German Adventure Flick with Brad Harris and Dietmar Schönherr
Two years earlier, with "Heißer Hafen Hong Kong", sleazy producer Wolf C. Hartwig and his Rapid-Film had found the ultimate recipe for box office success: Take a crime story with drugs and prostitution, spice it up with a little adventure flair and leave the whole thing set in an exotic location (Hong Kong, Bangkok, Caracas, Beirut). This was a huge hit with West German cinema audiences, so one film of this kind was made after another. In order to spread the costs widely, production was carried out internationally (with Italian and French partners).
They still needed a star like Maria Perschy here, the usual roles were cast rather stereotypically. The good guy was played by Dietmar Schönherr, the bad guy by Horst Frank, Dorothee Parker was there for a little sexiness and Brad Harris for the action. This time the film was directed by Helmuth Ashley. The Gloria film distributor brought the Ultrascope film to West German cinemas on March 20, 1964.
This time we can marvel at the development of a henchman into a major villain. The businessman Robert Perkins (Horst Frank) runs the dark business for a boss in the background. By chance he gets the chance to get involved in the drug trade in the British crown colony. To do this, he uses people from his surroundings without any scruples: his girlfriend Susan (Dorothee Parker), his good sister Margaret (Pascale Roberts), the smart employee Claudia (Maria Perschy), but also the newly hired pilot Ted (Dietmar Schönherr) with his extremely strong On-board mechanic Larry (Brad Harris).
It is the two powerful men who stand in the way of Perkins becoming a drug lord from now on. The charming Ted also has his eye on the attractive Claudia! However, who the big boss in the background is remains unclear until the surprising end.
Everything that goes into a successful GermanAdventureFlick is presented here: beautiful shots of Hong Kong and the surrounding area, lots of action with torture and fireworks. Brad Harris, as the established stunt coordinator, can fight his way through the plot to his heart's content. Incidentally, the actors all deliver excellent performances.
It's just a shame that the big box office star Maria Perschy (1938-2004) in this film is all too limited to the role of the victim who needs to be saved. Since her start in the Heinz Erhardt classic "Natürlich die Autofahrer", the Austrian actress has now even made it to Hollywood ("Man's Favorite Sport?"). Whether she charmed Erik Schumann or Rock Hudson, Maria Perschy, who was engaged to fellow actor Joachim Hansen for many years, always cut a dazzling figure.
Of course, this film is now almost 60 years old. But it is a successful example from a time when German film producers still dared to make genre films and had great success with them.
Nice old days!
