User Reviews

It looks like a spy movie, it sounds like a spy movie, it's even titled like a spy movie, but "Countdown To Doomsday" is technically more of a crime / private eye tale: the hero is not a secret agent but a private detective hired by a rich man to look into the kidnapping of his daughter, who is also a reporter who was writing a series of articles trying to expose a drug smuggling ring operating in Caracas. When he goes there, he finds himself under constant attacks and is even framed for murder, so he teams up with a British narcotics agent and his beautiful (and I mean BEAUTIFUL) female partner, as it seems they're all after the same target. The cast does a pretty good job all around, and the action scenes are fairly entertaining, but overall there is little in this movie to stick in your mind, little to distinguish it from similar products of its era. ** out of 4.

With Love from Venezuela - adventure film from the Rapid Film factory with George Ardisson and Harald Leipnitz

Since 1962, Wolf C. Hartwig (1919-2017) and his Rapid-Film had become experts in the production of adventure films set in exotic locations. These GERMAN ADVENTURE FLICKS were shot like on an assembly line - mostly in Hong Kong, Beirut or Bangkok, here for a change in the oil paradise of South America. After this film, Hartwig devoted himself to more ambitious and cost-intensive projects: two years later, "Lady Hamilton - Between Shame and Love", the most expensive West German film to date, was to be released in cinemas.

In beautiful Venezuela, the attractive Giorgio Ardisson (1931-2014), the "Italian James Bond", was once again at the start. In the role of private snoop Jeff Milton, he is on the trail of a kidnapped millionaire's daughter (Christa Linder), who was taken on a beautiful Caribbean beach due to her investigative research. He is assisted in his investigation by the beautiful Florence (Pascale Audret, 1935-2000) and Inspector Alan Shepperton (Harald Leipnitz, 1926-2000, a native of Wuppertal). Together they track down a criminal organization that wants to sell drugs from Hong Kong to the USA via Caracas as a transshipment point. What the mysterious Dr. Soarez (Horst Frank, who was practically part of Rapid-Film's inventory) and the attractive Violet Watson (Luciana Angiolillo) could have something to do with it remains a mystery for a long time. The wiry Jeff Milton gets to have a few nice fights with the rich journalist's kidnappers (Patrick Bernhard, Sal Borgese). The action is definitely not neglected. At the very end, Venezuela's oil wealth comes into danger when the beautiful drilling rigs are actually about to be blown up...

For fans of the genre, this German-Italian-French film by Marcello Baldi (1923-2008) is worth seeing, but it is also quickly forgotten because it is staged too much according to formula.