Loved this one for lots of reasons. For one thing, the romance angle was done decently for once. It wasn't, as happens so often in these Edgar Wallace films, that the hero meets the girl within the first five minutes and we're made fully aware that they've instantly fallen madly in love, then we spend the rest of the film being reminded of it, to the detriment of the story.
Lee was great in his warm-up for Fu Manchu. Ruthless character, but we find out he has a very good reason for it. Fuchsberger is my favourite of the policemen/secret service detectives/airline security agents(!), which is just as well, because he's in so many of these, but the forced romances can make his characters seem a bit lightweight and cheesy. No such problems here.
Loved the teamwork between. Tarling, Chu and Whiteside. Having spent my life watching films and programmes in which all other agents and agencies apart from our heroes are incompetent, lazy and/or corrupt and must be worked around, it was a refreshing change to see honest collaboration and respect between all involved.
Some random thoughts: How easy would it be for a 6'5" supposed-to-be-Chinese man in a huge white overcoat to skulk around in the shadows without being noticed in 1961 London?
That old lady's wheelchair must have retrorockets fitted, the speed at which it flies backwards towards the stairs.
Of Kinski's three appearances so far, this is the first one where I think he really starts Kinski-ing it up. Let Kinski be Kinski!
Speaking of Kinski, have a look again at 1:29:15, when he falls over. The back of his head genuinely hits that concrete parapet so hard he could have left us before he went full-on crazy. Actually, maybe this is what caused it... I watched Lee speaking his own lines in German for the whole thing and it didn't even register with me until I read Bunuel's review. Go, Chris! That voice needs to be heard by as many people as possible.
Great.
Lee was great in his warm-up for Fu Manchu. Ruthless character, but we find out he has a very good reason for it. Fuchsberger is my favourite of the policemen/secret service detectives/airline security agents(!), which is just as well, because he's in so many of these, but the forced romances can make his characters seem a bit lightweight and cheesy. No such problems here.
Loved the teamwork between. Tarling, Chu and Whiteside. Having spent my life watching films and programmes in which all other agents and agencies apart from our heroes are incompetent, lazy and/or corrupt and must be worked around, it was a refreshing change to see honest collaboration and respect between all involved.
Some random thoughts: How easy would it be for a 6'5" supposed-to-be-Chinese man in a huge white overcoat to skulk around in the shadows without being noticed in 1961 London?
That old lady's wheelchair must have retrorockets fitted, the speed at which it flies backwards towards the stairs.
Of Kinski's three appearances so far, this is the first one where I think he really starts Kinski-ing it up. Let Kinski be Kinski!
Speaking of Kinski, have a look again at 1:29:15, when he falls over. The back of his head genuinely hits that concrete parapet so hard he could have left us before he went full-on crazy. Actually, maybe this is what caused it... I watched Lee speaking his own lines in German for the whole thing and it didn't even register with me until I read Bunuel's review. Go, Chris! That voice needs to be heard by as many people as possible.
Great.