"TARGET FOR KILLING".........EURO-BOND BATTLES KRIMI KREEPS.........

Target For Killing (1966)   Uncovering this weird little Euro-trashy faux-Bond checked off so many boxes for us.........

                 Indestructible secret agent ! Check.

                 Many ultra hot Euro-Babes of the 60's!  Check.

                 Mastermind villain with an army of minions! Check.

                 All manner of nutty tropes carried over from those West German 'Krimi' films based on old Edgar Wallace novels!  Check.

                 A 60's Euro dream cast of pulp actors......half of them veterans of actual Bond movies! Check.

                  Klaus f*****g Kinski! Check.

                   How could we not wallow in this cinematic dumpster?   With no less than 4 Bondian refugees.....Molly Peters and Adolfo Celi from "Thunderball", Curt Jurgens from "The Spy Who Loved Me" and forever popping her huge eyes in shock and terror, Karin Dor of "You Only Live Twice"...........

                  Our super secret agent here is our favorite old swashbuckler Stewart Granger.......and he obviously didn't take this junk seriously. Throughout the movie, he breaks into exaggerated comedic mugging, as if he's the lead in a silly romantic comedy.....

                  Since Karin Dor's on hand, the film saddles her with the exact same role she played in the Edgar Wallace 'krimi' mysteries......an heiress who fends off multiple attempts on her life from villains who covet the millions she's due to inherit...........

                 Our evil mastermind (Curt Jurgens) maintains, as do Krimi villains, an army of heavily armed monks with machine guns. Why do they have to dress up as monks?  Don't ask. They just do.
Jurgens also employs two guys who use bulldozers to knock out and bury airport cops........why? Don't ask. They just do.........

                  We can't possibly apply normal standards of criticism to 1960's secret agent movies........for us, they'll always exist in their own dopey, trashy little self-contained world.......they bobbed along like backwash debris in the wake of the James Bond juggernaut ........(and we couldn't get enough of 'em....)

                 So if you love this fractured, oddball genre like we do, "Target For Killing"s a 3 star (***)keeper.   But if you can't appreciate the sight of Karin Dor tortured by an aquarium of electric fish, (whoopee!), you should probably steer clear......