KISS, KISS, KILL, KILL (1966)

As a woman sings a catchy bit of jazzy pop called "I Love You, Joe Walker," we see a long car chase that ends in violent fisticuffs between two men. But it turns out the two are American cop Joe Walker (Tony Kendell) and his beefy Interpol buddy Tom Rowland (Brad Harris), and we've just witnessed an elaborate training exercise. The two are friends but competitive and occasionally antagonistic, and both are in Yugoslavia for different reasons: Rowland is on vacation and Walker is helping a sexy purple-haired woman named Bobo hunt for her missing brother, a physicist. Soon, however, Rowland is assigned a case involving prominent businessmen who are getting blown up, and eventually the two cases meet with both men tracking down a mysterious villain named Goldfinger…er, I mean, Oberon, who has a hidden cache of radioactive gold, obtained through illegal arms deals, on a secret island hideaway. Both the disappearance of the physicist (to aid with handling the gold) and the businessman assassinations (getting rid of the men who are entitled to a cut of the gold) are the work of Oberon. He also has a small army of hypnotized blonde-wigged women—like Austin Powers' fembots—guarding his outpost. I took notes like mad while watching as I tried to keep up with the action, but after 30 minutes, I just gave up, relaxed, and enjoyed the wild antics.

This German-made film is part of the Eurospy genre of movies influenced by the international success of the James Bond movies. From what I can piece together, this is the first in a series of Kommissar X (that would be Joe Walker) movies, based loosely on books credited to a Paul F. Island (think Franklin W. Dixon, supposed author of the original Hardy Boys books which were actually written by a staff). At times, it feels like the filmmakers just shot a bunch of action scenes and fashioned a semi-coherent narrative later. But it is generally fun to watch. The two leads are handsome and confidently masculine, by which I mean they don't have to exaggerate or play down their butch qualities. Brad Harris is an American actor who found his niche in Europe, first in a couple of sword-and-sandal films (like GOLIATH AGAINST THE GIANTS and then in spy films, crime films and westerns. Tony Kendall is an Italian actor (born Luciano Stella) who had a similar career trajectory to Harris's. Kendall is suave, Harris is hunky, and they have good team chemistry. They're almost like James Bond split in two: Joe is the unflappable ladies man, Tom is the brawny man of action, though in a nice comic twist at the end, it's a buff and shirtless Tom who is surrounded by non-fembot bikinied women. At least two of the female characters have fabulous purple hair. The film's budget is considerably lower than that of the Bond films, but they still manage to have some effective fight scenes and action stunts, especially one in which Harris leaps onto a moving boat. Certainly one of the better Bond rip-offs from the era. Pictured are Kendall and Harris. [YouTube]