as an unlucky Dutch hitch-hiker in Franco's 1965 The Diabolical Dr. Z.

The DVD presents the film in a 2.35:1 widescreen ratio and with french or italian audio