What was up with that weird bowing scene...

It is an old custom from the Germanic culture, that was used by the upper crust of society (Barons, Burgermeisters, etc...) as a form of greeting or departure instead of shaking hands. It is not a tapping of the foot, but rather the clicking of the shoe heels together, usually accomanied with a slight nod or bow of the head. In some old movies, nazi officers can be seen doing this along with the outstretched "sieg hail" arm salute, though I have no idea if the nazis actually greeted each other in this way.


Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

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I guess what I could take from that is Krogh was giving him a bit of a stare down because he know something was up and the reason there was a death was because of him...and Wolf bowing again sort of to like get him to go as quickly as he can

I think that sums it up pretty well.

I get the impression that Wolf basically likes and respects Krogh, and despite his suspicious nature, there is some mutuality on Krogh's part. But they do find themselves at odds through much of the film; once the killings begin again, Krogh suspects some involvement by Wolf, and Wolf is naturally leery about Krogh. I love the way that the tension between them is often couched in expressions of cordiality like the bow and heel click. And at this point in the story, Wolf's repetition of it at Krogh's hesitancy to leave is an elaborately polite way of communicating something along the lines of, "Well, didn't you just say you were leaving? Get lost, already!"

Admittedly, just a wordy way of repeating what you said, but I rarely miss an excuse to discuss this film, which I've loved since I was about nine.


Poe! You are...avenged!

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Here is something else unusual about that dinner scene. Benson the butler has gone missing. No one has seen him for hours. The Inspector is then informed that there has been an accident - someone has died in the village.

Surely someone at the table would have put two and two together!

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I think a simpler explanation is probably that Wolf spent so many years growing up in England that he lost touch with his native Germanic customs & culture - such as clicking the heels and bowing as a form of greeting. Remember Herr Vogel, the crochety Burgomaster from the original 1931 Frankenstein, greeting the old Baron in the same heel-clicking, stiff-bowing way? It's possible that Inspector Krogh may have regarded Wolf as a "foreigner" who had been absorbed into English culture and was simply giving him a sharp reminder of his Teutonic origins.

British by birth - English by The Grace of God

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