IN DEN KLAUEN DES GOLDENEN DRACHEN
“In the Claws of the Golden Dragon” aka SO DARLING, SO DEADLY,
AGENT JOE WALKER: OPERATION FAR EAST 1966, 90m 1s, €21.71, PAL DVD-2
Gianfranco Parolini (“Frank Kramer”) returned to direct this third entry, which is largely set in
Singapore, though the film itself was a co-pro- duction between Rome, Vienna and Belgrade, as well. While visiting Singapore, as New York po- licemen so often do, Jo and Tom are summoned by Professor Apollo, an atomic physicist “experi- menting with certain rays.” Once they reach the city, the attempts on their lives are unrelenting: their jet explodes shortly after they deplane, they are pursued from the airport by gunmen, Tom is shot at while water-skiing, and an attractive blonde (Gisela Hahn) leaves an explosive briefcase in their train compartment. Despite such intrigue, our heroes manage to meet with Apollo, which turns out to be a code-name for Professor Akron (Ernst Fritz Führbringer)—whose surname becomes “Ar- gon,” “Arkin” and even “Urquhart” in the fickle En- glish dub! He has developed something called the Eradicon Filter, a jewelled lens device that allows a laser beam to “stop the electrical circuits of any en- gine in 300 miles.” Jo and Tom are assured that, “in the wrong hands, it could cause a catastrophe.” When they press the doctor for more details, they are told “it would be better if you didn’t know too much.” The important point is that Akron has been offered a blank check by the red-hooded ringleader of the criminal sect known as The Golden Dragon in exchange for the Filter. When he determines not to sell, his daughter Sybille (Barbara Frey, who has the jewel secreted on her person) is abducted and threatened with death. Somehow, Jo and Tom manage to stumble into the Golden Dragon’s se- cret lair while prowling the city for women and frugging to an all-girl rock band. There, they dis- cover the red-hooded leader’s forces augmented by his sadistic second Shabana (Luisa Rivelli), a Fu Manchu type named Li Hu Wang (Nikola Popovic—yes, the ill-disguised villain from the first Kommissar X adventure, earning more of those Yugoslavian co-production dollars), and various female soldiers wielding whips and machine guns—evidently a Parolini fetish. Naturally, the Golden Dragon briefly gains the upper hand and proposes that “the methods of the ancient Chi- nese” be used to dispose of Rowland and Walker; just as naturally, a prominently displayed alarm
20
box capable of detonating the entire cave in three minutes also comes into play. SO DARLING, SO DEADLY is entertaining yet a minor disappointment in the wake of the previ- ous entry. Whereas the previous two films told fairly simple stories in too complicated a fashion, this one serves up a weak story in lax fashion. Though Harris and Kendall are at their most likeable, nei- ther Jo nor Tom seem particularly competent here, making even Dean Martin’s Matt Helm seem an adroit professional in contrast. Moreso than be- fore, there is a strong sense that the whole point of this adventure was to produce a thinly-veiled tourism commercial and gain the cast and crew a scenic vacation in the process, with the action set in prominent settings like Singapore’s five-starred Goodwood Park Hotel (dubbed as the “Goodwill Hotel,” which sends quite a different message) and exotic Tiger Balm Garden (now the Har Pa Villa Dragon World). Once again, Brad Harris is cred- ited with the film’s action choreography, but he was either less inspired this time or encountered more resistance to his ideas from Parolini; lots of karate chops and punches are thrown, and things blow up, but there isn’t an excitingly staged fight in the entire picture. The special effects, credited to pyrotechnician Richard Richtsfeld, are quite good. When you press “Play” on this disc, it leads to two pages of text in German, which I presume explains why parts of this film are in scratchier- looking shape than the rest of it. (Missing parts of the German release were evidently supplied from a worn English print.) The 2.35:1 image is mostly excellent and the 2.0 mono sound quality is quite good, with the same Titra voice artists present and accounted-for in English, and the dubbing job generally more satisfactory in German, given its superior mastery of foley and other sound effects. The extras include German and Italian trailers (3m 31s, identical and containing alternate shots and unused scenes), a 47-screen Parolini filmog- raphy, and separate options for the pressbook, film-programme and poster galleries.
KOMMISSAR X: DREI GRÜNE HUNDE
“Kommissar X: Three Green Hounds” aka KILL ME GENTLY, DEATH TRIP 1967, 88m 40s, €24.90, PAL DVD-2
The first three Kommissar X films were made virtually back-to-back and released in Germany in
quick succession between March and September 1966. The fourth, DEATH TRIP, followed in April
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116