Minikillers
Minikillers is a four-episode series of short films starring Diana Rigg.[1][2] Rigg plays an unnamed character extremely similar to her character Emma Peel in The Avengers, although neither the production company nor any of the other cast or crew is related to that TV series.[3] They were produced in 1969 in Germany by an obscure company called Accentfilms International. They were directed by Wolfgang von Chmielewski, from the German TV Station WDR[3] and written by Wolfgang von Chmielewski and Michael von Chmielewski.
They were released on Super 8 mm colour film.[4] They were shot on location in the Costa Brava in Spain.[5] There is no dialogue. Diana Rigg, the star of the films, never mentioned them again in any interview. The titles of the four parts are Operation Costa Brava, Heroin, Macabre and Flamenco.[1]
Their origin is obscure. One claim is that they were made to entertain people waiting at petrol stations in Germany.[3]
Plot
[edit]Operation Costa Brava
[edit]A woman, played by Diana Rigg, on holiday in Spain witnesses a murder in which a "minikiller" doll remotely controlled by a watch sprays poison onto a man. She takes the doll to her hotel room. She is attacked by a henchman, then another remote-controlled minikiller doll enters her room, but fails to assassinate her.
Heroin
[edit]The woman is at a beach. The villains, offshore in a yacht, with bikini-clad girls holding the same dolls from the first episode, catch her in a fishing net buried in the sand. She escapes and sneaks onto the yacht. She finds that the man killed in the first episode was an Interpol agent, and that the dolls are stuffed with heroin. She makes a getaway using the fishing net as a weapon, and then stealing the boss's car.
Macabre
[edit]The villains plant a doll with a bomb in the woman's car and follow her, but she spots the doll and then the villains and uses the bomb to defeat them. She then encounters the villains at a graveyard, who invite her to enter a coffin. She beats them up and makes a getaway in a horse-drawn hearse.
Flamenco
[edit]The woman attends a flamenco performance. Afterwards, a minikiller doll attacks the flamenco dancer. As she enters his dressing room, the woman is knocked out. She wakes up bound and about to be crushed in a press, which she stalls by inserting a ring in its gears. Going back to the dressing room she finds the dancer's dead body, with his finger pointing to a secret entrance to a room full of contraband and dolls. The boss of the villains injects poison into a fresh minikiller doll, intending to use it on her, but the woman accidentally triggers the doll using a watch she found, making it spray him in the face, killing him. The police arrive and take away the surviving villain, as the woman continues to enjoy her holiday.
Cast
[edit]- Diana Rigg - Woman tourist
- José Nieto (credited as Jose Nieto) - Smuggler boss
- Moisés Augusto Rocha (credited as Jack Rocha) - Bald henchman
- H. Coscollin - Henchman with rifle
- Mme. Million - Girlfriend of smuggler boss
- El Sali (as himself) - Flamenco dancer
Crew
[edit]- Writers - Wolfgang von Chmielewski, Michael von Chmielewski
- Photography - Josef Kaufmann
- Camera Assistant - Gerd Weiss
- Score - Jonny Teupen, Hans Rettenbacher
- Production Assistant - H.G. Tienemann
- Script Girl - Ulrike Hercher
- Unit Manager - Virgilio Valle
- Film Editor - Erika Winter
- Make-up - Ingrid Hartkopf, Waltraud Winkler
- Technical Assistant - Lothar Büscher
- Title-Mirrors - Vittorio Bonato
Production
[edit]The opening titles feature images of the minikiller dolls viewed in distorting mirrors. These effects were created by artist Victor Bonato, who is credited for "Title-Mirrors" as Vittorio Bonato, his original name.
References
[edit]- ^ a b Kathleen Tracy (2015). Diana Rigg. BenBella Books. pp. 97–98.
- ^ Michael Scott Phillips (2018). Quite Quite Fantastic! The Avengers for Modern Viewers.
- ^ a b c Tom Fordy (11 September 2020). "Catsuits, 'Man Appeal', and fetishistic fan films: Diana Rigg's love-hate relationship with Emma Peel". The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
- ^ "The Minikillers – Very rare made for super 8 crime film starring Diana Rigg". Retrieved 9 June 2023.
- ^ "The Diadem / Mini-Killers (1966 / 1969)". Retrieved 22 May 2023.
External links
[edit]- Minikillers at IMDb
- Minikillers at archive.org
- Minikillers at youtube.com, all four episodes in one video, with explanatory introduction
- Minikillers at youtube.com, all four episodes in one video
- Cult Connections: Minikillers at spotify.com, an episode of the Cult Connections podcast dedicated to Minikillers
