By 1972, the krimi had given way — for the most part — to the giallo. Both offshoots of the work of author Edgar Wallace — this is an adaption of his book Secret of the Black Suitcases which had already been filmed by Werner Klinger eleven years before — with this one being about a series of killings by knife throwing, followed by the corpse having a suitcase packed for them.

Also: While set in London, this was shot in Spain and yes, it’s a Jess Franco movie. He even shows up as a knife-throwing expert with a fancy hat.

Scotland Yard Inspector Ruppert Redford (Fred Williams) is on the case, along with crime novelist Charles Barton (Horst Tappert), which leads to organized crime running mescaline through the Flamingo Club and if you thought gorgeous women and jazz weren’t going to be part of a Franco movie you really need to brush up on what he loves most.

This is the last in the long series of krimi made by CCC and seeing as how they had reached the point where they were remaking past films, they probably were ready to move on. As for Franco, he’s subdued but still figures out some interesting places to place his camera. I kind of adore the late 60s and early 70s films he made, which still have a budget and weren’t yet the same movie being remade and remixed.