Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill (Kommissar X - Jagd auf Unbekannt; "Frank Kramer" [Gianfranco Parolini], 1966)

Suave, charming private eye Jo Louis Walker (Django Against Sartana's Tony Kendall) and Police Captain Tom Rowland (The Mutations' Brad Harris) battle Oberon (Nikola Popovic), a high-tech-wielding arms dealer who is killing off his former partners and has a plan involving uranium and gold.

This film was the first in a series based on "Bert F. Island's" (Paul Alfred Mueller) Kommissar X novel series, of which there were 620(!) books, though Jo Walker is never called by his nom de guerre in the dubbed print I watch. The film is a German-Italian-Yugoslavian co-production, and was directed by Gianfranco Parolini under his frequent pseudonym of "Frank Kramer." You may recognize Parolini's name as the director of the three Spaghetti Westerns featuring the character Sabata, as well as If You Meet Sartana, Pray for your Death, the debut of another iconic gunslinger. Parolini brings the same flamboyancy and flair for spectacle to this film as he does to his Westerns. Kendall is a handsome and likable leading man who the ladies can't get enough of. According to his theme song, "I love you, Jo Walker, just as all the women love you," and indeed, they certainly seem to. The film has more than its share of lovely ladies, including Oberon's purple-wigged henchgirl Joan (The Castle of Fu Manchu's Maria Perschy) and admiral's daughter Pamela Hudson (Day of Anger's Christa Linder), not to mention Oberon's army of robotlike minions clad in black and sporting blonde bouffants. Brawny Brad Harris provides admirable support as Captain Rowland, though he seems to be considerably more competent than the officers under him, who twice fall for Jo's ruses. Serbian Nikola Popovic is entertaining as the awesomely-named Oberon, even though his scheme is clearly influenced by Goldfinger. Those who've seen the Sabata films will not be surprised that Parolini has lots of cool gadgets in the film. Jo has a transmitter hidden in a ring that allegedly was his mother's, as well as a radar detector screen in his car, while Oberon's gear includes a tape player that can be turned into a gun and a groovy island headquarters, complete with henchmen wearing radiation suits that look like someone dipped the A.I.M. agents' uniforms in bleach. I got a real kick out of this film, and will be searching for the rest of the series.