Bogmeister

MASTER PLAN: corner the gold market. Probably the most successful of the cheap European James Bond copies, with quite a few sequels. The hero (played by Kendall), detective Walker, resembles Sean Connery, especially when in a suit and hat, recalling the "Dr.No" days, and is more-or-less partnered with a police captain (muscular Brad Harris). The two buddies have a very healthy competition and the captain is more inclined to arrest Walker than fight alongside him at times. The plot involves the mystery of a couple of crime lords getting blown up; there are four top gangsters in all and it becomes obvious that one of them has decided to dissolve their partnership. The tone of the movie is quite cheerful throughout, almost carefree, with Walker very sure of himself and his way with the ladies, though he doesn't have all that much success, either in love or the chasing/gun battles. The film even spells out what franchise it's copying, with references to author Ian Fleming in the dialog. The first half of the film drags a little.

The copycat approach becomes very blatant in the 2nd half, when it switches to the master villain's secret base and becomes, essentially, a remake of Dr.No's 2nd half and "Goldfinger." As with many such action spy thrillers, the 1st half is a standard detective story and the 2nd becomes a sci-fi adventure. As in "Goldfinger," there's a private army of female soldiers, as well as the villain's preoccupation with, you guessed it - gold. One scene is a direct rip-off of James Bond's confrontation/seduction scene with Pussy Galore, followed by a sudden rebellion by all the females - I guess Walker does have a certain charm, after all. The production values aren't too bad in this climactic section and there's actually a minor sense of grandeur by this point, recalling Dr.No's finale, though the villain's demise is a bit lame. The next Kommissar adventure was "So Darling,So Deadly." Heroes:6 Villain:5 Femme Fatales:6 Henchmen:5 Fights:5 Stunts/Chases:5 Gadgets:3 Auto:3 Locations:6 Pace:6 overall:5

MASTER PLAN: steal that Uranium and develop an anti-nuke serum. Another among the innumerable cheap European James Bond knock-offs (see also the Italian "Danger! Death Ray" and "OK Connery") of the sixties, this one, like many of these, recalls "From Russia With Love" - but imitation is not a form of flattery here. This features a lead actor resembling Mike Connors (who starred in "Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die" around the same time). We're introduced to him on a golf course (shades of "Goldfinger") and immediately thrust into some of the most awful, cheesy dialog (dubbed?) of the decade. The plot involves a freighter crew getting massacred and uranium stolen; the secret agent is sent to Copenhagen, Denmark to sort things out or "before it gets too explosive" as his boss states. "The persons in possession of the uranium are going to use it for purposes which are not peaceful," the hero says with a straight face.

The pace is choppy at best and, with the exception of one movie-style karate combat scene in a hotel room, most of the action scenes are fairly lackluster. As in "Dr.No" and "From Russia With Love," the agent needs to acquaint himself with a new locale, avoid assassins and connect with the local law-enforcement bigshot. The criminal organization is named 'The Snake' - not quite as creative as Spectre. The climactic action involves the invasion of the villain's island base and now rips off the similar underwater action scenes in "Thunderball." I also got the uneasy impression that the sets in the climax are merely re-used from the other Bond imitation-films, such as "OK Connery" and the "Kommissar X" films. The only other plus I could see at this point is that the movie is pretty short (the version I watched was 85 minutes) and so the ending isn't dragged out. But, "it doesn't take much imagination to dope that out." Hero:4 Villains:3 Femme Fatales:3 Henchmen:2 Fights:3 Stunts/Chases:3 Gadgets:3 Auto:3 Locations:4 Pace:2 overall:3