It is known by many titles — “Monster of London,” “L’Orchidée rouge” “Secret of the Red Orchid” and, in its original language — German — “Das Rätsel der roten Orchidee.”

And if this almost campy, daft and dumb crime thriller from Deutschland is remembered at all, it’s because future horror legend Christopher Lee and Werner Herzog muse Klaus Kinski were among its stars.

But a twisty German-language thriller about American gangsters battling for control of London dubbed (in this case) into English? We are…intrigued.

No, it’s not very good. But there are flashes of wit and the odd dash of style shows its face in Helmuth Ashley’s film of an Edgar Wallace pulp novel. Ashley, an Austrian cinematographer-turned-director who worked in Germany, was one of the first to film a G.K. Chesteron “Father Brown” mystery (“Das schwarze Schaf”) and cranked out thrillers based on pulp fiction, The Lindbergh Baby kidnapping and Brit traitor/spy Kim Philby in German.

He knew what he was doing, even if he lacked the light touch he seemed to be going for.

A poker game in 1960 Chicago is interrupted, St. Valentine’s Day Massacre style, with a brisk machine-gunning. Who gets away? The Minelli mobster, Kerkie (Eric Pohlmann) who planned it, and the O’Connor gang member Steve (Kinski) who smelled a rat and dodged death.

One is deported to Italy, the other flees to Europe. They both wind up in London where they try to set up shop, American Gangland style, by sending cut-and-paste threats and FORM letter extortion notes.

If you’re rich, you’re going to get a note — Lord or Sir, wealthy widow or entitled Earl. And chances are, it’s going to be hand-delivered by your manservant, the most-employable butler in all of London, the fey, foppish Parker (comic actor Eddi Arent).

Funny how Parker is hired by everybody who is about to be targeted, more than a few of them to be “hit.”

“I will stand by like the Last Mohican!” he promises, in dubbed English. You’ve got to appreciate that level of loyalty.

Scotland Yard must be summoned. Inspector Weston (Adrian Hoven) is on the case, and making eyes at one potential victim’s secretary, confidante and possible heir, Lilian (Marissa Mell

And there’s Captain Allerman (Christopher Lee), also doggedly on the case, but a lot more inclined to pack heat and pull the trigger (twirling the pistol like a gunslinger afterward) when cornered. Is he meant to be an American hounding the mobsters to London, or is he local? I couldn’t make that out.

With two American mobs angling to grab a piece of the London action, shots will be fired, some of them from submachine guns. And blood will be spilled as the heir to one of the murdered men’s fortunes (Pinkas Braun) returns from his far-off searches for exotic orchids and tries to elbow his way into the proceedings.

The movie doesn’t make as much sense as it might, but the shootouts and showdowns can be fun, and Arent’s goofy, disguise-donning butler takes a decent stab at injecting some humor into all this.

Dubbing was more commonplace in that film era, and many a European production can be viewed where the camera avoids showing the lips of characters in dialogue scenes because they were planning on dubbing their Italian, German, French or whatever picture all along.

The big bucks were in international distribution, a “sale at Cannes,” and even a limited US/UK release could put you in the black.

But here, the two biggest names from the film suffer thanks to that. Not hearing Kinski, who spoke English in later films, or Lee, who spoke five languages fluently — German among them — is a serious detriment to an English-speaking cineaste’s appreciation of “Secret of the Red Orchid.”

The two most distinct, and in Lee’s case, sonorous voices are silenced in the dubbing.

Germany has never been known for its screen comedies, but one gets the sense that Britain’s “Carry On” movies were in the back of director Ashley’s mind in terms of tone. Lee could be funny in any language, and crazy-eyed Kinski had his walking sight-gag qualities. Ashley didn’t yet know that.

But “Red Orchid” is enough of a novelty to be worth checking out, a German attempt at making a semi-comic action mystery-thriller that might find a foothold in foreign markets, just so long as you ignore that the extortion notes pieced together by the American mobsters to put the screws on their British victims are plainly written in German.

Rating: unrated, violence

Cast: Christopher Lee, Marissa Mell, Adrian Hoven, Pinkas Braun, Christiane Nielsen, Eric Pohlmann, Eddi Arent and Klaus Kinski

Credits: Directed by Helmuth Ashley, scripted by Egon Eis (writing as Trygve Larsen), based on a novel by Edgar Wallace.

Running time: 1:24