Saturday, December 1, 2018

ISLAND OF LOST GIRLS (1973) ** ½



Tony Kendall returns as Kommissar X in this sixth entry in the long-running series.  A rich woman vacationing in Bangkok with her family is terrified when her daughter is kidnapped by white slavers. She calls on Captain Rowland (Brad Harris) to find her and he in turn gets in touch with Jo Walker (AKA:  Kommissar X) to join the hunt.  Together, they track the slavers down to a remote island where a wealthy madam (who keeps a pet crocodile) runs the show.

This was my first exposure to the Kommissar X series, and if it’s any indication of the franchise, I wouldn’t mind checking out the other entries.  It’s a lightweight, pseudo-spy movie with some decent action and a handful of genuinely funny bits.  My favorite moment came when Harris’ clothes are stolen by a beautiful would-be assassin.  When she fails to kill him, he’s forced to put on a short bellhop’s uniform and give chase in extremely ill-fitting clothes.  Kommissar X also has a few Bond-inspired gadgets like a pistol-sized rocket launcher and a pair of sunglasses that double as a radio transmitter.  Not to be one-upped, the villains have a pretty cool ice cream truck equipped with a flamethrower at their disposal.  

Island of Lost Girls is far from perfect.  After a strong start, it falls into a repetitive rut after a while.  (Try to keep a running tally of how many people get killed by poisoned blow darts.)  Still, any movie that manages to combine prostitutes with poison rings, motorboat chases, and killer snakes makes for a perfectly acceptable lazy afternoon entertainment if you ask me. 

AKA:  Three Golden Serpents.

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