Although this early West German Edgar Wallace "krimi" is called "The Squeaker" for some reason, it's actually about another colorful shadowy Wallace supervillian called "the Snake", who uses venom milked from deadly cobras in the city zoo to paralyze and kill his enemies and and anyone else who gets in his way. Klaus Kinski plays his henchman, a creepy zoo worker and the obvious but more minor villain. The Snake himself, however, could be any number of people from the colorful cast including a classical musician and society matron who drinks straight whisky for tea time, her lovely young niece, the niece's fiancée, the owner of the zoo, or perhaps even one of several police officers investigating the bizarre murders.
This movie has a few effectively creepy scenes, some good comic relief, and an effective ending. Still it doesn't compare in my mind to the classics of the krimi genre like "Dead Eyes of London", nor even to slightly less well-regarded entries like "The Mad Executioners", "The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle" and "The College Girl Murders". It was directed by Alfred Vohrer who also directed "Dead Eyes" and two of the three films just mentioned, but I wouldn't rank it among his best work. It does feature an early appearance by the late enfante terrible German actor Klaus Kinski (who would no doubt dismiss it as another "piece of sh*t", but, of course, he said that about ALL his films). Strangely, it doesn't feature Joachim Fuchsberger, who was in even in more of these films than Kinski. It does have the go-to "comic relief" actor Eddie Arentt, but frankly Inge Langen is a lot more funny as the elderly, whisky-swigging society matron.
This movie is somewhat overrated in my opinion, but definitely worth seeing if you like the krimi genre.
