Haunting folktale about a young woman (Sybille Schmitz) who takes on the job of village ferryman and spars with Death when he boards her scow in search of her lover. Expressionistic set-pieces give the film a fable-like quality and include the girl's dance with Death at a village Oktoberfest and her trek through the murky swamp at night with the Grim Reaper close behind.
The director, Frank Wysbar (later Wisbar) fled the Nazis in 1939 and re- located to America where he carved out a minor career on Poverty Row before returning to Germany in the mid-1950s. He re-told this tale in Hollywood as STRANGLER OF THE SWAMP for PRC in 1946 but the enigmatic Sybille Schmitz saw her career go into decline after the war and her sordid story provided the basis for Rainer Warner Fassbinder's VERONIKA VOSS.
