You may have seen Hot Money Girl (1959) and not even have known it. It’s also called The Treasure of San Teresa and Long Distance. A late-50’s Euro-thriller by any other name… is still a late-50s Euro-thriller. Were it not for the fact that Christopher Lee appears in a small, but important role, you wouldn’t be reading about it here.
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It’s mentioned in the wonderful book Christopher Lee: A Career in Six Snapshots that came with the wonderful Severin box set, The Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee Collection 2, but the film itself is not included in the set. (Collection 3, anyone?) In the book, author Jonathan Rigby says:
Here is an early example of what Lee would call “a raft of sleazy characters,” reflecting the fact that casting directors were now faced with something of a quandary: how on earth do you follow a 500-year-old vampire Count?
Yes, Lee was riding high from Hammer’s Dracula (1958) and in February of 1959, he went to Hamburg to make Long Distance, the movie’s original title. So busy was he that between then and February 25, when he returned to London to make The Mummy, he also stopped in Munich to film an episode of the series Tales of the Vikings.
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Lee plays Jaeger, originally thought to be a member of the Hamburg police, if not by us, by our hero, Larry Bradley (Eddie Constantine.) Of course, he’s the bad guy, but he and his henchman are easily overpower by Larry when they take him to a warehouse and demand to know where a box of jewels is located.
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You see, Larry and his old sweetheart, Hedi von Hartmann (Dawn Addams) have just returned from Czechoslovakia after retrieving a box of family jewelry that her father gave Larry to hide during World War II. Larry left them in a convent that is now a police headquarters, and the mother superior has since died.
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Hot Money Girl is not much about the search for the jewels, though. They’re found relatively easily. It’s more about the return to Hamburg and keeping hold of them once they get there. Don’t believe the sensationalized title, and especially the trailer. Yes, Hedi had a run of bad luck since Larry left her and has turned to working at a brothel, but she’s not happy about it.
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More scandalous than any of that is her roommate, Zizi (Nadine Tallier), whom we see all lathered up in a bathtub, a scene more risqué than any in which Hedi appears. She’s one to keep your eyes on, in more ways than one. It’s probably not a spoiler to say she’s one of the bad “guys” and plot points spring from her actions.
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Overall, Hot Money Girl runs at a brisk pace and is quite entertaining. Constantine isn’t as suave as I’d expect his character to be, but he’s what I imagine to be authentic. Rudi Siebert (Marius Goring) is another character to watch. He sets the story in motion, but I didn’t trust him from the very beginning.
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Is this all to say that the movie is predictable? Perhaps it is, but it’s so well-intentioned, with humorous and romantic flairs, that it doesn’t feel right to complain. I’m shocked to say this, but while the inclusion of Christopher Lee is always a reason to watch a film, he’s not the reason I’d watch this one.
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