How do you kill a lady?
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | How do you kill a lady? |
| Original title | The secret of the yellow monks Tiro a segno per uccidere |
| Country of production | Austria , Italy |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1966 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Manfred R. Koehler |
| script | Anatoll Bratt |
| production | Intercontinental-Film, Vienna ( Karl Spiehs ) Produzioni Europee Associate, Rome |
| music | Marcello Giombini |
| camera |
Siegfried Hold Tonino delli Colli |
| cut | Daniele Alabiso |
| occupation | |
| |
How do you kill a lady? , also known under the Austrian cinema title The Secret of the Yellow Monks , is an Austrian - Italian crime thriller in the wake of the James Bond and Edgar Wallace films. Under the direction of Manfred R. Köhler play Stewart Granger , Curd Jürgens and Karin Dor the leading roles.
action
On her 25th birthday, the brunette Sandra Perkins is said to inherit the massive sum of 72 million dollars. Should she die before that, her guardian would benefit from the money. A criminal organization, whose representatives preferably appear as monks dressed in yellow, then wants to blow out the light of life. The head of the gang turns out to be a certain Gérard van Looch, who, as a gang boss always dressed in white, can be called “Giant” in all modesty. The secret agent James Vine is drawn into this case by chance, but is all the more committed when it comes to protecting Sandra Perkins from the flock of bad boys who like to use their machine guns.
He has been very busy since he met Sandra on the plane. The villains wanted to crash the plane and jumped off with parachutes themselves. Jack of all trades Vine was able to prevent the crash at the last moment with Sandra's help. From then on, the beautiful woman is threatened in all kinds of situations and locations: in Lebanon on a harbor promenade, in a hotel room and in the courtyard of her company. Finally, the criminals succeed in kidnapping Sandra, and it takes the courage and commitment of the fist-wielding Vine to free the lovely innocence from this predicament. After all, Sandra's greedy and villainous Uncle Henry turns out to be the mastermind behind all adversity ...
production
The film, filmed in Yugoslavia in spring / summer 1966, opened in both Austria and Germany on September 30, 1966. How to kill a lady united with Granger and Dor, two stars of the Karl May film wave, which was very popular at the time . The engagement of the actors Rupert Davies and Adolfo Celi , who were largely unknown in German-speaking countries a few years earlier , was based on their fame as television commissioner Maigret (Davies) and as Bond opponent Largo in Feuerball (Celi).
The buildings were created by Nino Borghi . Paul Waldherr was the production manager, Franz Antels permanent unit manager Gerald Martell took over this function in this film. Producer Karl Spiehs ran into financial difficulties temporarily while filming. Only under the new title The Secret of the Yellow Monks did the film become a box-office hit.
Reviews
The reviews were consistently negative. The lexicon of international films called the film a “mindless mixture of Edgar Wallace and agent film clichés in a very elaborate staging”, the magazine Cinema wrote that “the wild mix of Wallace crime thriller and agent film” was “rather involuntarily funny despite the opulent equipment. "The evangelical film observer found:" Despite the array of a phalanx of well-known international names among the actors and some other merits, this work is just another piece of driftwood on the wave of agents and not worth a visit. "Even the otherwise rather benevolent magazine Filmecho / Filmwoche asked about gang boss Giant: "How did this dilettante of gangsters get so far in his job?" Despite his experience and immense personnel and material resources, "it is not possible for him to carry out an assignment for beginners."
Web links
- How do you kill a lady? in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- How do you kill a lady? at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Roman Schliesser: The super nose. Karls Spiehs and his films , Verlag Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 2006, p. 26
- ↑ How do you kill a lady? In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 373/1966
- ↑ Roman Schliesser: The super nose. Karls Spiehs and his films , Verlag Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 2006, p. 83