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.
