Secret of the Black Trunk is a 1962 German film; the first in a series of films adapted from works by mystery writer Bryan Edgar Wallace. The story follows Inspector Finch (Joachim Hansen) as he tries to solve a series of murders at a luxury hotel in the Soho district of London. The victims, all recently arrived guests of the hotel, return to their rooms to find that the killer has packed their bags. They are then murdered by a thrown knife. The lovely Susan Brown (Senta Berger) provides beautiful distraction to the complicated plot. Providing a bit of levity, Arnold Wickerley (Chris Howland), a sound collector, moves through the movie with a portable reel-to-reel tape recorder as he collects interesting sounds. During his quest to add to his sound collection, Wickerley stumbles upon one clue after another. The plot is elaborate, but director Werner Klingler does a good job of keeping everything tied together and the plot moving forward.moreless