Mr. Roberts (Jacinto San Emeterio) is a government agent who has been investigating a gang of criminals that have been pulling jobs from India to London. He has just returned from India and is in possession of top-secret files that expose the gang and their leader. Roberts is murdered when a shadowy figure rolls a ball filled with poison gas into his room. The gas is exposed when it comes in contact with the fibers in the rug. Once the gas dissipates two people enter the room and steal the evidence.
When Dr. Shipley (Antonio Casas) arrives for a meeting with Roberts, he finds him on the floor. Shipley has a serum that counteracts the poison, but it is too late to save the dying man. Police are called. Inspector Burns (Julio Infiesta) and Inspector Webster (Marco Guglielmi) investigate.
Meanwhile, Harry Raffold (Joachim Fuchsberger) and his partner Bob (Pierre Besari) are tailing a young woman, Ann Learner (Karin Dor). Ann lives with her uncle, John Millner (Roberto Rey). Harry introduces himself to Ann and gives her his card telling her to call him if she needs him. What Ann doesn’t know is that her uncle, the decryption expert, is part of the gang and has acquired the top-secret files.
In that file is the name of the ringleader, a name that no one in the gang knows. John is visited by Crayton (Werner Peters), another gang member. Crayton is there to pick up the papers and bribes John to get the name of the leader. After Crayton leaves John is killed by one of the poison balls.
Harry and Bob turn out to be secret agents. The investigation takes Harry to the Victoria Hotel which is owned by Mabel Hughes (Eleonora Rossi Drago). Also at the hotel is a man called Colonel Gregory (Carl Lange). Gregory has been following Harry. Harry knows that the Victoria Hotel has something to do with the gang. While Crayton tries to take over the criminal enterprise, Harry and Bob try to capture the gang members, find the leader, and keep Ann safe.
“The Carpet of Horrors” AKA “Der Teppich des Grauens” was released in 1962 and was directed by Harald Reinl. It is a German-Spanish-Italian crime film and a krimi. The movie is based on the book by Louis Weinert-Wilton.
In typical krimi form the movie has a bunch of suspects, red herrings, misdirection and subplots. Also, like most krimis the movie is set in Britain but filmed in Germany. One aspect that is different from most krimis is that Harry’s partner, Bob, is black. Bob is played by Pierre Besari. Besari was only in two films, this one and Paul Naschy’s “Vengeance of the Zombies” 1973.
The title is stupid and has almost nothing to do with the film. Yes, a couple people got killed with this strange method of murder but there were only a couple people killed that way. There is a subplot where wanna be crime lord, Crayton has some bad guys torture Dr. Shipley for a formula to counteract the poison, but it ends up being more of a MacGuffin. There’s also a love angle between Harry and Ann that is far from believable. Despite all that is going on the movie was actually fun to watch.