"Kommissar X - In den Klauen des goldenen Drachen" is a co-production of no less than four countries that results in this 90-minute movie from 1966, which means the film had its 50th anniversary last year. The director is Italian Gianfranco Parolini (still alive today approaching 90) and he is also one of the people who worked on the script for this movie. If you hear his name and the name of lead actor Tony Kendall, who plays the title character, then maybe you already guess correctly that this is another Jo Louis Walker film. One of many actually. And it would certainly not be wrong to call these the German approach to the (back then) quickly rising and highly popular James Bond franchise. Just like with Bond, there are political references here (Cold War), there are sinister power-hungry villains, there are extremely attractive women, some good some bad, and then there is a secret agent in the center of it who is luckily skilled enough to stay alive all the time despite all kinds of people trying to murder him. And of course Bond also travels the world and this film takes place entirely in Asia. Singapore is fittingly also one of the production countries.
This is the second Kommissar X film I have seen. The very first one I was not too big about, but this one here about a filter that can turn a laser beam into a death ray way genuinely enjoyable and probably closer to a ****/***** than to a **/*****. One memorable scene after the next. The one on the boat with the guy(s) shooting at Walker (yes I almost wrote Bond), the one with the spiked ceiling moving towards Walker and his partner. Oh yeah, this is one major difference to Bond. At times, in this film here, it feels as if there are really two lead actors, a dark-haired one and one with lighter hair, so you can make your pick ladies which one you want to be rescued by. Okay the acting is not always great and sometimes the plot gets a bit too gimmicky (even if I like that sometimes too), but all in all this was actually convincing watch and not only the lead actors are at least as attractive physically as Connery, Moore and Lazenby I guess, but some of the scenes feel as if they are right out of Bond movies and as somebody who really loves the 007 franchise, this is definitely a seal of approval. I recommend this movie that is also known as "Agent Joe Walker: Operation Far East" or "So Darling, So Deadly". Criminally underseen for sure.
This is the second Kommissar X film I have seen. The very first one I was not too big about, but this one here about a filter that can turn a laser beam into a death ray way genuinely enjoyable and probably closer to a ****/***** than to a **/*****. One memorable scene after the next. The one on the boat with the guy(s) shooting at Walker (yes I almost wrote Bond), the one with the spiked ceiling moving towards Walker and his partner. Oh yeah, this is one major difference to Bond. At times, in this film here, it feels as if there are really two lead actors, a dark-haired one and one with lighter hair, so you can make your pick ladies which one you want to be rescued by. Okay the acting is not always great and sometimes the plot gets a bit too gimmicky (even if I like that sometimes too), but all in all this was actually convincing watch and not only the lead actors are at least as attractive physically as Connery, Moore and Lazenby I guess, but some of the scenes feel as if they are right out of Bond movies and as somebody who really loves the 007 franchise, this is definitely a seal of approval. I recommend this movie that is also known as "Agent Joe Walker: Operation Far East" or "So Darling, So Deadly". Criminally underseen for sure.