The Squeaker

The Squeaker is a 1963 West German-French crime film directed by Alfred Vohrer and starring Heinz Drache. It was part of a very successful series of German films based on the writings of Edgar Wallace and adapted from the 1927 novel of the same name. Plot Both Scotland Yard and the criminal community of London are trying to discover the identity of "the Squealer". This mysterious fence forces criminals to sell him their wares for a pittance. When some object, he "squeals" to the police. Those who oppose him are ruthlessly killed, preferably by means of the poison of the Black Mamba. Inspector Elford of Scotland Yard investigates and he has plenty of suspects. The trail leads to the strange Mr. Sutton, owner of a zoological store that also carries predators and poisonous snakes. During his investigation, Elford meets Mrs. Mulford, an older lady who tries to help ex-convicts, and Beryl, her niece, who writes crime stories and works as a court reporter. Inspector Elford discovers a similarity between the typeset of a machine also used by Sutton and letters written by the Squealer. To make Sutton confess, he is tricked by Mrs. Mulford in cooperation with the police into drinking what he believes to be poisoned tea. Cast Production The Squeaker was the 12th of a very successful series of German films made in the late 1950s and 1960s by producer Horst Wendlandt for Rialto Film. This particular installment was co-produced by French company 'Les Films Jaques Willemetz'. The script was adapted by Harald G. Petersson from the 1927 novel The Squeaker or The Sign Of the Leopard (The Squealer in the US). Earlier film versions had been made in 1930 (United Kingdom) and directed by Edgar Wallace himself, 1931 (Germany) and 1937 (again United Kingdom). In 1961, an initial treatment had been written by Egon Eis who had earlier also worked on the script for the 1931 film made in Germany. However, he did not want to copy his own work and refused to do the final script for the new film. Petersson, who so far had only reworked scripts for Rialto, was now tasked with writing an entire script for the first time. His script was much more terse than the novel and it found the approval of producer Wendlandt.