Der tödliche Schatten des Mr. Shatter

Shatter, an international contract killer, has been assigned to assassinate the President of a small African country and collect his fee from a bank in the Far East. On arrival in Hong Kong his life is threatened and when the bank denies all knowledge of payment arrangements, he realises he has been drawn into a dangerous game where there are no rules. Amongst the players are the Mafia and several foreign intelligence services and the stakes being played for are deadly.

Stuart Whitman as hitman Shatter looks suitably shattered and world weary. He does a fine job in a film that isn't a James Bond-style film. It's more of a gritty action thriller that benefits from aforementioned Whitman's presence, Peter Cushing ( who can make anything good), Hong Kong location, and Ti Lung's fighting. A lot of kung fu fighters lack Bruce Lee's brand of to-the-point, bone-crushing speed and dynamically charged school of hard knocks, but Ti Lung achieves this to a certain degree. I was impressed. Without the kung fu fighting and other attractions I had mentioned, it can be rather dull, lacks spark and muddled; it isn't great, but just ok.

An African dictator is assasinated by a secret serviceman unbeknownst that he was hired by a mob rather than his government. He goes to Hong Kong to collect his fee and finds that the mob, his own government, and the African nation are all after him. Stuart Whitman plays the very tired looking Mr. Shatter. He looks like Jack Riley playing Mr. Carlin on the Bob Newhart Show! He meets up with a couple kung fu fighters, one a young man who is the best fighter in Asia and the other a young girl who falls in love with Whitman's lack of charm and exhausted looks. The film has some great fight scenes and the young kung fu expert Lung Ti is an exceptional martial arts expert. Despite the film's obvious flaws, it is a pretty good action-thriller. The acting takes a back seat to the martial arts and the great scenery of a bustling Hong Kong. Peter Cushing has a small role as a British secret service agent and his cameo is the best thing in the film. The role gives Cushing a great part as a rather sadistic, sharp-tounged man with a great sense of ironic humour. He chews his lines with obvious relish(must have been happy he got the free trip to Hong Kong when he heard he was going to be billed below Stuart Whitman in a film named Shatter!). Whitman is also bested by Anton Diffring as the banker for the mob and Whitman's chief nemesis. Diffring had a way playing men of low moral character. Hammer worked with the Shaw Brothers(they produced numerous martial arts films) and came out with a pretty entertaining film. Though not nearly as exciting or innovative as The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, Shatter still delivers some punch...and flying feet!

Part of a three film deal (only two pictures were actually made -- the other being LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES), SHATTER was intended as a copy of the hip actioners being made in the U.S. Unfortunately, much of the film involves the title character hiding out from pursuers, as he tries to sort out a killing he'd been contracted to provide, but which he'd been undercut on and set up as the fall guy for. In the meantime, the guilty parties and others are on the hunt for Shatter, and he can't be certain of his few allies.

Peter Cushing's final Hammer role, as a cynical intelligence operative who refuses to help Shatter and may have an undisclosed agenda of his own.

Very minor material and only for Cushing completists.

Hammer helped define the gothic vampire genre, for which we should be thankful, but they also found need to dabble in other fields with mixed results. Shatter did not have the most inspired mixture and doesn't stand the test of time very well. Perpetually grouchy killer for hire Stuart Whitman fails goes to Hong Kong where he fails to collect from disreputable banker Anton Diffring. Corrupt government official Peter Cushing has his men beat the pulp out of Whitman, who stumbles off to a massage parlor where kung fu master Lung Ti treats him to a freebie from adorable Li-Li Li (whose name sounds like the refrain to a doo-wop song). Whitman finds his apartment blown up so he takes refuge at his new friends' dojo. He slips underground for a while but gets attacked at a martial arts invitational won by understated Ti. Without questioning the moral validity of his instincts, they help him in his quest to extort a mil from Diffring. International affairs gets somewhat sticky from here, and the bullets fly freely until the predictable climax. Carreras tries his best to present Whitman as a then-prevalent philosopher killer, but the weak introspective sequences that show Whitman roaming around his apartment fail to do the trick. The apparently sensitive regret he feels for his victims comes off as a brooding doom with little real emotion backing it up. Shatter's intolerance for international culture makes a few unexpected peeps from its veneer of acceptance. Snooty references to eating snakes evidence a discomfort with the behavior of a foreign country. The background story sets this attitude in stone: Whitman's being tracked down for getting involved with political affairs in Badawi, a corrupt puppet country in Africa in which brothers contentedly murder brothers for money and power. Such situations may perhaps at time truly occur, but the same can be found in Shakespeare with less disapproval asked of the audience. The degree of acceptance present can be seen as a sense of tragedy, completely disconnected with the random slaying of evil black or Asian characters. I don't mean to push the point, but I found it odd that both major black characters were played no-name Yemi Ajibade in an otherwise internationally well-known cast. Cult director Monte Hellman apparently assisted Carreras, far more experienced as a producer, but did not receive credit. Writer Don Houghton produced the other Shaw/Hammer co-production, The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires and also takes credit for the awful but amusing Dracula AD 1972. Scenes allegedly shot in Badawi, a country that does not exist, were probably done in Hong Kong.

Kicking, shooting and beating aplenty in this Hammer/Shaw Brothers co-production starring Whitman as a hitman with a conscience. Not much here you haven't seen before, but Whitman is OK, the music is kinda funky and, while he doesn't have much screen time, it's always great to see Peter Cushing.