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Wednesday, May 14, 2008Naked Weapon Year: 2002Directed by Tony Ching Siu Tung Maggie Q, Anya, Daniel Wu, Jewel Lee With a title like Naked Weapon and dubious packaging which depicts knife wielding lesbian soldiers, I wasn’t expecting much from this Hong Kong Production. But much to my surprise (or should that be embarrassment) this film turned out to be a compact little thriller with some well choreographed set pieces. Sure, it does have some sleazy moments, like an unnecessary triple rape sequence, but for a film featuring dozens of scantily clad female bodies; it doesn’t leer at its subject matter. On to the story. The film opens with a CIA stakeout going horribly wrong when a female assassin (pretending to be a hooker, of course) kills the suspect and most of the guards surrounding him in spectacular fashion. However, before she can make her escape she meets her own demise courtesy of a bazooka (yep, that’d do it!) The ex-assassin’s controller, Madame M (Almen Wong) then has the task of replacing her dearly departed protégé. She does so by kidnapping forty young teenage girls who are gifted in athletics and martial arts. The girls are spirited away to a secret island where they spend the next six years being brutalized and trained to be the world’s most deadly assassins. At the end of the training, the remaining girls enter a ‘cage of death’ where the usual type of violent, choreographed mayhem takes place. At the end of the bloodfest, three girls are left standing. These three become the ‘China Dolls’ – a team of attractive, but lethal assassins under the control of Madame M. Meanwhile a young, determined CIA Agent, Jack Chen (Daniel Wu) who was working on the disappearance of the young girls all those years ago has discovered a link between one of the China Dolls, Charlene (Maggie Q) and a girl taken from Hong Kong. (DNA testing has obviously come a long way, fast!) Agent Chan watches Charlene’s mother and eventually catches up with Charlene and the China Dolls. Considering the circumstances and the short time frame, a contrived romance blossoms between Agent Chen and Maggie. Chen is then drawn into a revenge plot against the girls, but as a garden variety CIA agent, rather than a trained killer, he doesn’t have the skills to assist in the final showdown. The final scene is a glorious confrontation on the Hong Kong docks where Charlene faces her nemesis (The other two China Dolls have been knocked off by this stage). Throughout the film are the usual Hong Kong stylings; such as plenty of hand to hand combat, hand to machete combat, and wire work. Okay, Naked Weapon won’t replace The Bourne Identity in your DVD collection but if you are looking for 93 minutes of mindless action, you could do a lot worse. Oh, and the dialogue was filmed in English so the lip movements match the words.  Labels: Espionage posted by David at 2:44 AM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Wednesday, May 7, 2008La Femme Nikita AKA: NikitaDirected by Luc Besson Anne Parillaud, Jean-Hughes Anglade, Tceky Karyo, Jean Reno, Jean Moreau Music by Eric Serra Nikita (Anne Parillaud) is a junkie. Desperately in need of a fix, she and some of her drug addled buddies break into a pharmacist in an attempt to score some goodies to ease their pain. The burglary doesn’t go to plan and the police arrive on the scene with guns-a-blazin’. After the shoot-out, Nikita is the only one of her party left alive but seemingly in a catatonic state. A police officer comes to her aid only to have his brains blown out by Nikita, who barely knows what she is doing. She is then sentenced to thirty years in prison for her crime. That’s the opening sequence of La Femme Nikita, a French post punk, new wave, thriller by director Luc Besson. Nikita is an animal. One who has rebelled against the system. At the point of being imprisoned, she is made an offer. She can either be trained as a assassin or the sentence can stand. She chooses to be trained. But that means the she becomes a part of the system that she has been rebelling against. But she believes she is tougher than that. She thinks she can complete the training and still be the same anti-social miscreant that she was when she began. But slowly, almost like a military boot camp, her individuality is beaten out of her. They begin to mould her into a cool killing machine. But the strangest thing happens. The more she is stripped down the more she learns to love and be human. I know, it all sounds rather hi-brow and pretentious. But it isn’t. Over the years