Sixth adventure in the Kommissar X film series with Brad Harris and Tony Kendall
This film, which was a German-Italian-Thai co-production, is also known under the titles "I tre serpenti d'oro" and "Three Golden Serpents" and was released in West German cinemas on April 18, 1969. As usual, the film was produced by Theo Maria Werner (1925-1989) and his Parnass Film, who were responsible for one of the most successful German adventure film series. The film was directed by Italian director Roberto Mauri, who also made the jungle adventure "Nackt unter Affen / Naked Among Monkeys" and the spaghetti western "Wanted: Sabata" with Brad Harris. Gianfranco Parolini, who has also made many films with Harris, was involved in the script.
At the beginning you watch a mother (Loni Heuser, just as pushy as in the Zarah Leander film "The Blue Moth") and her pretty daughter (Hansi Linder) go about the tourist hustle and bustle in Bangkok. Since the KOMMISSAR X films recently weakened somewhat at the box office ("Three Green Dogs" (1967) was seen by 1.8 million viewers, "Three Blue Panthers" (1968) was only seen by 1.0 million), it continues. The new director from Italy introduces cockfights and sweaty Thai boxers to ladies who love to travel and are pleasantly aroused by excitement. But then it gets even worse! The little daughter is kidnapped in broad daylight and ends up in a prostitution ring in which young ladies from rich countries also have to bare their breasts. This is of course a case made for Inspector X (Tony Kendall) and his friend Captain Rowland (Brad Harris), who immediately set about solving the spectacular events. Beautiful women (Monica Pardo as a stewardess and Rotraut de Neve as a prison guard) and merciless killers (Herbert Fux and Giuseppe Mattei) cross their path. The charitable Madame Kim Soo (Vilaiwan Vatanapanich) and the obscure Armand Landru (Walter Brandi) appear a little more mysterious. But the well-rehearsed daredevil duo can handle such challenges with ease. The two heroes also get to show off their muscular upper bodies extensively. The fact that they knock their opponents down one after the other is self-evident and not worth mentioning. At the very beginning of the film there is also a reunion with the attractive Hannelore Auer as KOMMISSAR X's friend. The later wife of the singer Heino was cut again from the previous film in order to save unnecessary costs.
You can tell that there should be a bit more riding on the emerging sex wave here than was usual at KX. But even the new director, who was a little more liberal, was only able to turn things around to a limited extent. After this film, KOMMISSAR X was over for two and a half years. Then they tried one last time with successful director and ACADEMY AWARD nominee Harald Reinl and producer Ilse Kubaschewski.
Despite some weaknesses in this film, all KX films with the great duo Brad Harris and Tony Kendall are simply cult.
