Chasse à l'homme à Ceylan

Second adventure in the KOMMISSAR-X film series

After the success of the first film with KOMMISSAR X, producer Theo Maria WERNER and his PARNASS FILM were able to start their next adventure straight away. This time we were going to Sri Lanka, which was then called Ceylon. Rudolf ZEHETGRUBER was hired as director, who would later start the popular film series with the VW Beetle DUDU.

The evil Yellow Cats gang is active in Ceylon. The gang has kidnapped Babs Lincoln (Danish actress Ann SMYRNER), the daughter of an important American. Of course, Captain Tom Rowland (Brad HARRIS) has to take action. And wherever Rowland is, the philanderer Joe Walker (Tony KENDALL) isn't far either...

In addition to the exotic setting, the film also offers good opponents for the two heroes of the series. The German actor Siegfried RAUCH (later television captain on the DREAM SHIP on the German television station ZDF) plays the villain Nitro, who - nomen est omen - specializes in nasty explosions. But an even more dangerous opponent is King (Dan VADIS), who poses a serious challenge, especially for Captain Rowland. The final fight between the two American bodybuilders Brad HARRIS and Dan VADIS is the undisputed highlight of the film. HARRIS and VADIS already knew each other as colleagues from the CINECITTA sword and sandal films and had also appeared together in GERMAN ADVENTURE FLICKS such as DIE FLUSSPIRATEN VOM MISSISSIPPI / THE RIVER PIRATES OF MISSISSIPPI (1963).

All in all, there could have been more action scenes. The sardonic dialogues are also somewhat neglected in ZEHETGRUBER. Perhaps Ilse KUBASCHEWSKI's GLORIA film distributor didn't want to expect more from cinema viewers. Be that as it may, Italian director Gianfranco PAROLINI was hired for the third adventure to provide even more action.

However, the film was quite successful at the box office: 1,485,000 visitors wanted to see the film in West Germany (source: InsideKino), 649,213 in France and 770,533 in Spain (source: Box Office Story). With an estimated ticket price of the equivalent of 1.17 EURO, not a bad box office in the three countries mentioned alone. The KOMMISSAR-X franchise had become established.

Imagine you want to make a James Bond-style film but you cannot afford to get the best actors, the best writing or the best stunts....then you would be imagining a "Kommissar X" movie. This series of movies was made by a German production company and starred an Italian guy as Agent Jo Louis Walker (Tony Kendall) and an American (body builder Brad Harris) as his sidekick, Captain Tom Rowland. The pair travel the world fighting baddies and keeping the world safe.

In "Death is Nimble, Death is Quick" ("Kommissar X-Deri Gelbe Katzen", literally, Commissar X and the Three Yellow Cats), the pair of heroes are hired to protect a rich woman from various thugs who have followed her all the way to the jungles of Ceylon (since it's been renamed Sri Lanka). They particularly want the Captain, as one of the bodyguards for the lady had been given a death blow by some martial arts expert...and the Captain is an expert in these fighting arts. He suspects a crime organization called 'The Golden Cats' is responsible.

This is a pretty ordinary adventure film and nothing makes it stand out in any way. The action is okay but after a while there is a sameness to much of the fighting and killing (aside from the poison gas in the car scene). Not bad...not very good either...a perfect example of a time-passer, though it is nice that they filmed it in Singapore. For a more interesting Bond-wannabe, I prefer the George Nader 'Jerry Cotton' films.

By the way, on one copy of this film I found on YouTube, it's dubbed into English. However, about 2/3 of the way through the film, about five minutes is in German. I have no idea why, though the movie was originally in German.

Tony Kendall and Brad Harris ride again, in the second edition of Kommissar X, this time in exotic Sri Lanka.

The camaraderie has developed, with Tony and Brad, by turns bickering and bantering, now frenemies who grudgingly respect each other's abilities. The beautiful girls are plentiful, although, as usual, Tony doesn't get any further than first base with any of them (at least on screen) and Brad is all business.

The early scenes in the film flow very nicely and set things up perfectly, re-establishing the nature of Tony and Brad's characters for those new to Commissar X, and reminding and reinforcing them for those already familiar with the boys from "Kiss, Kiss, Kill, Kill".

