The hell of Macau
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The hell of Macau |
| Country of production |
Germany France Italy |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1966 |
| length | 88 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Frank Winterstein James Hill |
| script |
Ladislas Fodor Brian Clemens Harald Bloom based on a template by Arp Brown |
| production | Artur Brauner for CCC-Filmkunst, Berlin; Criterion Film, Paris, Franca Film, Rome |
| music | Georges Garvarentz |
| camera | Heinz Pehlke |
| cut | Alfred Srp |
| occupation | |
| |
The Hell of Macao is a German-French-Italian action and adventure film from 1966 with Robert Stack and Elke Sommer as the leading roles.
action
While he was taking banned photos of Red Chinese guards of some girls working in the fields near the border with the Portuguese colony of Macau , the American photo reporter Cliff Wilder was discovered by one of the armed Chinese. Open fire on him. Cliff flees. On the coast he sees a small motorboat that belongs to Danny Mancini. Chased by a fast Chinese coast guard boat, the two westerners escape and disappear into the maze of ships in the nearby port of Macau. There, as a thank you, Cliff invites Danny to a drink in the harbor pavilion. Danny obviously feels haunted by a blond guy of European descent, because as he approaches the bar, he puts something wrapped in Cliff's hand and escapes through the back door. Danny's pursuer storms into the bar and follows him through the back door. In his hotel room, Cliff is about to take a bath when he hears someone break into his room. It is a young blonde who introduces herself as Lily Mancini, his savior's wife. She wants the package from him that Danny gave him on the run. Cliff is clueless and does not accept her request when Lily pulls out a revolver. Cliff disarms her and throws her out of his room, not before kissing the beautiful stranger.
In the evening, Cliff wants to meet Danny in a nightclub as agreed. Danny's blonde pursuer of the day, a certain Hugo, is already there. A dancer with colorful feather boas dances to Cliff and tells him en passant where he can meet Danny. Cliff goes to this meeting point, but it is not the recently kidnapped Danny who awaits him, but two Chinese thugs who want to eliminate him. Suddenly, Danny's blonde pursuer reappears and helps Cliff, but obviously wants to kidnap him himself. Cliff escapes with the blonde's car and drives back to the dancer to get her hands on. But this Jasmine ensnares him, solely with the intention of finding out where Cliff has the package of Danny's. When the latter claims he gave it to Madame Vulcano, the bar manager, Jasmine freaks out. Cliff leaves the room with a cold smile. Meanwhile, several Chinese people tortured Danny with a cutting torch to find out where he had hidden the package. Back in his room, another man awaits Cliff. He introduces himself as Francis Pinto, the Macau Police Chief, and has a few questions for Cliff. When they both go to the bar again a little later to speak to Jasmine, she is lying in her room: murdered. Police chief Pinto then fulfilled Cliff's wish to finally bring him to Mancini. But he is laid out in a funeral home, killed by severe burns. The grieving widow Lily is standing by his coffin. In a moment of unobserved, Cliff secretly slips the narrow package into the jacket of the dead man in the coffin that the dead man had given him the day before. Then two institute employees come and screw the coffin shut.
Back in his office, Inspector Pinto explains what this is actually about: a medallion with a Chinese dragon that had been thought to have been lost for 2000 years suddenly reappeared. It is extremely valuable as it is the key to a huge treasure of a former Chinese emperor. From now on, the various parties, who are firmly convinced that Cliff is in possession of this medallion, do not let him out of sight for a second. A mysterious woman, a certain Tina, asks Cliff to come to her. The attractive Chinese resides in a palatial property on the outskirts of Macau. Cliff suspects that she would hardly ask an American photographer to come and take pictures of her for $ 500 an hour. After the first full use of his body, Cliff realizes that this person too could only be concerned with Mancini's missing medallion. Tina is the leader of a Chinese gang who are not exactly squeamish about their means. Before Cliff's eyes, the Chinese who tortured Mancini to death is again tortured himself: with acid trickling down from a small mask medallion. When Pinto suddenly appears on the scene, the American realizes that he is somehow involved in the matter. Nevertheless, his presence as a representative of the police proves to be a salvation, and Cliff leaves the atmosphere that is becoming dangerous for him under the protection of Pinto.
In the evening, Cliff visits Macau's floating casino. There he meets Lily Mancini again, who works here as a croupière . The boss of the casino ship is a certain Brandon, who in turn leads the “white” gang of gangsters on the hunt for the medallion. His man for the rough is the Cliff already known blonde at the beginning of the story, Hugo. Without further ado, Cliff offers the locket to Brandon if the latter pays him half a million dollars in return. When the two of them shake hands with him, Cliff knocks him down for all the hardships he and his kind suffered recently, but is prevented from further actions by the armed Hugo. Wilder is handcuffed and brought to his doorstep for a very special night bathing tour. A motorboat drags him through the harbor water to get him to talk. During the so-called “Royal Tour”, which Brandon mockingly called, Cliff disappears into the night. You hear a shot, the motorboat returns, crashes into the port facility and explodes. Wilder, on the other hand, can no longer be found. He was "freed" by Tina's people and kidnapped at the same time. Because she, too, demands the medallion from Cliff, pointing out that this is a “national Chinese heritage”. When he doesn't spurt immediately, she lets the fists of her thugs speak for her too. Cliff stabs Tina's 'right hand' with a camera tripod. Suddenly Brandon's scoundrels also appear in the villa. There is a wild brawl and knife throwing, in which the opponents of the various gang gangs decimate each other. Cliff also gets a lot. However, he escapes with a courageous leap outside.
