Passport to Hell and Beyond

[davidfoster]

Here we go again. I am on one of my investigative quests and am casting out my long tendril like feelers for information.

Before I go any further - credit where credit is due. Most of the information I am about to recite (or link to) has been discovered by Todd at the blog Die Dnager Die Die Kill and Todd cites Dave at Soft film for providing some leads.

But as this is the Eurospy Forum, it's best I start at the beginning and a Eurospy film. That film is Sergio Sollima's Passport to Hell. I am presuming that most of you have seen (or will see) this film. Passport to Hell is a good film, and of the hundreds of Eurospy films that were made in the sixties, it is possibly one of the best, buoyed by the sincerity of Giorgio Ardisson's performance and a script that refuses to collapse into goofy genre conventions. Those who want to know more can check out vjetorix's review in The Eurospy Guide, or check out the DVD Newsdesk where Skadog has rebuilt a damn fine version of the film.

Now about 18 months ago, on Teleport City, Todd reviewed a Shaw Bros. Hong Kong film called The Black Falcon. What Todd discovered, which nobody had mentioned before, was that The Black Falcon was essentially a remake of Passport to Hell. Well, that put The Black Falcon on my radar, and I figured in time I would pick up a copy and compare it for myself. It took me a while, but I finally obtained a copy of The Black Falcon.

Now Todd reviewed a VCD version of the film, whereas, the only copy I could get was on DVD. With the DVD I got a few extra features that Todd wasn't privy to. One of these was a photo gallery. In the gallery there are two shots that are the same, but featuring different actors. The text explained that one was the Hong Kong version of the film; the other, filmed simultaneously with a different cast, was an 'international' version.

So that had me thinking that there were 'two' remakes of Passport to Hell. Of course I have searched for the second 'International' remake, but so far without any luck.

Then a couple of weeks ago, on Die, Danger, Die, Die, Kill, Todd posted a review of Gerak Kilat, which featured a swinging sixties spy named Jefri Zain. You can read
Todd's review here.

It appears the Gerak Kilat was made by Shaw Bros. Malay studio in Singapore. And it was the first of 3 (possibly more?) Jefri Zain films. In Todd's review he said that other films in the series were filmed in Hong Kong, simultaneously with other Shaw films. That made me think that possibly the 'International' Passport to Hell film I was seeking, may have been in fact a Malay film.

This was borne out by a follow-up post Todd made concerning the two sequels to Gerak Kilat. You can read the post here (with screencaps). Here it is revealed that the first sequel Bayangan Ajal is a version of Lo Wei's Summon to Death. The next sequel,, Jurang Baraya is a version of Angel Strikes Back.

And to take things further, Angel With The Iron Fists was versioned as, Nora Zain: Woman Agent 001 which featured Nora Zain (most likely Jefri Zain's secret agent sister).

So that's the tale of the tape so far. Now what I am looking for is a bit more information on this. And here are a few of my assertions which I have no proof for at all - guesses at this stage which need some confirmation (or denial). Firstly, as 3 of Lo Wei's spy films at Shaws were made into Malay versions, I am guessing it wouldn't be too weird for The Golden Buddha to have also had simultaneous versions made (it too could be a Jefri Zain film?) In fact practically any Shaw Bros spy film could have a Malay cousin out there.

Another of the Hong Kong Shaws Bros films that is of interest to me (I haven't seen it yet), isThe Temptress of a Thousand Faces, which from the reviews that I have read, would appear to be a remake of Andre Hunebelle's first Fantomas film, but with a female lead character. This too, may have been a prime candidate for a Malay version - so I am possibly looking for two remakes of Fantomas. (Actually I am looking for 4 Fantomas films - must track down Turkish Fantomas in Iron Claw the Pirate and Bollywood Fantomas in Saazish).

A few Youtube clips:

Nora Zain

Jurang Bahaya

Gerak Kilat

So there it is. If you have any comments, information or thoughts...?

Oh, and if you want to contact me off air, you can do so through my blog.

[skadog]

David,

Awesome sleuthing and bizarre facts. You probably need to troll some of the many Shaw-based forums and blogs to find answers to your questions. I have an avi rip of Temptress, if interested drop me a line and I'll try to find it and give more info. If memory serves, and it does so less and less each year, this is a rip from a widescreen dvd... maybe.

As to Passport from Hell, the majority of the grunt work was done by "Dave from Spain", so credit due. I did minor audio cleansing and tweaking to fit it to the dvd...

cheers!