this film has become somewhat of a landmark film in the espionage genre. The simple fact that it was remade as The Assassin with Briget Fonda, and turned into a television series with Peta Wilson indicates the power La Femme Nikita had. We all know that spying is a dirty business, but generally it has been dirty men’s business. I know we’ve had heroines like Modesty Blaise and others who have shown that they are equal to the James Bonds of the world. And we’ve had a swag of evil villainesses, such as Sumuru, Madame Sin or even Rosa Klebb who’ve shown the other side of the spy business. But these have all generally been the positive globe trotting style spy films. Never the bleak ‘spying is a dirty business’ performed by morally reprehensible people type of film. I am talking about Scorpio, Permission To Kill or Le Professionnel. All these films have protagonists (I won’t use the word ‘heroes’) who are fairly ugly people. La Femme Nikita is one of the first films to present a female lead in that light. The film even goes a bit further than that, showing how she became that character, and how she was ‘recruited’ by the DGSE. The cast is pretty good. Parillaud portrays Nikita with a stoic indestructible grace. Tchéky Karyo (you know that French guy who’s in everything but you can’t remember his name) is her case officer and mentor, Bob. Jean-Hughes Anglade plays Marco, the man she meets on the outside. Jeanne Moreau, has a small role as Amande, a lady who teaches Nikita how to be feminine. And Jean Reno, who would later become Leon for the director, Luc Besson, plays Victor – The Cleaner. Eric Serra has quite a reputation and following after his successful score for The Fifth Element, but quite frankly I find his score to be very incongruous to the images taking place on the screen. His score for Goldeneye has to be the worst Bond soundtrack ever (yep, even worse, than Bill Conti’s work on For Your Eyes Only) and his avant guarde score for La Femme Nikita has dated and doesn’t follow the events of the movie. La Femme Nikita is a good film, maybe it is even a great film, but it was also the beginning of a new style of espionage films (and television shows). As such, it’s success lead to a whole slew of imitators which have moved on and surpassed the original in many respects. The ‘originator’ deserves credit and respect, but looking back on it now, it probably doesn’t pack the punch that it once did. Recommended  Labels: Espionage posted by David at 8:45 AM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Saturday, April 5, 2008Assassination (1987) Directed by Peter HuntCharles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Jan Gan Boyd, Stephen Elliot, Randy Brooks, Michael Ansara, William Prince Music by Robert D. Ragland In the late 1980’s, into the early 1990’s, two of the biggest film producers and distributors were Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, and their company was Cannon Films. Cannon were routinely low budget exploitation affairs, generally with actors past their prime but still with an audience. Most films featured these actors doing particularly nasty and violent things. Amongst their output were several Chuck Norris films Delta Force 1 & 2, Missing In Action 1,2 & 3, Invasion U.S.A.; and the Charles Bronson vehicles Death Wish 4 & 5, The Evil That Men Do, Murphy’s Law and The Messenger Of Death. Those familiar with any of those titles will know what I mean. Assassination is one of Cannon’s better productions. This is probably due to the assured direction of Peter Hunt, who had directed On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and had previously worked with Bronson on the klondike manhunt thriller Death Hunt. Having said that it is one of the better Cannon productions doesn’t mean it is a great film though. At best, (and rather forgivingly) it can be described as half decent entertainment. The film opens on inauguration day. A new U.S. President is about to be sworn in. Secret Service Agent Jay Killian (Charles Bronson) returns to duty after six weeks off on sick leave. He wants to be assigned to protect the President, but luck isn’t on his side. He is assigned to protect The First Lady, Lara Royce Craig (Jill Ireland - Bronson’s wife at the time). The Secret Service have an irritating habit of referring to her as ‘One Mama’. Doesn’t it make you cringe, just reading it? As Mrs. Craig prepares for the motorcade to the inauguration, Killian outlines the protection mechanism’s the Secret Service have in place for her. “I won’t be coerced by your chauvinistic rules,” she says. And