Cliff Wilder appears in the boudoir of Lily Mancini and falls right at her feet. Lily takes care of Cliff, tends to his wounds and nurses him up. Having regained his strength, Cliff rushes to the cemetery where Danny was buried. But he finds out that the grave has been dug and the coffin has been opened. The locket tucked over Danny's chest is gone. That's why Pinto came up with half a hundred of his people. While Cliff accuses Lily of having taken the artifact at the next meeting, Pinto has invited all three parties - he, Brandon and Tina - to a summit. A temporary truce is made in order to find the missing gem together. Tina agrees to “take care” of Lily because she assumes that the widow must have taken the locket. Lily actually hid the jewel on the tombstone of the neighboring grave and confessed this to the angry Cliff. Before the locket can get into the hands of the competition, Cliff sneaks into the cemetery again the following night and takes it. Cliff draws the medallion on a piece of paper until the early hours of the morning and then goes to Lily's apartment. This broke open and devastated, Lily disappeared. The American then storms to the casino ship and first beats Brandon's men, believing that they are behind Lily's disappearance.
But Lily has long been in Tina's torture chamber, where the landlady and Brandon and Pinto have come together for a happy rendezvous. Madame Tina intends to tease out the information she needs through her proven acid-droplet method. Suddenly Cliff storms into the action - a pistol in one hand, the medallion in the other. In return for Lily's release, Cliff throws the medallion over to Tina. Then the young couple and the three crooks leave the property in different directions. The allies quickly began to distrust each other for a time, especially since Pinto was spotted together with Wilder. Pinto, Cliff and Lily are out and about at night to find the real treasure with the medallion drawing in a temple. Based on the drawing, the three recognize which stone they need to chisel and finally descend into an underground vault. When Cliff, Lily and Pinto see an enormous golden rider in front of them, they know that they have reached the treasury. The joy over the bulging treasure chest only lasts for a short time when a shot rang out: Brandon and Tina have arrived. A fight breaks out between Cliff and Brandon. A shot goes off, the tethers of the treasure chamber lock anchorages burst, and everyone is now trapped. Cliff doesn't want to give up and, with Brandon's help, digs a hole into the open air. Then Brandon's prisoners have to drag the chest to the surface. It was too late for everyone involved to realize that they had dug their way into Red Chinese territory.
While Cliff, Lily and Pinto flee, the armed Tina and Brandon engage in a firefight with the advancing Red Chinese soldiers. Tina is killed in the process. Brandon shoots wildly and throws a hand grenade. Since he can no longer escape, he drags the treasure chest back into the burial chamber. The Chinese soldiers have since discovered the hole in the ground and are also throwing hand grenades into it. This brings the entire treasury to collapse. Brandon is buried under the rubble with all the treasure. As at the beginning of the story, Cliff, with Lily and Pinto in tow, escapes the Red Chinese at the last second and escapes to safe Macau. Pinto, who never feared death but always feared poverty, is left with the worthless medallion that Tina "gave" him with a mocking comment in the treasury. Exhausted and drained, he throws it away disappointed. But he is not very poor: Pinto has foresighted three gems - two blue and one red - and shares them brotherly with Lily and Cliff.
Production notes
The film, produced by Artur Brauner's CCC-Filmkunst, was shot between August 19 and November 9, 1966. The world premiere took place on January 20, 1967 in Stuttgart. While the interior shots were recorded in the Berlin CCC studios, the exterior shots were taken in Hong Kong .
Peter Hahne was in charge of production. The buildings are by Hans-Jürgen Kiebach and Ernst Schomer , the costumes by Paul Seltenhammer . The production costs amounted to around five million DM.
In order to be able to market the film better internationally, all those involved spoke English in front of the camera. In the US, Hell of Macau was distributed under the titles The Corrupt Ones and The Peking Medallion .
criticism
“In the Portuguese colony of Macau, on the Red China border, the Bilderblatt reporter Cliff (American TV player Robert Stack) finds an antique medallion - it points the way to a treasure in a tomb. This time several people are looking, which makes the film a simple feast for the eyes. The treasure remains uncovered: in the final battle in the grave cave, cardboard from the Spandau studios falls on gold and gangsters. "Cheap films," Brauner invented a bon mot, "are too expensive for me." But money alone (five million marks for "hell") doesn't make you happy either. "
"A trivial adventure film full of improbabilities, staged carelessly and unimaginatively, with a portion of sex and brutality that was customary for the time it was made."
"Adventure trash, just there to pass the time."
"With better dialogue for its numerous grotesque characters, the film could have blown you away."
"The Corrupt Ones" is an adventure story ripper, but the film deserves some praise for its breakneck narrative pace and fierce battle scenes. On the downside there are some unnecessarily sadistic torture scenes. How would you like it? The film offers a choice: an acetylene torch or acid dripping. (...) "The Corrupt Ones" was nicely photographed in Macau and Hong Kong, plus some replicas of a Macau street in West Berlin. James Hill, who directed "Born Free" and "A Study in Terror," handled this film in a quick and effective manner. He succeeds in doing nine tenths of the film, but at the end he runs out of breath. "
“The film is characterized by an excess of sadism and is also made boring and amateurish. Not advised. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Hell of Macau in Der Spiegel
- ↑ Hell of Macau. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 84/1967
Web links
- The hell of Macao in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The hell of Macau at filmportal.de