Aka - Mystery
of the Red Jungle
Aka - Weiße Fracht für Hongkong
Aka - Le mystère de la jongue
rouge
Aka - Da 077: criminali ad Hong Kong
First of all this takes place in Hong Kong, not in a jungle. No idea where
that title came from other than the main female wears a lot of red. Can a
woman be a jungle? Perhaps. If they can be a wonderland, why not a jungle.
It is amazing how many of the Euro-crime/spy films of the 1960s were located
in Hong Kong and for that I am grateful. Often these films show more of Hong
Kong than the Hong Kong films of the time. Those were generally shot in the
studio while the Western films did a lot of location shooting and since they
were in Hong Kong they felt obligated to get in a lot of the local color
and sights. Seeing Hong Kong in the 60's before it was built up is a treat.
All sampans, crowded narrow streets, the neon filled nights, small shops,
food carts, rickshaws, junks, the Peninsula Hotel where everyone seems to
stay and danger everywhere. Sometimes I can tell where the filming takes
place but for the most part I had no idea with this one. Around the dock
areas and in poor areas but a few times they go to the heights or The Peak.
In one stunning shot they are in a British ex-pats home and it looks over
all of Hong Kong from far above. My dream house. Probably worth millions
today.
As to the film it is fairly uneven. It starts off really great giving me
high hopes but settles down to much too much talk with an occasional murder
thrown in to keep us awake. And a few lovely damsels. Maria Perschy who I
have come across in a few of these Euro-genre films - The Mad Executioners,
Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill, Five Golden Dragons and The Castle of Fu Manchu. Blonde
hair and startling blue eyes. One little pleasure for us Hong Kong film fans
is the appearance of Simon Yuen and not in a white wig playing Beggar Soo.
He is the villain's number one henchmen but performs no Drunken Kung-fu unfortunately.
Another Euro-genre player is American Brad Harris who first came over to
Europe to be in a number of Peplum films but when that died out moved into
action in the Kommissar X films.
This begins with two junks out in the ocean planning to make a drug transaction
but suddenly a motor boat shows up and gets the package and drives off. It
is quickly clear that none of these people are the good guys as one of the
Gwielos pushes a man into the water after accusing him of being complicit
and shooting him in the water. Not at all sporting. The guy in the motor
boat with the mask on gets to land and immediately shoots his accomplice.
Then back to the other guy whipping the other men on the boat. At this point
I settled back and thought my kind of movie. Yes but not as much as I hoped
for. A little torture later on but not a lot of action or sex or perversity.
Maria comes into the picture when a shipment she sent back home had heroin
in it. She demands answers from the shipper run by Horst Frank who with his
dead eyes and Aryan looks must have gotten a lot of Nazi roles. He has a
thing going with the owner (Lilly Mantovani) of a swank nightclub that has
three ladies performing in feathers and bikinis. Maybe the highlight of the
film actually. Brad and his partner Dietmar Schönherr are basically
dumb American pilots that the villain wants to hire to fly drugs. But damn,
there is so much talk - especially when they should be killing the person
they are talking to. Can't anyone just shut up and shoot? Do we really have
to gloat first? The film has the usual continuity problems that so many of
these Euro-genre films have such as Harris being dragged in the water for
miles and when he gets out he is perfectly dry and his clothes are perfectly
tapered. You think, ya someone should have noticed that and thrown a bucket
of water on him but that is sort of the charm of these films.
