The 7 masks of judoka

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Movie
German title The 7 masks of judoka
Original title Casse-tête chinois for the judoka
Country of production France , Italy
original language French
Publishing year 1967
length 86 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Maurice Labro
script Jean Meckert ,
Maurice Labro
production Jean-Claude Bergey
music Antoine Duhamel
camera Didier tarot
cut Marcelle Lehérissey
occupation
synchronization

The 7 Masks of Judoka (original title: Casse-tête chinois pour le Judoka ) is a Franco-Italian adventure and action film from 1967 by Maurice Labro with Heinz Drache in a double role. The literary model is the novel Judoka en enfer by Ernie Clerk .

action

The American Air Force pilot Clyde Garland takes off on a flight over Asia with compatriot Finn, a CIA agent. The machine disappears from the radar in the middle of the Chinese Sea. It soon turns out that the plane crashed. While there is no trace of Garland, CIA man Finn is found a little later, but he suffers from memory lapses and cannot say exactly what happened and how the crash came about. Since Garland's body cannot be found, he is eventually pronounced dead. One day Marc St. Clair, a good friend of Clydes (whom he last met in Tokyo) and a master in East Asian martial arts, receives a judo medal in Hong Kong from a pretty, young Chinese woman, Su-Chu, who is also the lucky charm , that Marc Clyde had given him shortly before his disappearance. She says she saw Clyde alive recently. Judoka Marc now begins to doubt the story of the alleged death of his pilot friend and goes on a dangerous search for him.

He quickly encounters massive resistance from a number of Chinese who obviously want to kill him. Marc finds out that behind what happened is a dangerous secret organization that calls itself the "Black Dragon". This strives for nothing less than to get into possession of an atom bomb in order to achieve world domination. Together with Finn, Marc's Sidekick Wong and the over-the-top US journalist Jennifer Morgan, Marc goes in search of Clyde, who is being held prisoner on a remote island, and tries to prevent the Chinese secret group from getting hold of the atomic bomb reach. There are various moments in which the judoka can show that not only Chinese have mastered East Asian martial arts. Finally, Su-Chu is kidnapped by his powerful opponents, behind whom the Chinese government stands. When Marc also faces a huge villain named Novak, he has to prove what martial arts he can do (besides judo, kendo and karate). A showdown takes place in a plane that transports the bomb. In the end, Marc can turn off the boss of the “Black Dragon” and the “good guys” have once again saved the whole world.

Production notes

The 7 masks of judoka was premiered in Germany on December 22, 1967. The French premiere took place on February 9, 1968.

The film structures were designed by Jean Mandaroux . Marc Briand (1934–1991), who was completely unknown as an actor, was actually an actor who was well versed in judo combat.

This film is a typical example of a Franco-Italian "Eurospy" production, with which one wanted to profit from the rampant spy film wave as a result of the extremely popular James Bond films. Its anti-Chinese note is due to the simultaneous Maoist cultural revolution of 1966/67, which at that time was perceived by the West as extremely threatening.

Heinz Drache was cast in this strip, which was otherwise produced without German production participation, solely to make The 7 Masks of Judoka interesting for the German market. In the opening credits one can read of a "collaboration" with the Munich company Parnass-Film of the producer Theo Maria Werner .

Rainer Brandt , who dubbed the main actor for the German version, ensured that this Karlheinz-Brunnemann dubbing had a high percentage of thumpers. Gerd Duwner also lent his voice to a number of the film Chinese with a peculiar tone.

Reviews

“The film commissioner on duty, Heinz Drache, has looked for a new job. As a CIA man, he hunts down the silent artists of the lightning-fast strikes of the hand in the dark film hell of Hong Kong. Almond-eyed beauties of the Far East metropolis provide the necessary variety in the tough existence of the invincible fighters. Since the fighter for law and justice is known to succeed in everything, the evil doomsday fanatics from the Middle Kingdom and their island finally blow up. "

- Hamburger Abendblatt dated December 30, 1967

The lexicon of the international film says: "Agent film based on a well-known pattern that tried to use the fear of the atomic bomb for his own purposes."

synchronization

Names have also been changed in the German dubbed version; Heinz Drache's character is called "von Sturm" in the French version and Minh is called "SzuTchuen".

literature

  • Maurice Bessy, Raymond Chirat, André Bernard: Histoire du cinéma français. Encyclopédie des Films 1966–1970. (with photos for each film) Éditions Pygmalion, Paris 1992, ISBN 2-85704-379-1 , p. 181.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The 7 masks of judoka. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 21, 2015 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used