With 1963’s The Mad Executioners, we get a tale of vigilante “justice”. Though created by a West German film company, the story takes place in London.

A mysterious tribunal of masked men decides whether its subjects should live or die for their perceived crimes. This leads to a string of corpses hung in public places, a collection of dead men who committed serious crimes.

Scotland Yard Inspector John Hillier (Hansjörg Felmy) gets the assignment to stop this series of murders. This leads him down a path that indicates the “Mad Executioner” might be a member of Scotland Yard.

The nature of the efforts from the title roles adds bite to the proceedings. Given that the victims of the executioners all deserve it, we seem likely to find them less offensive than otherwise might be the case.

Indeed, some movies would paint the vigilantes as heroic. This film doesn’t follow that path, but it does paint in shades of gray.

For a while, at least. After a promising start, Executioners goes a bit stale and loses its spark.

Not that it ever turns into a bad movie, as it manages to maintain the viewer’s attention. However, after a taut first act, it tends to ramble and lose focus.

Much of this stems from the decision to involve two separate criminal endeavors as major aspects of the narrative. In addition to the titular outlaws, we also follow the pursuit of a nutbag who murders beautiful young blondes.

This ties to Inspector Hillier as well. Not only did the killer slaughter his beautiful young blonde sister, but he also dates Ann Barry (Maria Perschy), who just happens to be… a beautiful young blonde.

Gee, you don’t suppose these competing plot points will eventually intersect, do you?

Snark aside, Executioners starts to go downhill as it splits its focus. When it sticks with the title characters, it becomes interesting, but the more it pursues the alternate narrative beats, the less compelling it turns.

Really, the story just meanders and loses its way too often. The filmmaker can’t balance the two sides in a concise manner, so after that promising first act, each competes for attention and robs the other of power.

This seems like a shame, as a version of Executioners that sticks solely with the hooded “judges” feels like the way to go, especially because of the philosophical questions it raises. The film makes it clear that their subjects deserve punishment but got away with their crimes.

Does this justify the extrajudicial actions of the vigilantes? That topic could create a lively exploration.

Instead, Executioners largely ignores the intriguing discussions of this sort to favor cheap thrills instead – and cheap messy thrills at that. As noted, the first act gives us a good jolt, but the farther down the narrative path the movie goes, the more rambling and disjointed it becomes.

We still get enough substance here to keep the viewer with Executioners through its contrived and convoluted ending, but just barely. Despite some good moments, this ends up as a disappointment.

The Mad Executioners appears in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though inconsistent, the image usually satisfied.

Sharpness became an erratic factor, as a few too many soft shots materialized. These didn’t dominate, but they made the movie a bit looser than I’d prefer at times.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain seemed light and I witnessed no print flaws.

Blacks were decent but a little gray, and the image could lean somewhat too bright at times. Nothing truly problematic showed up here, but the various minor discrepancies made this a “B-“ presentation.

Don’t expect much from the mediocre LPCM monaural soundtrack of Executioners, as it showed its age. Speech leaned brittle and tinny.

Music could become somewhat shrill, while effects lacked much range and could become somewhat rough. None of this turned the audio into a bad mix given its age, but the track also didn’t exceed expectations.

Similar sonic qualities emanated from the blah LPCM monaural English dub as well. Actually, it fared worse, as it came with the same roughness that marred the German version but also seemed more flat and bland.

Some of the English dubs in this six movie “Terror in the Fog” collection boasted surprisingly good voice performances, but Executioners didn’t become one of that club. The acting tends to sound cartoony an amateurish, so the German presentation becomes the preferred way to screen the movie.

When we head to extras, we locate an audio commentary from film historians Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby. Both sit together for a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, cast and crew, genre domains, production notes and their thoughts about the film.

Rigby and Lyons offered a discussion of The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle, the movie that precedes Executioners in this “Terror” boxed set. I liked their track because the guys brought an engaging chemistry, but they didn’t deliver the world’s most informative commentary.

Their look at Executioners largely follows suit, though I think they give us a bit more production info here. In any case, Rigby and Lyons continue to give us lively and enjoyable observations.

We can view Executioners with or without an 11-minute, 12-second introduction from film historian Tim Lucas in which he gives us an overview of the project as well as cast and crew. As usual, Lucas delivers a concise take on the topics.

The disc also provides a bonus film: 1964’s The Phantom of Soho. It runs one hour, 36 minutes, three seconds and gets relegated to “bonus” territory because it comes only in a standard-def presentation.

A masked murderer starts to kill high-profile victims outside a seedy Soho nightclub., Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Hugh Patton (Dieter Borsche) works with Sergeant Hallam (Peter Vogel) to solve the mystery.

Whereas Executioners came as a disjointed affair, Soho manages a significantly tighter experience. The film focuses pretty strongly on Chief Inspector Patton’s efforts, so it plays as a fairly standard detective tale.

This benefits the film, as it follows a tight narrative course and keeps us engaged. Soho delivers an enjoyable thriller.

In terms of picture quality, Soho definitely came across with the roughness I’d expect from standard-def. However, it still looked reasonably good despite those restrictions.

Overall sharpness seemed adequate, and both blacks and contrast worked okay. Only a smattering of print flaws manifested. Nothing about the image rose above its SD origins, but it felt perfectly watchable nonetheless.

The LPCM monaural audio also seemed acceptable but not especially good. Like the mix for Executioners, it suffered from roughness and a shrill feel. Still, it was adequate given its age.

Soho enjoys its own audio commentary from film historians Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw. Both sit together for a running, screen-specific discussion of story/characters, authors Edgar Wallace and Bryan Edgar Wallace, genre areas, cast and crew, some filmmaking facts and their view of the flick.

We already heard Newman and Forshaw with The Curse of the Yellow Snake. Like the Lyons/Rigby chat about Executioners, this means their take on Soho also will come with a similar vibe to those who listened to the prior track.

Which seems fine because Newman and Forshaw deliver a positive examination of Soho. This turns into another informative commentary.

Lucas provides an introduction to Phantom as well that runs eight minutes, 45 seconds and offers another summary of production and cast/crew. Lucas makes this another good synopsis.

Bryan Edgar Wallace – An Era lasts nine minutes, 58 seconds. It provides a chat with producer Artur Brauner’s daughter Alice.

The younger Brauner discusses aspects of her father’s work and career as well as genre domains. She brings us a succinct chat.

The disc concludes with two trailers for Executioners and three for Soho.

After a promising first act, The Mad Executioners goes off the rails to a moderate degree. While it still comes with intriguing moments, it becomes too unfocused and disjointed to really satisfy. The Blu-ray offered generally positive picture, mediocre audio and a nice set of supplements bolstered by a complete bonus film. Though it comes with some charms, Executioners falters too much for my liking.

Note that as of May 2025, this Blu-ray for The Mad Executioners and The Phantom of Soho comes only as part of a six-film collection called “Terror in the Fog”. It also includes fellow West German 1960s flicks The Curse of the Yellow Snake, The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle, The Monster of London City and The Racetrack Murders.