Commissaire X: Halte au L.S.D.

Captain Tom delivers $1 mil worth of LSD to operatives in Istanbul that a criminal organization is pulling out all the stops to get its hand on. Joe joins him in Istanbul to foil the organization's efforts. Lots of unnecessary martial arts fighting and cartoonish dialog spoil the otherwise enjoyable exotic backdrop. The plot is weak and the action discontinuous. The movie ends up in the enemy stronghold in the "Valley of a Thousand Hills, a terrific location for some exciting action. This adventure is stocked with numerous attractive women who do little more than provide the expected decorative flavor. Best approached as more of a parody than serious thriller.

Give me the LSD, I won't give you the LSD, where's the LSD? When you're 10 years old, like me, when I saw it a few times for the first time, you might like this movie. When you see it again on YouTube at the age of 64, you realize that it's nothing but a big waste of time. Olga Schoberová and Christa Linder are sexy. Everyone else, including Tony Kendall and Brad Harris, are embarrassing. Film only for poor quality Eurospy obsessed people.

This film begins in Istanbul with a private detective named "Joe Walker" (Tony Kendall) visiting a small nightclub where he is attempting to gather information concerning a large batch of LSD which was recently stolen from the American military by an international syndicate known as "the Green Hounds". Not surprisingly, Joe's sudden presence at the nightclub soon becomes a cause for concern which leads the girlfriend of the syndicate boss to order one of the employees to slip some LSD into his drink. Fortunately, although he is tricked into drinking it, he manages to escape before they can kill him and eventually recovers with the help of his old colleague "Captain Tom Rowland" (Brad Harris). It's then that the two join forces in a effort to find and recover the stolen merchandise before the Green Hounds have the opportunity to disperse it throughout Europe. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I thought that this 4th film in the "Kommissar X" series was one of the better entries as the action and the plot were more evenly balanced. Likewise, having several attractive actresses like Sabine Sun (as the duplicitous girlfriend named "Joyce Sellers"), Christa Linder ("Gisela"), Olga Schoberova ("Leyla Kessler") and Rossella Bergamonti ("Jenny Carter") certainly didn't hurt in any way either. In any case, I liked this particular sequel and have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

Another entry in the tongue-in-cheek espionage series "Kommissar X", with the amiable duo of Tony Kendall and Brad Harris in the leads. This time their mission is to shut down an LSD smuggling ring that operates in Istanbul. And the first half of this movie is, probably, about as coherent as an actual LSD trip, but, again probably, not half as much fun. When the setting switches to "The Valley of the Thousand Hills", the film gets a little better, and more action-packed. The production is actually pretty slick and there is good stuntwork throughout; Brad Harris' slide down the hills and his fight with an extra-muscular henchman are high points. And even though the heroes keep making remarks like "It's going to be difficult to escape, especially with the girls", the girls are quite capable of taking care of themselves. This is the 4th "Kommmissar X" film I have watched so far; the best remains the first, "Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill" (also the one most closely modelled on the James Bond series). ** out of 4.

There are not many movies filmed in exotic Istanbul for the western audience. I was hoping for something similar to Topkapi, but this is not in that league. However it is not bad for a low grade secret agent flick. Tony Kendall saunters through the sets pretending to be a cross between Dean Martin and John Gavin. Brad Harris seems to have fun playing GI Joe/G Man in a suit. The story has so many twists and scene changes that it could have been released as 3 different movies--since it was dubbed who would have known? Perhaps this deserves a viewing because it tries so hard to be entertaining. Most effective is the use of Istanbul's settings and environs for unique treatments and stunts (with the major exception of not showing the interiors of the great mosques). This may be the best of the Kommissar X series.