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In Akasava, Professor Forrester (Ángel Menéndez) has just discovered
a certain highly radioactive stone that can turn metal to gold ... but no
sooner is it in his possession that he disappears and is presumed dead. At
roughly the same time, a Secret Service agent is killed in Forrester's
London office - which is why the case all of a sudden interests both the
Secret Service and Scotland Yard, which is why chief of Scotland Yard Sir
Philip (Siegfired Schürenberg, pretty much redoing his Sir
John from the Rialto's
Edgar Wallace series) and Secret
Service agent Jane (Soledad Miranda) meet - in a brothel of all places,
because it is the perfect cover-up ...
Soon enough, Jane is off to Akasava, where she meets up with consule
Lambert (Alberto Dalbés) and Italian secret service agent Tino Celli
(Jess Franco himself), and they soon pick Doctor Thorssen (Horst tappert),
a close friend of Forrester, as their perfect suspect. But when Celli and
Lambert are searching Thorssen's place while Jane has invited him to one
of her strip performances (in best Jess Franco tradition, she is both a
stripper and a spy), Celli is exposed to the radioactive stone - which
pretty much proves the two were on the right trail - and killed by its
radiation, while Lambert is shot trying to get away ...
Meanwhile, Walter Forrester (Fred Williams), the professor's nephew,
has come to Akasava as well, allegedly to investigate his uncle's
disappearance, but he seems to be more interested in Thorssen's wife
Ingrid (Ewa Strömberg) than in doing investigations. And Thorssen doesn't
even mind ... oh, and on the side, Walter starts something with Jane as
well, even though she doesn't fully trust him. Then, in a turn of events,
Walter is shot in the leg, and Thorssen personally applies his casket -
and hides the stone in the casket to get it to London ...
Back in London, Jane, Walter - who has since turned out to be a
Scotland Yard officer - and Sir Philip have to realize they haven't gotten
one step further in their investigations - not knowing of course that
Walter has smuggled the stone to London, which is now in the possession of
Thorssen and his associate Doc Henry (Paul Muller) - so they try to use
Walter as bait, and after almost having gotten in too deep with Chinese
agents, they do lure the real culprits out into the open, Lord Kingsley
(Walter Rilla), his sister abigail (Blandine Ebinger), and their valet
Humphrey (Howard Vernon), who have in the meantime , out of greed, even
killed Docs Thorssen and Henry.
But of course, Walter and Jane put an end to their shenanigans.
After She Killed in
Ecstasy and Vampyros
Lesbos, this was the third film Jess Franco made for CCC
Filmkunst, using largely the same great and memorable music (by
Manfred Hübler and Siegfried Schwab) and also starring Soledad Miranda
(in her last ever role), which is why this films can be seen as a trilogy.
The Devil Came from Akasava however is the weakest of the trio,
a late, cheap attempt to cash in on Rialto's
Edgar Wallace series - as opposed to the first two films which
would work on their own. But for a mainstream murder mystery, The Devil
Came from Akasava is too sloppily scripted, too cheaply produced and
too preoccupied with getting Soledad Miranda naked (which in itself is not
a bad thing). And then, murder mysteries were never Jess Franco's forte.
Tghat said, The Devil Came from Akasava is not a bad movie as
such, it works quite well as a sexy spy thriller parody, with
intentionally silly dialogues, outrageous 1970's outfits and designs, Jess
Franco's erratic filming techniques including massive use of the zoom
lense, many unexpected close-ups, strrange camera set-ups and the like.
And then there is of course Franco's trademark tongue-in-cheek approach to
the genre and to pulp as such, all of which makes this film, seen as a
parody, worthwhile after all.
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