Commissaire X - Trois panthères bleues

After a daring escape, ruthless thief Arthur Hillary (Franco Fantasia) pays a visit to Montreal, home of his identical twin brother Robert (also played by Fantasia), the only person who knows the whereabouts of a cache of stolen jewels worth $3milllion. On Arthur's trail is American cop Capt. Tom Rowland (Brad Harris), and private investigator Jo Walker (Tony Kendall), who is working for the company that insured the jewels.

Euro-crime flick Kill Panther Kill, the fifth in the Kommissar X series, is a fairly unexceptional caper for stars Harris and Kendall, with the pair once again doing their antagonistic partnership routine, and director Gianfranco Parolini delivering the bog standard ingredients: pretty ladies, fist-fights, shootouts, crosses and double crosses, and car chases.

Despite some local colour in the form of the 1967 International and Universal Exposition in Montreal, and two enjoyably daft fight scenes (a silly punch-up against members of judo club and an even more ridiculous gun-fight against some henchmen in a builder's yard), the film is unremarkable nonsense that quickly wears out its welcome.

4.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

This movie begins with two snipers ambushing a police car in Los Angeles carrying a criminal by the name of "Arthur Hillary" (Franco Fantasia) who knows the location of over $3 million in jewels. Upon killing all of the police in the vehicle the three criminals initially head for Calgary to hide out. Since the murders occurred in Los Angeles a police detective named "Captain Tom Rowland" (Brad Harris) is sent to Canada to lend his expertise. Additionally, since the jewels were insured a private detective named "Joe Walker" (Tony Kendall) is assigned by the insurance company to attempt to recover the stolen jewels. Although this doesn't make him too happy Captain Rowland soon comes to appreciate the assistance of his old colleague especially when things begin to get a bit rough. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I don't consider this film to be on the same level with a couple of others in the series due in large part to the lack of focus shown toward the overall plot. Likewise, some of the humor was rather weak and could have used some improvement as well. In any case, while not a terribly bad addition to the series, I don't consider this to be outstanding in any way and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

The "Kommisar X" boys are back, this time visiting exotic... Canada eh! In particular the Calgary Stampede and the Montreal edition of the World's Fair. There is also a sizable waterfall used in the finale, but surprisingly it's not the World famous ones at Niagara. Overall I felt they could have found a bit more local colour to spice things up, the recently completed Skylon tower, also at Niagara, would have added something, or a visit to the old 17th century French quarter of Montreal.

Millions in jewels have been stolen and the chief thief caught, but then he is sprung by his gang. Plenty of double crossing action ensues. Brad and Tony are on the case and Siegfried Rauch, who may be familiar to some from being Steve McQueen's main on track rival in "Le Mans", is one of the bad guys. Erica Blanc and Franco Fantasia also shine among villains.

In general the fight scenes are spoiled by being too comedic for my taste, but the finale is pretty exciting, although a visit to the aforementioned Niagara Falls would have improved it. (but maybe the local authorities wouldn't play ball?).

As usual Tony doesn't get the girls.