Ein Sarg aus Hongkong

Released in the U.S. as "A Coffin From Hong Kong", this was one of a whole series of relatively low budget German noir/espionage/thriller type films made in the early to mid sixties. Although the scripting of these films is often trite to the point silliness, they are generally well acted, and usually set (though not filmed) someplace other than Germany, usually London or the U.S.

Rather frequently shown on late night TV in the 60's this film is better produced than most of the type. It even appears that some of the filming may actually have been done in Hong Kong. If not, the set designers did a great job. A private detective finds the limp body of Greta Chi(a Chinese/Danish actress of the 60s) in his office, shot with his own gun. Shortly afterward, an attempt is made on his own life, which causes him to travel to Hong Kong in order to duck the police and unravel a complicated mystery involving drug smuggling and secret societies.

This film is a hard one to judge. As usual, the scripting is lousy and the villains have a comic book dimension. Yet some of the more violent scenes have a clinical coldness that is rather shocking and effective. There are also some nice "historical" oddities such as push button rotary phones and a few interesting cars. Definitely worth it for fans of the genre but rather boring for others.

There is a man in the office, shooting Mrs. Jefferson dead. She brought along a coffin from Hong Kong.

Then the owner of the office arrives and finds Mrs Jefferson shot. Now there are a few open questions, but he doesn't have time to answer. There is a job to do: flying to Hong Kong, finding out more ...

Private investigator Nelson Ryan (Heinz Drache) comes home one night and discovers a lady's corpse in his living room. Since he finds that difficult to explain to the police, he just takes a job offer in Hong Kong and runs. Not a shining example for a hero, but things like that happen. Along with his assistant Bob Tooly (Ralf Wolter), Ryan tries to find out more about a mysterious man with a mask, the evil boss of a gang of drug smugglers. Also a very rich family will pay him to find out more about their son's demise. And thus the plot thickens...

One of several thrillers produced by Wolf Hartwig (with Erwin Dietrich) and filmed at Hong Kong, but probably the weakest and cheapest among them. The cast lacks co-stars like Brad Harris and Horst Frank this time. Director Köhler, who debuted with this movie, clearly is no Jürgen Roland, and the script is too straight and simple for a whodunit, I wonder why the masked villain bothered to wear a mask at all. The little Kungfu fight on top of a hill is staged so poorly that they must have hired the cheapest stunt men they could find, Hong Kong's action choreographers would cringe if they ever see that. However, filmed in color and widescreen, it is watchable if you don't expect too much.

I rate this 1964 movie a 10 because: it succeeds in everything the director tried to do. It's exciting; you often aren't sure what will happen next; there are a lot of plot twists; 1960's Hong Kong looks wonderful; it's full of local interest and life; the beautiful women aren't just beautiful, you care about them; all the actors excel. It's a detective story, not a spy thriller, but like a spy movie, you feel like you need to suspect everybody except the hero.

I read some reviews of 1960's European films like this, where the reviewers think the films have weak or insufficient action. That's not an issue in this movie! There's action all over the place! And, the lead actor, Heinz Drache--he's a cool guy. Understated, sense of humor, likeable. I saw a print of this movie, where it was all dubbed in English; Heinz had this very classy English accent, which I enjoyed! Highly recommended.