then she gets into an open top car, which she chose for the journey. Killian warns against it. He says they haven’t used open top vehicles since the Kennedy assassination in 1963. In a hostile fashion she rebukes his advice. As the motorcade winds it’s way through the streets, Mrs. Craig chooses to sit up high on the back seat, rather down in the car. Killian warns her that it is a security risk. Again she ignores him. A policeman on a motorcycle weaves through the security cordon and approaches the car. An explosive charge emanates from his foot peddle and he looses control. The bike crashes and then goes up in a ball of flames. The officer, rather suspiciously disappears into the crowd. In the First Ladies car, Killian has pulled Mrs. Craig down and into the car, just in the nick of time. Unfortunately her eye has connected with his knee. She doesn’t realise the gravity of the situation and believes Killian is simply being over zealous. She kicks him out of the car. He now has to run along side, which for a man of Bronson’s age seems quite a chore (at the time of this film Bronson was in his mid sixties). The swearing in ceremony takes place without further incident. In the aftermath of the motorcade, Killian is given a stripping down. But he believes the motorcycle incident was not just an accident, but a premeditated attack on the First Lady. And from the quick glimpse he got of the suspect, he thinks that American terrorist, Reno Bracken (Erik Stern) was posing as the police officer. Causing more trouble, Mrs. Craig leaves the Whitehouse without permission and a security escort. The Secret Service are in a flap. Luckily she is stopped at the airport and Killian and agent Charlotte (Charlie) Chong (played by Jan Gan Boyd) are sent to accompany her on the journey. They take a private plane to California. In California, Mrs. Craig wants to go sailing on Daddy’s yacht, but it is currently in dry dock. She doesn’t care. She bullies the captain into getting it ready. Working on the boat are some shady characters, including Pritchard Young, the number two man for Reno Bracken. He attaches some plastic explosive to the hull. The yacht is almost ready to go. Mrs. Craig, Killian and Chong wait in the boathouse as the yacht sails past to be refuelled. Naturally it explodes and all the windows in the boathouse shatter. But the First Lady is safe. Killian orders her back to Washington. She is reluctant. She believes it is another accident. Despite the danger she is in, Mrs. Craig refuses to allow Killian to protect her. The man sent to do her dirty work is Presidential Advisor and Chief of Staff, Senator Bunsen (Michael Ansara). Killian tells Bunsen that he thinks someone is trying to assassinate Mrs. Craig. Bunsen believes him and agrees to talk to the President about her security. But Bunsen still has to suspend Killian from duty. Killian’s suspension doesn’t last long. He is called into work the next day. There has been an incident overnight. To protect the Whitehouse, on top of the old Executive Building is an installation with rockets designed to intercept (shoot down) intruders into the airspace. It seems that two sentries at the installation, were disabled with tasers and the rockets stolen. Reno Bracken is the chief suspect. To make matters worse the First Lady intends to give a speech to an assembly of university students. Her journey to Lexington, Virginia includes a section of 200 miles across open country. At any point she could be targeted. Killian contrives a scheme where Mrs. Craig makes the start of the journey by chopper. Then it discreetly sets down in a paddock, where she is transferred into a car. She is not happy about the interruption to her schedule. And even less amused to see Killian when she alights from the chopper. The chopper continues it’s journey. As it passes over a barn, Reno Bracken armed with a rocket launcher takes aim and fires. The rocket misses. Killian is ready for the attack and his team storm the barnyard on dirt bikes. More rockets are fired and the barn is blown to smithereens, but Bracken still gets away. Back in Washington, Killian approaches Bunsen once more. But this time Bunsen is not so receptive. He insists that Killian is actually the target of the terrorists and not Mrs. Craig. Bunsen is either stupid or corrupt – as he is played by Michael Ansara, an actor who has made a career out of playing villains, it is not hard to work out which. Bronson is often accused of being lazy in this film, but I think he is rather relaxed. He even breaks into a smile a few times and is probably