Kommissar X - Jagd auf Unbekannt

As the previous poster says, if this is a "Bond rip-off," it's a completely entertaining one. Like the other installments in this series, it has Kendall as the frivolous spy and Harris as his (almost) humorless partner. The running joke is that Kendall keeps getting brushed off - often with physical violence - by the women he tries something with. Could this have helped inspire "Johhny Bravo"? Also, this installment has - and to me there's no better thing in a spy movie - a criminal genius with a female army. (My only complaint with him is that the actor looks a little too much like Billy Sands from McHale's Navy for a spy movie villain!) And of course none of this film takes itself too seriously. I only have one complaint - it has not one but TWO "Pussy Galore"-type characters ; in other words, female helpers of the villain who turn on him and help the heroes. Having two of those is kind of redundant. In fact, the whole female army turns against him too. It should have had one genuine villainess!

"Kiss Kiss...Kill Kill" (1966) was only the beginning of a popular Eurospy series teaming Tony Kendall and Brad Harris, but remained the only one to air on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, on November 11 1967, paired with second feature "Panic in Year Zero." Accurately described as a knockoff of "Goldfinger," with the female lead in the more than capable hands of Austrian-born beauty Maria Perschy, whose vast genre credits include "The Mad Executioners," "No Survivors, Please," "A Witch Without a Broom," "Murders in the Rue Morgue," and "The Ghost Galleon," plus one film with Peter Cushing ("Battleflag"), two with Christopher Lee ("Five Golden Dragons" and "The Castle of Fu Manchu"), plus four with Paul Naschy ("The Hunchback of the Morgue," "House of Psychotic Women," "Exorcismo," and "The People Who Own the Dark"). German-born blonde knockout Christa Linder (Miss Austria 1962) did one of the sequels, but worked a great deal in Mexico, with the distinction of appearing in Boris Karloff's final feature film, 1968's "Incredible Invasion." Tony Kendall started out in Mario Bava's "The Whip and the Body" (1963), and later appeared in a pair of horrors from Amando De Ossorio, "Return of the Evil Dead" and "When the Screaming Stops," while Idaho-born Brad Harris, a veteran of Italy's peplum films, went on to do titles such as "King of Kong Island," "The Mad Butcher," "The Mutations," and "Lady Dracula."

The first in a series of German imitation-Bond films made in the mid-60's, "Kiss Kiss Kill Kill" (now there's a catchy and descriptive title for you!) is rather confusing and meandering in its first half, and at least on the first viewing some plot details are not clear at all. It improves in the second half, when most of the action gets confined inside the villain's underground headquarters located on a remote island, and on the whole it ranks as one of the most enjoyable Bond knockoffs of its time. The basic model here is clearly "Goldfinger", from the playfight between the hero (Tony Kendall, looking a bit like Connery) and a Pussy Galore-type tough "bad" girl who knows judo and leads a female army (though here they are brainwashed via injections), but can't resist him and turns "good", to the more serious fight between the hero and the No. 1 henchman while the clock to an explosion is ticking. "Kiss Kiss Kill Kill" obviously does not have the budget of the James Bond films, but it does have its own charm, and there is a spectacular shot near the end when the camera stays focused on an explosion until the "cloud" completely dissolves. Maria Perschy is beautiful. The English dubbing is excellent. (**1/2)

Exciting Euro Spy thriller even if you're not sure what it's all about. A couple of underworld figures get blown up by a rival named Oberon ostensibly to eliminate them from getting a cut in a big deal he is cooking up. He instructs his right hand gal, Maria Perschy, to contact Jo Walker who's on holiday in the area. She puts Walker on retainer to find a nuclear physicist (they were popular victims and hostages in the 60s) and gives him dancer Lilane Dulovic as a lead. Following a somewhat romantic visit with Jo, she is murdered during a performance and that gets Jo reunited with old friend and fellow crime-fighter Captain Tom who is called into the case. The movie then trends in a direction reminiscent of Goldfinger. There's some great vintage cars (Jo's Porsche Speedster for one), scantily clad gals, good cinematography, and Bond-like action (Not to mention the theme song which gets replayed several times). The plot itself is fairly amorphous but who cares. It's a lot of fun especially if you like these 60's Euro spy flicks.

This movie essentially begins with a private detective by the name of "Joe Walker" (Tony Kendall) who is on vacation but finds himself being recruited by a woman named "Nancy Wright" (Liliane Dulovic) to locate a certain nuclear physicist who has gone missing. Also interested in his investigation is a woman named "Joan Smith" (Maria Perschy) who works for a man named "Mr. Oberon" (Nikola Popovic) and appears to have an alternate agenda as well. Assisting Joe with his investigation is a police officer by the name of "Captain Tom Roland" (Brad Harris) who seems to have an uncanny knack for interfering more than he helps. In any case, this was an interesting "Eurospy" film which is definitely enhanced by the serious plot and several attractive female actresses which include Christa Linder (as "Pamela Watson") along with the aforementioned Maria Perschy and Liliane Dulovic. In any case, while not on the same level as most of the "James Bond" films, this was still an entertaining spy movie in its own right and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.