A Queen’s Ransom (Hong Kong, 1976)

Cheekily incorporating lots of news footage from HM Queen Elizabeth’s 1975 official state visit to Hong Kong A Queen’s Ransom is the third and last of three films that Golden Harvest produced starring one time James Bond George Lazenby.

Gorgeous George plays Morgan an IRA terrorist who puts together an international team of specialists to assonate Queenie. You know the sort of thing Japanese sniper, Filipino bodybuider, Thai explosives expert, Vietnamese diver etc, a kind of south east Asian Dirty Dozen or Magnificent Seven. Fortunately Royal Hong Kong Police Chief Goa (Ko Chun-Hsiung) keeps one step ahead thanks to a mole in the gang reporting back to the police via bar girl Jenny (Tanny Tien Ni), but will Goa’s luck hold out?

Meanwhile as if Goa hasn’t got enough to keep himself busy a Cambodian Princess (Angela Mao) who escaped the Khmer rouge as they overran Phnom Penh, (who for some reason in the Mandarin edit subtitles is referred to as being Burmese) is at the centre of a huge gold smuggling racket. surely the two cases can’t be connected can they?

Directed by Ting Shan-hsi and packed full of double crossing intrigue, a good dash of sex and a fearsome quantity of fighting, explosions and violence A Queen’s Ransom is 96 minutes of pure chop socky entertainment, We give it 555/666, Daily Mail offence scale: violence, sex, smoking, drinking and nudity.

A Queen’s Ransom is out now on UK Blu-ray for the first time, from our friends at Eureka Classics in a brand new 2K restoration, buy it here at the Eureka website.

SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:

Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling [First print run of 2000 copies only]| 1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray of the original Hong Kong theatrical cut from a brand new 2K restoration | 1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray of the original English language export cut from a brand new 2K restoration | Original Mandarin and optional classic English dub (Hong Kong theatrical cut) | Classic English dub (Export version) | Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release | Brand new audio commentary on the Hong Kong theatrical version by East Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) | Brand new audio commentary on the export version by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema | Fighting George – Brand new documentary featurette by martial artist and actor Michael Worth | Reversible sleeve featuring original poster artwork | Trailers | PLUS: A limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by James Oliver[First print run of 2000 copies only]