By Paul McVay, It Came From Hollywood
The Mad Executioners was produced by Central Cinema Company and released in West Germany in 1963. CCC, as it is known, was a then exclusively West German production outfit started by Holocaust survivor Artur Brauner. They specialized in drama and anti-nazi films. This was 1946, and the horrors of World War II were a little too fresh in the minds of the citizens of West Germany to produce any kind of significant box office take, so CCC shifted gears and began producing a wide range of pictures covering just about every genre. CCC’s coffers soon exploded with all kinds of deutsche marks and allowed them to successfully build and operate multiple studios in Germany and parts of Spain.
In 1963 CCC expanded into the UK with major plans to continually produce films there. Alas, The Mad Executioners was one of only two films made before CCC closed shop and shifted productions back to their established studios. The other picture was Station Six Sahara which was released stateside by Allied Artists in 1964.
There are several valid reasons given for this move and the entire CCC story is nothing less than a fascinating essential chapter in the history of motion pictures. A history I will leave up to the reader to discover for themselves. But, before I get too long-winded (I heard someone say, “Too Late”!) let me focus on the film at hand and share a little bit of why you are aware of the genre films CCC produced, but you may not know it!
The Mad Executioners is an exceptionally weird little film that might have too much going on all at once, at the very least, too much for movie audiences in the mid-1960s. There are two separate storylines going on, one involving hooded vigilantes who take the law into their own hands (and hoods) and begin trying and executing criminals without the help of, well, an actual legal system. The second storyline involves a serial killer who delights in removing the heads of young women! Not a lot of serial killer storylines happening in 1963 filmdom, so The Mad Executioners gets points for originality. Without spoiling the picture, the two storylines do converge in a surprise ending almost anyone who has seen it will agree they did not see coming! It’s not great, but it is worth a view if you haven’t seen it.
CCC faced some serious legal challenges when it released The Hangman of London (Mad Executioners original German title) in 1963. Advertising ballyhooed that the film was based on an original story by Edgar Wallace, and it was, just not THAT Edgar Wallace. Wallace’s son Bryan Edgar Wallace was the actual scribe and after court-ordered, CCC changed the ad campaign to reflect the truth. Still, this didn’t sully the film’s chances of wider distribution, and after a professional dubbing session, Paramount Pictures released the picture in the United States in 1965.
A mere blip on the screen here in the U.S. at the time of its release, The Mad Executioners seems to be one of those films everyone talks about but hardly ever actually watches. It is available on various streaming sites, and I am sure one can find some version of it on YouTube. The German version clocks in at 94 minutes, while Paramount’s version is a mere 92. What was missing in those two minutes? I’m sure I do not know. The picture seems to have everything it needed to be complete in its U.S. version. I am most confident that at least three people will educate me on the missing footage, and it may very well be available now, but it is immaterial here.
Prior to The Mad Executioners, CCC not only had some success in the horror/thriller genre but also managed to wrangle wider distribution for those movies in the United States. The moderately successful Dr. Mabuse series of films is of note.
The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960) was distributed by Associated Producers in ‘61, The Return of Dr. Mabuse (1961) came stateside in 1966 via Ajay Film Company, The John Alexander Co. dubbed up The Invisible Dr. Mabuse (1962) and The Terror of Dr. Mabuse (1962) and unleashed them both on the Americas in 1965. The Dr. Mabuse film series proved to be popular with American movie audiences because ALL the Mabuse movies secured either theatrical or television distribution, or both, before the end of the 60’s. The series continued into the mid-1970’s.
CCC was going stronger than ever in the late 60’s all through the 1970’s. Kroger Babb & Associates, American International Pictures (more than once), and several major studios routinely acquired CCC’s product for distribution in the burgeoning Drive-In Theater circuits.
Some of the modern horror classics from the 1970’s were made by CCC, and because of money-minded U.S. distributors they were quickly snapped up and given ad campaigns that are now legend. Dario Argento’s Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), Jess Franco’s Vampyros Lesbos (1971), and even Andre Farwagi’s 1978 opus Boarding School got a U.S. release from Atlantic Releasing Corporation, five years after its production in 1983. If you are an exploitation film freak who focuses on 70’s film fare, odds are CCC has played a bigger role in your love of these movies than you ever could conceive.
Are you waiting for me to detail the demise of CCC? You’ve got a long wait, Brother. Since 1946, CCC has produced over 200 motion pictures and although its production has slowed since the turn of this century, its last documented production, according to IMDb, was released in 2006.
I strongly urge those of you out there that may now be interested in the history of CCC to conduct your own research. CCC’s body of work is now more widely available than ever. I guarantee that you’ve enjoyed more than one CCC produced film in your lifetime.