Mordnacht in Manhattan

G-man Jerry Cotton (George Nader) and his partner Phil Decker (Heinz Weiss) are on the case of The $100 Gang, a group of neighborhood extortionists who killed local Italian restaurant owner Giuseppe. The only witness to the crime was 10-year-old Billy, who the gang tries to snuff out while Cotton and Decker try to figure out who is the Kingpin behind all of this.

Jerry Cotton was a American FBI crime fighter exclusive to Germany (?) in books starting in the 1950s and this is the second of 8 Cotton films made by the West Germans between 1965-69. The first four are in black and white and the last four are in color. The films are breezy affairs and Nader is fun as the Bondsian hero. The investigation is fairly routine in this one (you'll laugh at the main villain reveal and their motive) but it is fun to see the 60s decor and styles. Also, the filmmakers try to pass of Germany for NYC (not gonna happen). There is some location work of Jerry's trademark jaguar driving around and lots of stock footage of the city. They also try to create a massive FBI office-scape by having actors stand in front of rear projections of file footage. The film's action highlight is at a coal processing plant.