User reviews

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)

MASTER PLAN: corner the gold market. Probably the most successful of the cheap European James Bond copies, with quite a few sequels. The hero (played by Kendall), detective Walker, resembles Sean Connery, especially when in a suit and hat, recalling the "Dr.No" days, and is more-or-less partnered with a police captain (muscular Brad Harris). The two buddies have a very healthy competition and the captain is more inclined to arrest Walker than fight alongside him at times. The plot involves the mystery of a couple of crime lords getting blown up; there are four top gangsters in all and it becomes obvious that one of them has decided to dissolve their partnership. The tone of the movie is quite cheerful throughout, almost carefree, with Walker very sure of himself and his way with the ladies, though he doesn't have all that much success, either in love or the chasing/gun battles. The film even spells out what franchise it's copying, with references to author Ian Fleming in the dialog. The first half of the film drags a little.

The copycat approach becomes very blatant in the 2nd half, when it switches to the master villain's secret base and becomes, essentially, a remake of Dr.No's 2nd half and "Goldfinger." As with many such action spy thrillers, the 1st half is a standard detective story and the 2nd becomes a sci-fi adventure. As in "Goldfinger," there's a private army of female soldiers, as well as the villain's preoccupation with, you guessed it - gold. One scene is a direct rip-off of James Bond's confrontation/seduction scene with Pussy Galore, followed by a sudden rebellion by all the females - I guess Walker does have a certain charm, after all. The production values aren't too bad in this climactic section and there's actually a minor sense of grandeur by this point, recalling Dr.No's finale, though the villain's demise is a bit lame. The next Kommissar adventure was "So Darling,So Deadly." Heroes:6 Villain:5 Femme Fatales:6 Henchmen:5 Fights:5 Stunts/Chases:5 Gadgets:3 Auto:3 Locations:6 Pace:6 overall:5

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!

I started out thinking that this was going to be yet another poorly- executed Bond clone. But once the movie got rolling, it turned out to be a lot of fun.

The two lead characters are both cool and charismatic in their own ways. There's a neat 'buddy-cop' vibe happening here; for the most part -- they're opposites. Tony Kendall's character Jo Walker resembles George Clooney (or maybe George Clooney resembles him) and Brad Harris' Tom Randall almost looks like a classic Bond villain's henchman. Of course, in these movies, he's one of the good guys.

There were moments during this film that I couldn't help but think of Cowboy Bebop for some reason.

Things progress at a good pace. There are plenty of the usual Bond tropes, including scorchingly hot girls, great locations, fast cars, witty dialog, close calls, a classic bad guy (complete with henchman, uber-lair, and nifty hardware), a catchy tune, descent cinematography, and surprisingly good fight scenes.

In short, it was better than expected and features a great dynamic between characters.

Certainly worth a look.

This is the first Jo Walker (also called 'Kommissar X') film from Germany--a land that seemed to adore adventure series books and films in the 1960s. First they started with the Jerry Cotton films- -about an FBI agent from had fists like steel and always seemed to triumph against the forces of evil in America. Then, short after, they made seven of the Jo Walker flicks.

In this first picture, Jo and his friend, the Captain, investigate some murders that point to a weirdo named Oberon. Oberon is basically a knockoff of Goldfinger, as his ultimate plan is to irradiate gold...and he has a formula to remove the radiation as well...making him a very rich man. He has an army of women who sport purple or yellow hair and Jo seems more than over-matched by these Amazons. But of course, he has his secret weapon...his astounding sex appeal!!

In some ways this film is like "Goldfinger" and an Austin Powers or Matt Helm film merged together. It obviously doesn't take itself all too seriously...and in that sense it's much different than the Jerry Cotton movies. It also features a larger budget and settings...making it look more like a Bond film. As for me, I actually prefer the Cotton films as they valued realism...and this Jo Walker certainly did not! Very much like a second-rate Bond parody...but a decent Bond parody.

"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."

I watched this movie many times as a child, I was fascinated by all the action, by Tony Kendall, the car chases, the fights, the beautiful and mysterious women with blonde wigs, dressed in black, with guns in their hands. I had not seen yet not one of the original James Bond movies. After seeing several Bonds, I changed my mind. The idea is borrowed from "Goldfinger" (1964). So, the subject is great but missing completely. We have instead a caricature villain, cardboard sets, overall cheap production. Tony Kendall had some charisma, but Brad Harris is ridiculous in everything he does. Too bad that so many beautiful girls are wide panoramic wasted.

