Corinna witnesses how three guys chase and shoot a man in front of her lonesome house. As only witness, they force her to come with them and care for the guy's wound. But she manages to flee shortly after and takes Blondi to a doctor. He tells her his story, how he used to smuggle drugs, but one day fled with a suitcase full of money. Corinna inexplicably falls in love with him and decides to accompany him on his further flight. But the villains are close behind them.
Reviews
"Das Amulett des Todes" is a West German film from 1975, so this one is already over 40 years old. It was made by Ralf Gregan and Günter Vaessen and it is one of Dutch actor Rutger Hauer's rare journeys into the world of German cinema. The two people I mentioned already are German and same can be said about pretty much the entire cast, such as female lead actress Vera Tschechowa and the eternal Sedlmayr. The film is fairly short, only runs for 80 minutes and the story is as follows. A man get violated by a bunch of crooks and a woman is watching. The men see her and take her hostage, but she manages to flee with the injured and from that moment on, a love relationship grows and they are always trying to get away from the bad guys and when they can't then Hauer's character fights them (sometimes they appear completely out of nowhere) with all he has, while Tschechowa's is usually tied up somewhere crying and being very scared. In theory, I like films with simple plot lines, so I believe this could have turned out a decent movie. But it did not. The plot was pretty ridiculous at times and Tschechowa is the perfect example here of how stereotypically bad female character were written around that time. Not even Hauer can save this film. It's bad through and through and there are very few solid moments only. 4/10 was still really generous here. I do not recommend the watch and I was pretty glad this was over so quickly. At best, a guilty pleasure, but not even as something like that it delivers.
OK, I've read the other reviews for this film (there's eight on this board as I write mine), and no one brought up the way this thing ended. I got the impression that the whole story was a dream by the picture's leading lady, Vera Tschechowa. That tends to put me in a surly mood, because I hate investing my time in a flick if it's going to turn out to be a non-story. So am I missing something here? My summary line by the way, comes from the guy who owned the decrepit mansion in the woods where Cris (Rutger Hauer) and Corinna (Tschechowa) hung out while the gangsters were moving in. I didn't catch his name, so take your pick, he's either the guy who plays Franz or Man in the credits. It doesn't make much difference. You know, I wasn't fooled for a second, I knew that Boss Himmel (Horst Frank) would make a comeback after being stabbed and dumped by the side of the road earlier in the picture. The guy must have had amazing recuperative powers after taking that hit to the lung, he fought like a trooper. I guess that didn't bother him a bit, just like Cris/Blondi was none the worse for wear after having the bullet from his shoulder removed.Anyway, the film was OK for a couple of good throwaway lines, like "The sky knows no frontiers" and "A fox never sleeps, he only catnaps". Those must be German expressions I never heard before. Here's another one I just made up - Beware of empty suitcases.
Finally, after much hard work and searching, I found a Rutger Hauer movie that is worse than Beyond Justice (which co-starred Omar Sharif and Elliot Gould!). Had to dig deep, but this confused film takes the cake. It's dated, not just by the fluffy hairstyles and constant cigarette puffing, but also by the unfortunate synthesizer soundtrack. The plot, what there is of it, is hard to follow and none of the characters are particularly likable. The dubbing is distracting. The film comes across as muddy on many levels, though some of that may be due to the iffy DVD transfer. So why 3 stars? Because it has Rutger Hauer and I'll watch anything he's in. But that doesn't mean I'll watch it twice...
Cold Blood is a fair film that has a great cast including Rutger Hauer, Vera Tschechowa, Horst Frank Walter Richter, Günther Stoll, Walter Sedlmayr, Andreas Mannkopff, Anna-Maria Asmus, and Erich Kleiber. The acting by all of these actors is OK. The movie didn't get a high rating from Me here because of the lack greatness and the for the several nudity scenes from the woman. It seems like she will freely show her body on film even in the sex scene. This all brought it downhill for Me. I mean it did have a good villain and some good action but I would not recommend this film even to the hardcore fan of Haurer to watch this movie. One movie I do strongly recommend is Blind Fury! Now that was a great Rugter Hauer movie. Nevermind this film and buy Blind Fury instead!
