BlackCobra

The Black Cobra (1963)

This movie was made in West Germany and I think was an attempt at a crime drama. Honestly it is really hard to tell. The story is about a truck driver that is unknowingly transporting narcotics for a criminal gang. When the truck gets hijacked and the criminal that was riding shotgun with him is killed things get complicated. See the hijackers try and kill him, but when that fails they do everything possible to frame him for the murder. The rest of the movie is the driver, his girl friend, and their mechanic (who also happens to be a former wrestler) dodging the cops to clear his name and get revenge on the gang of hijackers.

The real problem that I had with the movie is that my brief plot synopsis is way more interesting then the movie itself is. The story will be very familiar to anyone that is a fan of the Film Noir movies of the late 40s and early 50s. This isn’t so bad, except that the execution of the story is so freaking slow. In all honestly this might be the most boring movie that I’ve ever forced myself to sit thru. We are forced to sit thru scene after scene of the characters talking about what is happening, rather than actually see it. I suppose this might be due to a lack of budget, but I’ve seen low budget movies that aren’t nearly this boring. With the exception of Klaus Kinski, who has a smaller role, the performances are completely flat. Heck even Kinski is strangely subdued!

Of course the actors and story aren’t helped by some of the worst dialogue that I’ve ever heard. It seems to me the voice actors were recording the dialogue from cards and weren’t even watching what was on screen as they recorded. At times I did chuckle at how mismatched the dialogue and the “action” on screen matched. Angry characters with totally flat emotionless voices give the movie an odd feeling. The other thing about the dubbing that I found amusing was the complete lack of ambient noise. It is strange to see characters walking around opening and closing doors without any sound! Hell there is a scene that takes place next to a busy highway with cars and truck speeding by, emergency workers walking up and down a hill and there isn’t any sound other than the dialogue. Oh and before I forget this movie has some of the strangest movie choices I’ve seen in a long time. Not that I was ever “into” the movie, but the goofy jazzy tunes just don’t match the movie at all.

If you haven’t figured out yet I’m not recommending The Black Cobra. In fact I’m recommending that you all stay far away from this one. I’m a big fan of the movies of Europe and I don’t mind a dubbed movie. Hell I’ve watched many an Italian flick that was shot without sound. So the dubbing thing normally isn’t an issue. But basically you have a really slow and boring movie that is only made that much more unpleasant by the terrible dub. It has been a while since I’ve bestowed this rating, but The Black Cobra has earned it.

0 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer