Commissioner X - Hunt for Unknown
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Commissioner X - Hunt for Unknown |
| Original title | Commissioner X - The Hunt for Unknown / Dodici donne d'oro |
 | |
| Country of production | Federal Republic of Germany , Italy |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1966 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Gianfranco Parolini (as Frank Kramer ) |
| script |
Giovanni Simonelli (as Sim O'Neill ), Gianfranco Parolini (as Frank Kramer ), Theo Maria Werner (as Werner Hauff ) |
| production |
Hans A. Pflüger and Theo Maria Werner (Parnassus Film), Mario Siciliano (Metheus Film) |
| music |
Mladen Gutesha (as Bobby Gutesha ) |
| camera |
Francesco Izzarelli (as Francis Izzarelli ) |
| cut |
Edmondo Lozzi (as Edmund Lozzi ) |
| occupation | |
| |
Commissioner X - Hunt for Unknown is a German-Italian co-produced agent film from 1966 . It is the first of a total of seven films in the Kommissar X series based on the crime novels published by Erich Pabel Verlag . The color film in Eastmancolor and Ultrascope was directed by the director Gianfranco Parolini (pseudonym: Frank Kramer ). The lead producers were Hans A. Pflüger and Theo Maria Werner , who wanted to participate in the success of the James Bond films that started in 1962 . The German theatrical release took place on March 11, 1966.
action
On the US coast, the former gangster Al Costello and his former partner Manuel Prado fall victim to cold-blooded bomb attacks in quick succession. A certain O'Brien seems to benefit from these murders. His secretary Joan Smith turns to the private detective Jo Walker, known as Commissioner X, to find the long-lost nuclear physicist Bob Carrell. Walker's first lead leads to Nancy Right, who is poisoned by the killer Kan. Homicide Captain Tom Rowland, who is handling the cases, is unhappy that his friend Jo Walker is already working on the murders. Through a recorded phone call, the two learn that Nancy had to die because she fled an island with Bob Carrell's help.
The girl Bobo is murdered under similar circumstances. With the help of a secret transmitter, Walker and Rowland discover that the killer must be in the mansion of the gun dealer O'Brien. When the two arrive, O'Brien asks Commissioner X for help, as he is allegedly threatened by his partner Henry Mail. Because the company's assets go to the other shareholders in the event of death, he also considers him to be the murderer of the other two partners, Al Costello and Manuel Prado. In truth, O'Brien only asked Walker and Rowland into his villa to stage his own murder and to cast suspicion on the innocent Mail.
Not only Commissioner X and his friend are fooled by the incident, but also Henry Mail, who is hiding under a false name. When he enters the supposedly inherited yacht "Golden Beam", he falls into the trap of O'Brien and ends up with his girlfriend in the concrete of a dam. Jo Walker can track O'Brien through a secret tunnel on the island. Inspector X learns that O'Brien, Costello, Prado and Mail invested their fortunes in gold that they were storing on the island. Since it was radioactively contaminated for five years against O'Brien's will , he had the atomic physicist Bob Carrell kidnapped to build a "gold panning plant". Since then, O'Brien has had the gold reserves decontaminated so that they can be used before the end of the five years. In contrast, he had his business partners eliminated in cold blood.
Joan Smith, O'Brien's secretary and supposed lover, finally reveals herself to be Bob Carrell's sister. She had agreed to the unscrupulous arms dealer to free her kidnapped brother. However, she learns that he has been suffering from radiation sickness since an accident and will die. O'Brien and his assistants, whom he has made subservient tools with drugs, capture Walker and Joan. Meanwhile, Tom Rowland arrives on the island with the help of the admiral's daughter Pamela Hudson. Joan Carrell and Jo Walker outsmart the guards of the secret facility and free the captured helpers. O'Brien then triggers a mechanism that will blow up the entire island after a few minutes. Walker and Rowland can overwhelm O'Brien. It ends up in the radioactive liquid in his gold panning system. At the last moment, Commissioner X and Captain Rowland manage to escape from the island. Their underground facilities are ultimately destroyed by huge explosions.
History of origin
prehistory
The figure of the New York private detective Jo Louis Walker , known as Commissioner X , was invented at the end of 1958 by Karl-Heinz Günther under the publisher's pseudonym Bert F. Island on behalf of the Erich-Pabel-Verlag . The booklet novels , published until 1992, were developed as a counterpart to Jerry Cotton by the competing Bastei publishing house , but without being a mere copy. So Commissioner X is actively supported by his friend Captain Tom Rowland , the head of the homicide squad in Manhattan . And while Jerry Cotton only investigated in the USA , with a few exceptions , Walker and Rowland solved their cases in the most exotic locations around the world.
In 1965 Constantin Filmverleih brought the first Jerry Cotton film to the screen with Shots from the Violin Case . The film turned out to be a big crowd puller, so that in the same year they began to shoot more sequels. While the first contributions in this series were staged in the rather dry style of typical police films, the action-packed agent films about James Bond, produced in Great Britain since 1962, set new genre standards. Numerous film producers followed this development, and ultimately also those of the Jerry Cotton films.
The German entrepreneur Egon Haebe also recognized this trend. His Piran-Film + Televisions GmbH, founded in 1961, announced the film Kommissar X - The pointer is about to murder for the 1965/66 cinema season . Directed by Helmuth Ashley , the actors Harald Leipnitz (as Commissioner X), Jane Axell, Peter Carsten , Kai Fischer and Wolfgang Kieling were to take part. Since Piran-Film went bankrupt at the beginning of 1965, the project was not realized.
Instead, the German film producers Hans A. Pflüger and Theo Maria Werner acquired the filming rights to the Kommissar X novels for their Munich- based Parnassus film. In order to give the first Commissioner X film Hunt for Unknown an international flair, two experienced production partners were found abroad: Mario Siciliano's Metheus Film in Rome and Avala Film in Belgrade . The former Yugoslavia , where the film was shot, is not officially considered a country of production, however, as Avala Film only acted as a service partner to the German and Italian production companies.
Script and cast
The Italian Gianfranco Parolini (pseudonym: Frank Kramer ) could be engaged as a director for Commissioner X - Hunt for Unknown . Together with Giovanni Simonelli (pseudonym Sim O'Neill ) and Theo Maria Werner (pseudonym: Werner Hauff ), he also wrote the script, which is based on the novel of the same name (volume 84) by Fritjof Haft . This had already appeared in 1960 under the publisher's pseudonym Bert F. Island and was reprinted as a paperback (volume 239) on the occasion of the filming in 1966.
The leading actors hired the Rome-born Tony Kendall as Commissioner X and the American Brad Harris as his friend and rival Captain Tom Rowland . The remaining actors consisted of an international cast from the countries involved in the production, with the female leading actresses Maria Perschy from Austria and Christa Linder from Germany.
Filming
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The shooting for Commissioner X - The Hunt for Unknown took place in Dubrovnik and the surrounding area in what was then Yugoslavia. Niko Matul was responsible for the film construction. Else Heckmann and Jelisaveta Gobecki (named Betty Gobecky in the opening credits ) took on the costume advice . Maria Perschy's costumes were provided by the Salon Gisela in Munich. The main actor Brad Harris acted, as in many of his films, at the same time as a stunt man and action and stunt coordinator. One of the highlights of the film was a scene in which Harris was swinging freely on a steel cable over the harbor basin of the old town of Dubrovnik.
Film music
The music for the film was penned by Mladen "Bobby" Gutesha , who also wrote the theme song I Love You, Joe Walker (text: Gianfranco Parolini) sung by Angelina Monti . The piece, interpreted in typical Bond film fashion, was released as a single on the Ariola label .
synchronization
The actors spoke in their respective mother tongues during the shooting. Leading actor Tony Kendall later said that he always remembered the last word before his part as a keyword during rehearsals. The voice actors for the German version were:
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Jo Louis Walker, "Commissioner X" | Tony Kendall | Gert Günther Hoffmann |
| Captain Tom Rowland | Brad Harris | Rainer Brandt |
| Pamela Hudson | Christa Linder | Ilse Pagé |
| O'Brien's medic | Ingrid Lotarius | Margot Leonard |
| O'Brien | Nikola Popović | Alf Marholm |
| Can | Giuseppe Mattei | Martin Hirthe |
| Captain Olsen | Jacques Bézard | Klaus Miedel |
| Patient | Danielle Godet | Ilse Kiewiet |
| Bobo | Olivera Katarina | Helen Vita |
| Henry Mail | Viktor Starčić | Konrad Wagner |
| Admiral Hudson | NN | Wilhelm Borchert |
| Sergeant Brady | NN | Wolfgang Draeger |
| Tim | NN | Frank Glaubrecht |
| Officer | NN | Heinz Petruo |
| Man at the motel entrance | NN | Friedrich Schoenfelder |
| gangster | NN | Hans Schwarz Jr. |
| Pedro Salina | NN | Herbert Weissbach |
reception
publication
The FSK released the film on March 3, 1966 from the age of 16. The Gloria Filmverleih, which brought the film to German cinemas on March 11, promised, among other things, a “sex and high tension” thriller and a “gangster hunt with all the refinements”. In fact, Commissioner X - Hunt for Unknowns turned out to be an extraordinary success. The Italian premiere of Dodici donne d'oro , as the film was called there, took place on April 9, 1966.
For home cinema, the film was initially released in a heavily shortened version on Super 8 . As with the later broadcasts on television and the publication on video cassette , the scope format of the film was not reproduced correctly. In October 2012 the film was released for the first time with an age rating of 12 and over in the correct format on DVD .
Commissioner X - Hunt for Unknown could also be successfully marketed abroad and ran there under the following titles:
- Finland : Miehemme X: Tapaus kultatytöt
- France : Le Commissaire X traque les chiens verts
- Greece : Dodeka hryses gynaikes
- Greece: Fili gia fili, sfaira gia sfaira (re- release title )
- Yugoslavia : Komesar X
- Portugal : Comissário X - Ataque Fulminante
- Spain : Comisario X
- Turkey : Tabancali yosmalar
- United Kingdom : Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill
- United States : Kiss Kiss… Kill Kill (TV Title)
The German theatrical release of Commissioner X - Three Yellow Cats , the next film in the series, of which a total of seven films were to be released by 1971 , followed on May 17th .
Reviews
"Vulgar and inappropriate imitation of the James Bond and Flint films, which tries without irony to offer the most exact copy possible, with no intention of modifying what is found a bit."
"This unbeatable duo is twice as funny as James Bond and much more relaxed and sleazy ."
“'Inspector X - Hunt for Unknown' is a lively, difficultly entertaining flick that is refined by the 'Berlin Synchronization'. Colorful and playful fun, in which James Bond's little stepbrother is full of vigor and makes the dolls dance. "
“Hardly any exciting, dubious colportage entertainment. First film in a series of international co-productions that should benefit from the success of the James Bond films. "
"James Bond-oriented ripper with a utopian twist, who, despite considerable effort, cannot deny its dime-book model."
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ 92 minutes for cinema projection (24 images / second), 89 minutes for television playback (25 images / second), film length: 2524 meters (German version)
- ↑ Ingo Löchel: KOMMISSAR X - Die Heftromanserie, 1st part: The beginnings and CH Günter at zauberspiegel.de
- ↑ Distribution program 1965/66. Piran 1965 film
- ↑ Ingo Löchel: KOMMISSAR X - Die Heftromanserie, An interview with FRITJOF HAFT at zauberspiegel.de
- ↑ Commissioner X - Volume 84: Hunt for Unknown at McSammel.de
- ↑ Commissioner X - Hunt for unknowns ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at TRIVIALITAS - Forum for Popular Culture ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Angelina Monti - I Love You, Joe Walker at Discogs
- ↑ a b Markus Littwin: Inspector X - Hunt for Unknown ( Memento of the original from July 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Die-besten-Horrorfilme.de ( Memento of the original from November 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Commissioner X - Hunt for Unknown. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Commissioner X - hunting Unknown in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- ↑ Advertising advice from Commissioner X - Hunt for Unknown , Gloria-Film 1966
- ↑ DVD: Commissioner X - Hunt for Unknown. Anolis Entertainment. 2012. Order no. 95247
- ↑ Marco Koch: DVD review: “Inspector X - Hunt for Unknown” at the Bremen Film Forum
- ↑ Commissioner X - Hunt for Unknown. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 115/1966
