Brad Harris’ daring stunt choreography makes DEATH BE NIMBLE, DEATH BE QUICK the most exciting of the KOMMISSAR X films.
Beckmann) and his secretary Babs Lincoln (REPTILICUS’ Ann Smyrner) are abducted outside the US Embassy, Babs managing to make her escape. She is the sister of Jefferson Lincoln, a Florida land owner recently threatened with the ecological destruction of his island property un- less he paid a protection fee of $1,000,000. The blackmailer was Dr. Flynn, booted out of the medi- cal profession after discovering a virulent form of bacteria capable of destroying all human and bo- tanical life on contact—he’s revealed to be the Three Golden Cats’ gangleader when Jo has a near-miss with this bacteria spritzing out of his hotel shower head! (It goes to work instead on a would- be attacker who, as in the pre-credits scene of GOLDFINGER, jumps Jo from behind and gets flung into the tub.) Which of the film’s supporting characters is actually Dr. Flynn in disguise? In time, Babs and the sexy hotelier Michèle (Michèle Mahaut) are abducted to Flynn’s impressive labo- ratory lair whose desolated, bacteria-rotted sur- roundings, in another nod to DR. NO, are said to be protected by a deadly “dragon,” which turns out to be an armed, motor-driven sea vessel. Un- der the name Rolf Zehett, director Zehetgruber turns up in the role of Barrett.
The main titles unfold over scenes of exciting Indonesian pageantry and spectacle—all dancers, percussionists and elephants—recalling the docu- mentary-like exoticism of such contemporary pro- ductions as TARZAN GOES TO INDIA (1962).
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Kendall’s approach to Jo Walker has by now been completely streamlined—the hat is gone, he’s no longer trying so hard, he’s not such a meatball, but he still doesn’t quite succeed in being the hero of his own movie. He’s outdone in every way by the film’s credited action choreographers: Brad Harris and Dan Vadis, another former Hercules, who participate in a few memorable action scenes, including an extended, truly death-defying chase sequence across the rooftops of a seaside hotel that involves them running, climbing, fighting and eventually leaping off the roof onto nearby palm trees that bend under their weight, lowering them safely to the ground. This outstanding sequence was filmed without trick photography, nets or any other security measures other than the actors’ own sense of caution with themselves and one another. It’s hard to imagine that any production would al- low their stars to endanger their lives to such an extent, or that any actors would put so much at risk for a fairly minor programmer, but Harris and Vadis did and the results are sensational—as is a dramatically filmed duel-to-the-death finale shot on a fabulous interior set in Hong Kong. Perhaps it’s not fair to judge DEATH BE
NIMBLE or its plot on the basis of its English soundtrack, but the English version feels need- lessly overcomplicated by the addition of a red herring, Dawson (THE BLOOD ROSE’s Philippe Lemaire), an ill-fated associate of the gang—who feels gratuitously added to a finished script to
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