The "Kommissar X" (Commissioner X) series (at least 9 films between 1965 and 1971) starred Tony Kendall and Brad Harris as a detective and policeman who team up to combat a variety of international spies, smugglers, jewel thieves, etc. These pictures, which were apparently all co-productions between Germany (West Germany at the time) and other countries, have been released under differing titles and in different forms. Kendall and Harris worked together numerous times in non-Kommissar X films, such as the Three Fantastic Superman pictures.
Christa Linder appeared in two
of these films. I have copies them (thanks to Glenn Browne) and will
post more complete reviews after I have seen them.
Translated title: Commissioner X: Unknown Prey
Alternate title(s): Kiss Kiss...Kill Kill
A German-Italian co-production; Director: Frank Kramer (aka Gianfranco Parolini)
Cast: Tony Kendall, Brad Harris, Maria Perschy, Christa Linder
Notes: this was probably the
first "Kommissar X" film. Kendall (real name, Luciano Stella) plays "Joe
Walker," who is Commissioner X; Harris is Captain Rowland, his friend,
associate, and rival. The film deals with murders committed by a
beautiful female assassin (Maria Perschy). Christa Linder doesn't appear
until about 45 minutes into the picture, looking quite young and slim.
Translated title: Commissioner X: In the Claws of the
Golden Dragon. Christa Linder does NOT appear in this film, although
some sources credit her. The problem may be that this title is sometimes
confused with Kiss Kiss...Kill Kill.
Translated title: Commissioner X: Three Green Dogs
Alternate title(s): Soft Kill (this version has been edited and "new" nude scenes have been inserted--even under the credits!); also known as Death Trip
A German-Italian-French-Lebanese (!)-Hungarian co-production; Director: Rudolf Zehetgruber (at least one source also credits Frank Kramer)
Cast: Tony Kendall (Joe Walker), Brad Harris (Capt. Roland), Christa Linder (Giselle), Olly Schoberová, Sabine Sun, Dietmar Schönherr, Herbert Fux, Rossella Bergamonti, Samson Burk
Notes: this film is set in Istanbul (it was certainly filmed somewhere in the Middle East). Joe Walker is a private detective investigating a drug smuggling gang called the "Green Hounds" (there is some suggestion he is trying to find a young American woman in their clutches); Capt. Roland arrives with a thermos bottle full of LSD (for U.S. government use!), which the Green Hounds want (they have a buyer for it). The private secretary of the U.S. consul is a member of the gang.
Christa Linder appears in one early scene, helping Joe escape from the Green Hounds in a bar where she works as a cigarette girl. However, the gang chases them, Joe dives off a bridge, and Linder is captured. She doesn't reappear until late in the film, a prisoner of the Hounds. She, a lovely tour guide named Leyla, Roland, and Walker are taken to the desert hideout of the gang. Eventually the criminals are defeated, with help from the Turkish cavalry.
Linder looks quite fetching in her cigarette girl outfit (the only costume she wears in the entire movie), but her role is quite subsidiary. It's ironic that her best parts were in Mexican films, far from her "roots"!
The film itself isn't bad, witha good cast, some decent action and very
nice location shooting, but the plot is muddled and the final, desert
sequence goes on way too long.
Posted 4 June 99, revised 27 July 2000 by dwilt@umd.edu