As usual there is plenty of great action, but about half way through the plot gets a bit too tangled for its own good. Someone tries to kidnap a rich American land owner's daughter (the Lincolns) and when that fails they threaten to destroy his land in some fashion. Either way the main thing is they want a million dollars. Tony is hired by the landowner and Brad is there to investigate the death of an American embassy guy (Baker) who was killed in the kidnap attempt.

There's a mysterious secret society called the "Three Golden Cats" involved, a nephew who's playing both sides (Dawson), a police chief who may or may not be under their evil influence (Khamar), a woman who wants revenge for her sister's death (Michelle), a friend of hers (Champa), another landowner who has left the country (Farrell?) and just for good measure, yet another local landowner (Barrett) who owns a menagerie of animals. It all becomes rather difficult to keep track of.

In the end, it turns out there is also a mad scientist (Dr Flynn) involved, who is working on a deadly bacteria that even the Americans are not interested in developing further, so he has teamed up with the "Three Golden Cats" to extort some funding from his neighbours. The deadly bacteria is a bit of a McGuffin and never forms a significant part of the story, it's all about grabbing the million bucks.

As far as the villains go, the henchmen are really the stars of the show, Dan Vadis (who later went on to work with Clint Eastwood in 5 films) is magnificent as "King", the bald-giant-martial artist, and Siegfried Rauch as "Nitro" the American assassin who likes to carry vials nitro glycerine around in his jacket pockets (like James Coburn in "A Fist Full Of Dynamite"). The Kung Fu craze in the West was still a few years away when this was made, so it is leading edge stuff for 1966.

The first and best climax in the film is the much foreshadowed martial arts showdown between Brad Harris and Dan Vadis, which fittingly takes place inside a cave temple on top of the spectacular Sigiriya, the monumental rock which towers 180 feet over the surrounding land. It has been the site of everything from a monastery, to a fortress, to a palace, over its timeless history. It reminded me of the finale of "Way Of The Dragon" at the Coliseum, however it is clear that the local authorities weren't prepared to let the film crew loose on a site of such cultural significance, which would have made the fight scene even more impressive, but I can understand their reluctance to do so.

After a second climactic action scene, at a jungle airfield, we have the customary comic epilogue, where the girls love Tony and Tony loves the girls, but somehow he doesn't end up with either (but wins over an elephant instead)

The standard in this sequel remains high so I recommend it.

One of six films in the German "Kommissar X" series, this plays a bit like a "Dr. No" wannabe with the action switched to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and with two heroes instead of one. The heroes are played by Tony Kendall and Brad Harris and the bald-headed henchman by Dan Vadis and together or separately these three actors appeared in a number of those sword-and-sandal and secret-agent and spaghetti-western movies which came out of Europe in the 1960s. As an example of the secret-agent genre, this is familiar and forgettable but modestly entertaining if one isn't too demanding. There's a goodly amount of action, a bit of exotic scenery, (though not as much as one would wish), and a couple of pretty girls -- one blonde and one with black hair. The chief villain turns out to be one of those "mad scientists" who's perfected a deadly form of bacteria. Tony Kendall manages to get his shirt off fairly early while undressing for a bath and Dan Vadis strips to the waist for a fight scene but, alas, Brad Harris remains shirted throughout. Both Kendall and Harris, however, briefly wind up in bondage situations. While watching this makes for harmless time-killing, one probably won't be inspired to track down the other "Kommissar X" movies.

"Death Is Nimble, Death Is Quick" is the third movie included in the "Kommissar X" DVD collection, and the first thing that must be noted is that it has by far the worst picture quality of the three: the color especially is all wrong, and the sky & sea end up looking green instead of blue. There also appear to be some scenes missing at one or two spots, unless it was just bad editing to begin with. The film does feature some impressive stuntwork (such as a hotel rooftop chase that ends with both guys jumping from the roof to the ground below), a memorable fight between Captain Rowland and an evil karate master, and a slim and spirited leading lady (Ann Smyrner). But in between the few good scenes, the vague plot does not hold much interest, and there is a bit too much talk. Out of these 3 movies, "Kiss Kiss Kill Kill" follows the Bond formula most faithfully, and comes off as easily the best; the other two try to follow their own path more, and end up getting lost in the way. (**)