Georgia (Ellen Muth) is 18 years old and a school drop-out. Her mother has had it with her lazy child and kicks her out of bed for her first day of work. It’s a horrible filing job, the result of Georgia’s sarcasm against Dolores Herbig of the temp office. That’s not the worst part of the job… the lunch hour only lasts 35 minutes and during her lunch break Georgia is hit by a toilet seat that came loose off the space station MIR. Georgia is instantly killed, but that’s not the end of her. It turns out there’s such a thing as Grim Reapers, whose job it is to touch those about to die. The gang of four is led by Rube (Mandy Patinkin), the calm leader who insists the Reapers have breakfast as Der Waffle House. This is where everyone gets their post-it notes, containing the name of the nearly deceased, the place and estimated time of death.

Readers of my site will probably know I reserved 30 seats for films that - in my opinion, at least - got fewer attention than deserved. This section I've called the Kurtodrome Vault and it's time to open the vault once more, this time to put a comedy in. Not the sort of genre that dominates the vault, but rest assured, The Anniversary is not out of place here. For here we have one of the most vicious comedies I've ever seen.

Actually, to call it a comedy seems to do the film injustice. Most of the characters are either deeply flawed or vile, or maybe both. The film opens quite normally, three brothers work in a construction business and, all of a sudden and completely unannounced, a girl pops up, asks for Tom (the youngest of the brothers), claims she's engaged to him and before the other brothers can adjust to what's happened, the girl called Shirley and Tom drive off, leaving the house unfinished.

But in the sixth minute of the film, The Anniversary shows its true colours for the first time. Shirley, who's arrived with Tom at mother's house, visits the hothouse, admires the caged bird, who promptly falls dead on the ground. Welcome to mother's house, you're just in time for the anniversary.

Synopsis? Well here it goes: “Beauty & Fame has a price. Soraya is a young trainee nurse who is starting to feel dissatisfied by her mediocre and unremarkable life. A chance introduction to the world of glamour piques her earlier ambition to be a star. She does not succeed at first. But then she is told the forbidden practice of Susuk can help. She has to make a choice then whether to remain the way she is or cross the line into forbidden sins to realize her dreams.”

Naturally… as soon as it arrived in my mailbox, I just had to give it a watch and share my impressions with all you here at the ol’ Litterbox, o’ Gentle Visitors. As always, such a find carries with it certain expectations…. and this time is no different. But will I luck out and score a true gem, or be disappointed by a film that just doesn’t reach for those lofty levels of horror goodness?

Only one real way to find out… and that’s right, time to give it a look, so what are you waitin’ for? It’s time to “Read On!”

Today, as my final entry for German Week, DV serves you Die Mörder Sind Unter Uns. It was either that, or one of a handful of other classics I could think of. Lotte Reiniger's animation classic Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed is one I'll save for a later day, Gert Fröbe (you know, Goldfinger) was also a good choice – preferrably Es geschah am hellichten Tag, a German classic which was later remade as The Pledge (starring Jack Nicholson). As is so often the case, the remake couldn't stand up to the original.

All good choices, but Die Mörder sind unter uns (literally “The Murderers are among us”) has a little extra, not in the least its readily availability on DVD (it's out on Region 2 as well as Region 1). It also tackles post-war Germany, something we haven't mentioned in this week's reviews – apart from a brief mention with Goodbye, Lenin (in which a mother from Eastern Germany wakes up after several years of coma and can't be exposed to severe shocks, which may be somewhat difficult given that the Berlin Wall has been demolished).Die Mörder sind unter uns is also tied with history, the film was made in 1946 and is officially the first post-war movie. In the background of the action, you can actually see the city of Berlin in ruins. Die Mörder sind under uns lives on a rare edge between reality and fiction.

Forget about the "spaghetti western" (Ennio Morricone never liked the term anyway), no European country loves western more than Germany. Pretty odd for a country that never really made westerns... what Germany did do was reinventing stories of existing westerns. Because of the success of Django, the Germans were quick to rename every Italian western "Django", whether a character called Django was present or not.

The most interesting film here is Preparati la bara, a western starring Terence Hill. This film is released in Germany under two titles: one is an intact version which is called Django und die Bande der Gehenkten, the other version is cut to pieces and seems to have been made later. By this time, Hill had become famous for the movies in which he co-starred with Bud Spencer,which is why Hill's character occasionally wonders where "the fat one" would be hanging out. Spencer, you may have guessed, had nothing to do with this film. Preparati la bara was re-edited, not only cutting the violence out but also adding extra comedy bits.

And so the Germans managed to make two new films out of existing footage...watch Django und die Bande der Gehenkten by all means, but if you ever spot Joe, der Galgenvogel stay away from this re-edited monstrosity.