Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill (German: Kommissar X – Jagd auf Unbekannt, Italian: 12 donne d'oro, also known as Hunting The Unknown and Kiss Kiss... Kill Kill) is a Eurospy film written and directed by Gianfranco Parolini who also wrote lyrics for the Joe Walker Theme. The film stars Tony Kendall and Brad Harris.[2] It is the first of seven films, loosely based on the 1960 Kommissar X #73 detective novel from the Pabel Moewig publishing house.[3]

Kommissar X: Jagd auf Unkbekannt
Directed byGianfranco Parolini
Screenplay by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyFrancesco Izzrelli[1]
Edited byEdmond Lozzi[1]
Music byMladen Gutesha[1]
Production
companies
  • Parnass-Film GmbH
  • Metheus Film[1]
Release date
  • 11 March 1966 (1966-03-11)
Running time
92 minutes[1]
Countries
  • West Germany
  • Italy[1]
LanguagesItalian
German

Plot edit

A car chase along a beautiful stretch of coastline ends when the two cars arrive at the docks. Two men emerge from the cars and engage in a running battle to reach a concealed gun, the pursuer wins the race and shoots his opponent. But the gun is loaded with blanks! And this has just been a training exercise for private detective Joe Walker (Tony Kendall) and New York police captain Tom Rowland (Brad Harris). Walker is on vacation in an unspecified European location, while Rowland has been assigned to locate a missing nuclear physicist, Bob Caroll.

The mysterious Oberon (Nikola Popovic) orders his secretary Joan (Maria Perschy) to hire Walker - she chooses the assignment and asks him to look for Carroll, then hands over a photograph and the contact details of Nancy Wright, a woman who claims to have relevant information. When Walker returns to his flat, he finds another woman - Bobo (Olivera Katarina) - who also wants to hire him, in this case to protect her from a jealous boyfriend. Walker leaves Bobo in his flat to go and meet Nancy but she is killed before he can speak to her. Walker catches Nancy's killer but the man is shot and killed by Oberon's henchman Kan (Pino Mattei) before Walker can extract any information.

Rowland is called in to investigate Nancy's murder, and he and Walker discover that she had been threatened by Oberon, who wanted her to return to 'the island'. They go to Walker's flat, only to find that Bobo has also been killed by Kan. As they decide what to do, Oberon calls Walker and asks him for help. Walker and Rowland go to Oberon's villa, and he tells them about a seemingly deadly business partnership - two of the partners have already been murdered, leaving him at the mercy of the fourth partner Henry Mail. Oberon explains that the last surviving partner will acquire all the partnership's assets.

Walker and Rowland are still unaware of Oberon's involvement in the previous murders and listen to his story, but they are distracted by intruders and can only watch Oberon's apparent murder which, we soon learn, was staged by his own henchmen. The next stage of Oberon's plan is to bequeath Mail his yacht; when Mail is lured aboard, Oberon reveals that he is still alive, orders the killing of Mail and his wife, and leaves the yacht before Walker and Rowland arrive. However, Walker finds one of Oberon's distinctive cigar bands on the yacht, which suggests he is still alive.

Walker and Rowland argue over how to proceed and Rowland ends their cooperation, but then Walker meets and charms Pamela (Christa Linder), borrows her car and returns to Oberon's villa. Oberon observes him on CCTV, and allows him access to the control room beneath the villa, where Walker encounters a group of armed blonde women who escort him to Oberon's secret base beneath a nearby island. Unlike most women Walker has encountered so far, the blondes appear impervious to his charm.

Two of Oberon's henchmen kidnap Pamela, but Rowland is able to board their boat, overpower them, and rescue her. He discovers that Pamela was due to be taken to Oberon's island, and deduces that his base is there. Meanwhile, on the island, Oberon tells Walker the full story. He and his partners had raised huge amounts of money in a series of criminal activities, and had hidden a vast amount of gold in the vault under the island. Oberon had argued with his partners over their wish to contaminate the gold store with radioactivity, and had hired Carroll, the missing scientist, to help. Carroll had developed a chemical bath to wash the radioactivity from the gold, but has become terminally ill as a result of his work.

At this point Joan reveals that she is Carroll's sister, and she shoots Oberon in revenge for his treatment of her brother. However, Oberon had replaced her bullets with blanks, and has Joan taken away - to the dismay of Kan, who obviously has feelings for her. Oberon leaves Walker to die, and orders a (lady) doctor (Ingrid Lotarius) to inject Joan with a substance that removes her free will, so she will end up in the same condition as the blonde security guards. But Kan sends the doctor away and only pretends to give the injection, so Joan is able to release Walker.

Oberon is furious, and taunts Kan with the knowledge that Joan loves Walker and not him, so Kan promises to kill Walker. Rowland and Pamela reach the island, but Pamela is abducted and taken underground. Joan is captured by Oberon's henchmen but Walker escapes disguised as a technician and uses his charm to 'overpower' the doctor, who agrees to help him by using an antidote to give the blonde women back their free will.

Rowland accesses the base and links up with Walker, in time to witness the women, including Joan and Pamela, defeat Oberon's henchmen. Rowland then helps the women escape from the island, but Walker remains behind to deal with Oberon. Initially Walker has Oberon at gunpoint, but Kan disarms him. Refusing to shoot him in cold blood, Kan then tries to batter Walker to death, but Walker manages to retrieve the gun and shoots Kan dead.

Rowland returns to help, as Oberon tries to shut himself in the gold vault, but Walker joins him there. Realising that his master plan has failed, Oberon sets off the self destruct mechanism, meaning that the base will explode in 5 minutes. Rowland rescues Walker from the vault, and Oberon falls to his death in the chemical bath. As the base explodes around them, Walker and Rowland escape from the base, and dive into the sea.

In the final act, Walker tries to resolve the results of his various charm offensives. He is rejected by Joan, so pairs off with Pamela, but the doctor is unhappy with this arrangement and throws Walker in a swimming pool, to the amusement of Rowland and the other women.

Cast edit

Release edit

Komissar X: Jagd auf Unbekannt was released on 11 March 1966.[1] In Italy, it is known as 12 donne d'oro.[1]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Komissar X: Jagd auf Unbekannt". Filmportal.de. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
  2. ^ Roberto Chiti; Roberto Poppi; Enrico Lancia; Mario Pecorari (1991). Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film. Gremese Editore, 1992. ISBN 978-88-7605-593-5.
  3. ^ Marco Giusti. 007 all'italiana. Isbn Edizioni, 2010. ISBN 978-88-7638-187-4.

External links edit