With this awesome cast, locations, music and cinematography, The Black Abott should have been a winner. Too slow and talky, the ending shoot out is ridiculous even for a krimi. Our heroes chase a shotgun toting criminal and actually run at him as he fires at them. Blackie gets shot in the arm and acts like it's a splinter.

The so-called Krimi-movies based on the books by Edgar Wallace follow a very strict, yet simple and successful formula. They work with frequently returning actors and directors, and there's always minimally one character - usually a police inspector - providing comic relief. The comedy is presumably inserted because the whodunit stories of Edgar Wallace are convoluted, talkative and often requiring a fairly long time to shift into gear.

"The Black Abbott" is slightly atypical in the plotting department, though, since it's not a genuine whodunit/mystery. The story revolves around an ancient gold treasure, hidden somewhere in an eerie abbey, and everybody who unravels the mystery of where exactly it's hidden gets murdered by a killer dressed up as a monk with a black cape. The first hour of the film is overly talkative and confusing, with too many characters to tell apart and the numerous intrigues between them. It's also doesn't help that the only two female characters almost look identical. The last half hour contains a lot of action and excitement, though, and the set-pieces are deliciously grim.

A body is found on the grounds of an old abbey. In the near by manor house the administrator of the estate takes great pains to make sure that all is in order before the police are called. From there it spins out as a masked figure of an abbot begins to lurk, the financial standing of several people is called in question, treasure is sought and people die. Very good story is hampered by a lack luster presentation. The film seems more concerned with filling the screen with big screen images, unfortunately it doesn't really work. Shot in a widescreen black and white in a style that screams this should have been widescreen and color. Worse the film is so concerned with its look that the pacing becomes slack and what should have been an exciting film isn't, it never manages to generate any sense of danger needed to keep the audience on the edge of its seat. The flaw isn't fatal, the film is a good one, but in all honesty this could have been a great one if the producer and director had cared enough to realize that this is supposed to be an old dark house mystery. Worth a look if you run across it on cable but I wouldn't go beyond that (though I wish I could)