West German-Italian (PEA-Film)-French (SNC) co-production. Director:
Marcello Baldi; Scr: Karl Heinz Vogelmann, Giovanni Simonelli;
Photo: Rolf Kastel; Music: Piero Umiliani; Film Edit:
Herbert Taschner; in Ultrascope and Eastmancolor; (credits come from the
Independent Television Corporation version "Countdown to Doomsday," (c) 1967).
Cast: George Ardisson (Jeff Merlin), Horst Frank (Nilsen), Harald Leipnitz (?Allan Sheperdon), Pascale Audret (?Vicki), Christa Linder (Ellen Remington), Luciana Angiolillio, Patrick Bernard, Salvatore Borgese, Ma. Julia Diaz, Marion Grant, Jose Castillo Escalona, Andres Pascual Valeriano
[character names spelled phonetically]
This is a satisfactory action film starring George Ardisson as American private detective Jeff Merlin, who is called in when Ellen, the daughter of millionaire Remington is kidnaped in Venezuela. His daughter was working undercover to get a story about smuggling. Merlin is assisted by Allen and Vicki, two agents trying to break the smuggling gang. At the film's climax, Ellen is tied underwater to an oil rig, which is going to be dynamited by the gang. Jeff manages to rescue her, but his romantic fadeout is with Vicki.
Countdown to Doomsday is reasonably well made, with a lot of action and decent production values. It bogs down in the center and the plot is rather muddled, but overall it's a decent piece of work.
Christa Linder only appears in a few scenes: in the opening sequence she's
sitting on a beach, writing her story, and is kidnaped by two thugs. Later,
wearing gray makeup (to signify that she's been drugged) she's shown
to her father to encourage him to pay the ransom; she appears briefly at
the climax as well.
Posted 23 July 99 by dwilt@umd.edu