Friday, January 29, 2010

UM NULL UHR SCHNAPPT DIE FALLE ZU - Peter Thomas - "Jerry Cotton's Day Out" (1966)

There's a lot of fishy stuff going on here! A German film made in New York, and as far as I can tell, "Um Null Uhr Schnappt Die Falle Zu" was never released in America, so I do believe it was originally shot in English and dubbed into German, and if all that isn't basackwards enough, 87% looks like it was shot with Green Screen mixed in with a bunch of stock footage!! It is truly a marvel to behold, and the music by Dungeon superhero Peter Thomas is amazing, constant, and changes from scene to scene! Cheesy, Sleazy, Fat, and Greasy!! J, E, R, R, Y, C, O, T, T, O, N! Yeah!!!

No hesitation here, this film starts off with a Bang, and I'm not talking about Joy!!

I couldn't find on the credits who was responsible for spell checking!! I imagine that's one thing they'll pay more attention to when they bring Jerry Cotton back to the big screen later this year, and hopefully, they'll come up with a better title than "The Trap Snaps Shut At Midnight!"

Here he is, the man of the hour, George Nader as agent Jerry Cotton! George had a pretty amazing career! Signed and screwed by Universal, because they already had enough good looking guys, George was often given secondary roles, and spent a lot of time living in his best friend and lover, Rock Hudson's shadow! He started off in cowboy movies, starred in "Robot Monster," did a shitload of TV shows including a 25 episode run as "Ellery Queen" in '58 and '59, followed by 36 episodes of an ongoing role as Dr. Glen Bartok in "The Man and The Challenge," followed by yet another 36 episodes as Joe Shannon on a TV show called "Shannon," before landing this Jerry Cotton gig.

This is kingpin Larry Link portrayed by prolific German actor Horst Frank! Larry likes to lounge around in this wet room with his cigs, drink, and remote-controlled boat, get massages, and yell at his gang! It's really cool the way he chooses to talk to some person through one of his men, even though the subject he's talking to, is only a few feet away!

This is The Larry Link Gang, composed of Ricky Cooper as Pal, Allen Pinson as Harry, and Alexander Allerson as Husky! Allen Pinson also had a great career as a stunt man before passing away in Visalia, Ca. almost exactly 4 years ago!

It looks like they spent a goodly amount of the budget on Jerry's Jag!! Probably had a rental agreement that forbade the use of the vehicle on any actual roads!

Heinz Weiss had the ongoing role as Jerry's fairly useless partner, Phil Decker through thick and thin!!

It was a gentleman named Lawrence W. Butler came up with the concept of chroma key back in 1940 for the motion picture "The Thief Of Bagdad" starring Sabu, and ended up winning an academy award for "Best Special Effects!"

Lawrence went on to do everything from "The Giant Claw" to "Robinson Crusoe On Mars!" Green Screen aka Blue Screen has been used to create remarkable effects over the years, and these days, any 13 year old kid can do it at home, and tonight's feature is an incredible example of what you can actually get away with, using the process!!!

This whole Jerry as window washer scene is a freakin' gas, and Larry's hoods are starting to get a little uptight!!!

"I said, Beat it!!!"

All I can tell you about the Jack Palance with a bleach blonde wig lookalike Ricky Cooper, is that he was in a total of 5 flicks, and besides playing Pal(They say it Paul), he was Jeff, Ben, L'Américain, and Charlie! Monika Grimm as Ruth Warren makes this two shot complete, especially with that 'Garlic UFO' shaped lamp in the background!

Monika Grimm also had a short stint in the German girl group "The Sweetles," a Beatles tribute band that had a 1964 top forty hit in Germany, with the single "I Want A Beatle For My Birthday."

The lovely Dominique Wilms as Maureen, sells Larry her plan as he is attended to, by one of the guys!!

I just can't resist a good pinball shot, and can you believe that score?!?

Do you really believe there's a windshield in this car???

Larry's gang catches up with Jerry, and Boy, is he in trouble now??

But they still need Jerry alive, so they just tie him up instead of shooting him, and he manages to excape by burning through the ropes binding his hands with a cast off cigarette butt!

Amazing stunts are possible when you know how to use chroma key combined with rear screen projection to your advantage like these folks!!

My buddy in Berlin, Lord Litter, hipped me to the whole Jerry Cotton phenomena, but it was a bummer, because I could not find anything that wasn't region 2 until recently finding out that Sinister Cinema had released 3 or 4 titles that are quite decently priced. I'm going to get a couple more, and you might want to consider it yourself! Time's running out!!!

3 comments:

Prof. Grewbeard said...

Die Sweetles, can you beat that!...

Greg Goodsell said...

i DON'T want a Beatle for my birthday. They would just play rough with my cockroaches in my kitchen ...

zillagord said...

Poor Joy Bang, reduced to a cheap punchline. The old mare ain't what she used to be....

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