Its English title ties
Das Mädchen von Hongkong strongly to the spy genre but I am not sure whether this fast-paced outing from director Jürgen Roland (
Battle of the Godfathers) even made it to English-speaking shores at all. There are some superficial similarities to eurospy movies like the
Kommissar-X-series but story-wise
Das Mädchen von Hongkong is more in the vein of the later day - read: more exploitive and permissive - krimis that Rialto Film and CCC put out in their Edgar Wallace and Bryan Edgar Wallace series. No surprise here: the film is based on a novel by screenwriter Herbert Reinecker, the man responsible for several Wallace adaptations and about a gazillion episodes of different TV crime shows including the long-running
Derrick.
Spiced up with several fistfights, shoot-outs and some bare breasts (courtesy of Li Paelz and frequent Report-film starlet Eva Garden), the film features the ever likeable Joachim Fuchsberger as jack-of-all-trades Frank Boyd. Boyd arrives in Hong Kong trying to start a new life, only to find out that his friend Edward Collins has been killed under mysterious circumstances. Before you can say "Third Man", Boyd runs into shady figures and gets his life in danger more than once. The local police don't offer much help but finally Boyd manages to uncover the machinations of a large-scale drug syndicate all on his own. And then let's not forget that gorgeous Chinese beauty Mai Li whom Boyd has to take care of during his investigations...
Das Mädchen von Hongkong is simple, light-hearted 70s crime action with the occasional red herring and story twist. Colourful and largely shot on location the film benefits a lot from the oriental setting, adding some interesting exotic flavour to what would otherwise have played out as rather unremarkable standard fare. Fuchsberger is in good form and steals the show with his tongue-in-cheek machismo attitude, not once losing his humour even when the bad guys try and give him a good thrashing (sorry guys, no martial arts here). Unfortunately, Véronique Vendell, Grégoire Aslan and bad guy Arthur Brauss don't get a lot to do with their rather underwritten parts and the Mai Li character is only loosely integrated in the plot. I had a good time with this picture, though - it makes for perfectly relaxed Sunday afternoon entertainment. The fabulous soundtrack is not credited to any composer as it is culled from music libraries. I wish I could identify some more of the tunes. As of now the film has not been released on DVD but occasionally it is shown on German late night TV (1.66, maybe cut?). Has anyone seen it and how do you rate it?
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Topic: Das Mädchen von Hongkong / From Hong Kong with Love (Jürgen Roland, 1973) (Read 3009 times)