My first Kommissar X experience was the fourth film in the series, Kill Me Gently, which was something of a mess. Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill, the first in the series, is much more fun, a cheesy Bond-style espionage caper with not one, but two heroes trying to thwart a power-hungry villain out to own the world's largest gold reserve.

Private detective Jo Walker (Tony Kendall) and police captain Tom Rowland (Brad Harris) investigate the disappearance of a nuclear physicist and the murder of several shady businessmen. The trail eventually leads to O'Brien (Nikola Popovic), who has been killing off his business partners in order to gain complete control of the gold that they have amassed on their island fortress.

With suave protagonists, sexy women (including an army of curvaceous mind-controlled blondes), and a ruthless megalomaniac, plus lots of fisticuffs, shootouts, and an explosive finale in the baddie's lair, this is entertaining nonsense for fans of '60s spy flicks - the type of films so mercilessly spoofed by Austin Powers.

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.

Eurospy fun with a "Dr No" meets "Goldfinger" plot, plus an army of beautiful women (who behave like Fembots, but are actually only drugged to make them obey orders), and another army of expendable red shirted henchmen (pre Star Trek).

Apart from the "Fembots" aspect, it's played pretty straight, with plenty of well choreographed and well executed action.

Tony Kendall looks like a mashup of Gene Kelly, John Saxon, Dirk Benedict and Scott Bakula, with a little Jon Hamm on the side. With cheerfully mobile features, he tugs on his ear-lob a lot and employs plenty of nods and winks and other broad facial expressions to communicate his confidence and charm, and he needs to, in lieu of the script providing him with anything notable in the way of suave dialogue or decent humorous one liners.

Brad Harris, as his police sidekick, has a gruff demeanour and rough-hewn looks, a much more impressive physique and is a more convincing fighter, also features strongly in the action.

The production appears to have had a bigger budget than most Eurospy efforts, with the requisite ingredients needed to create the appropriate "Bondesque" ambiance, Riviera scenery, beautiful women, luxury yachts, sports cars, opulent interiors and convincing underground lair on a private island, all present and correct.

However, despite what the theme song claims, and although he flirts industriously at every opportunity, Tony doesn't actually appear to achieve much in the way of romantic results. In fact in the final scene he comes up short with three women and ends up being thrown into the pool, while Brad Harris flexes his muscles and a bevy of beauties gather around to laugh at him. Hardly the payoff we have come to expect from an International Man of Mystery!

The theme song itself is pseudo Shirley Bassey, and sounds great unless you actually listen to the lyrics, which are cringingly bad, but I guess that's all part of the fun.

Recommended.

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 film has it all, a cool badguy, an even cooler hero (tony kendall) and alot of cool figts!

This italian james bond rip off is maybe even better than the orginal james bond!

I gave it 8/10

I first saw this movie on TV back in the early 1970s and I still enjoyed it after watching it last week. Filmed in Croatia with great beach shots, coastline and lots of gadgetry that would make "Q" blush. Joe Walker and his friend Captain Rowland, played by the former Hercules/Goliath star BRAD HARRIS smash a criminal organization wanting to take over the world. This is certainly an enjoyable movie for Euro-Spy fans. I have posted a few B&W photos above for you to enjoy. When I met brad Harris, he told me of all the fond memories he had while making this movie. Brad and Tony Kendal remained good friends right up to the end of their lives. Larry Anderson

First adventure in the Commissioner X film series with Brad HARRIS and Tony KENDALL

After the success of James Bond, West Germany also tried a series of agents. Producer Theo Maria WERNER (1925-1989) from PARNASS Film secured the rights to a series of magazine novels from Erich Pabel Verlag and hired Gianfranco Parolini as director.

Private detective Joe Walker (Tony KENDALL) and his friend/rival Captain Tom Rowland (Brad HARRIS) are drawn into a complicated gang war involving a nuclear scientist and a lot of gold. The main villain (Nikola POPOVIC) also has a bodyguard of twelve gilded blondes around him who willlessly protect him.

The main star of the film is the Austrian actress Maria PERSCHY (1938-2004), who was already able to get a taste of Hollywood air in "Squadron 633" and "MANs FAVORITE SPORT". Christa LINDER from Berchtesgaden, born in 1943, took on a smaller role.

The film was shot in Dubrovnik, which is particularly highlighted by HARRIS's stunts (on the wire above the harbor). The story is overloaded, but the chemistry between womanizer KENDALL and muscle man HARRIS is funny and wonderfully sleazy.

Ilse KUBASCHEWSKI's GLORIA film distributor was able to welcome 1,045,000 visitors to West German cinemas, so nothing stood in the way of a continuation of the series.