very comfortable working with his wife. (She had co-starred in quite a few of Bronson’s films in the seventies, but it had been quite a while since the two of them had appeared together). Some of the other performances aren’t quite as good, in particular Jan Gan Boyd, whose performance is sub par. As I mentioned at the start, that Cannon films tend to be violent affairs and often they leave a bad taste after viewing, but Assassination isn’t as gruesome as many of their productions. It doesn’t leer at violence and death - and thankfully the film-makers seem to know the difference between action and violence. By no means is this a classic – but I somehow feel that it is better than it should be. Labels: Espionage, Stars: Charles Bronson posted by David at 1:00 AM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Sunday, March 30, 2008Tip Not Included (1966) AKA A Cold-Blooded Affair Directed by Helmuth Ashley George Nader, Yvonne Monlaur, Heinz Weiss, Horst Tappert, Christian Doermer, Ullrich Haupt, Richard Münch Music by Peter Thomas Tip Not Included is the fourth in the eight film Jerry Cotton series. As with most entries, it plays more like a detective story than a spy film. Jerry deals more with your garden variety hoodlum and scum, than your megalomaniac with plans to take over the world. The series, while being action packed, suffered from miniscule budgets. The films are chock full of American stock footage and most of the big set pieces are done using rear projection with varying degrees of success. Before I begin the review, I would like to say Tip Not Included, has some of the sloppiest, laugh inducing rear projection I have ever seen. The film! We launch into some seriously swinging titles, with a montage of Jerry’s red E-type Jaguar, shots being fired from a pistol and neon lights, all accompanied by Peter Thomas jazzy score. It gets the film off on the right foot. Jerry (George Nader) emerges from the titles and swaggers into a nightclub, checks out some booty as it wiggles past, and then orders a double scotch. Also sitting at the bar is Thomas Wheeler (Christian Doermer). Wheeler is a chemist who has been out of work for quite a while but has stumbled onto a scheme that might help him out of his predicament...but more on that later. At the moment Wheeler is at the club to see Phylis Vernon (Yvonne Monlaur) who is a singer at the club. As Phylis warbles out a pleasing torch song, two thugs enter the club and forcibly remove Wheeler from his barstool. Outside the hoodlums start to give Wheeler a good pounding, but of course, Jerry has tailed them outside and intervenes. Jerry overpowers the brutes and has them handcuffed for the police, but in the commotion Wheeler has disappeared. Not even a thank you! Jerry consoles Phylis and gives her his card. Wheeler stumbles back to his apartment and finds a man, bathed in shadow waiting for him. Whatever Wheeler’s money-making scheme is it seems as if there is another interested party. Wheeler is offered a deal. ‘50-50 or you’re a dead man!’ Wheeler naturally accepts. And he accepts a miniature radio, so he can communicate with his new silent partner. What is Wheeler’s scheme I hear you ask? Wheeler is working for a gang headed by Charles Anderson (Horst Tappert), another of New York’s leading mobsters. Anderson’s gang, who’s secret base is a wrestling arena, are planning to hold up an armoured car that leaves from the Treasury Clearing House on Wall Street every day. It is Wheeler’s job to come up with the smokepots that will be used in the robbery. On the next morning the Treasury Clearing House is preparing for it’s usual delivery. The Head Of The Treasury, Mr Clark, is waiting for his Chief Controller, George Davis (Ullrich Haupt) to arrive, before sending his shipment off. But Davis had been mugged the night before and was now in the Riverside Hospital. The money shipment is postponed. It’s time for the F.B.I.’s best man, Jerry Cotton to go to work. Mr High, Jerry’s boss contact him on his car phone. High suspects the mugging is related to the money transfer but cannot be sure. Jerry goes to the hospital to interview Davis. Davis is of little help to Jerry. In fact his responses border on antagonistic. Next Jerry interviews, Mr Clark, the Head of the Treasury. Jerry suggests that the days money shipment should go ahead, but with an unladen van. That way if a robbery attempt was made, the cash wouldn’t be at risk. Clark agrees and the armoured van is sent off. Through a set of binoculars, perched high on the penthouse floor of a high rise building, Anderson watches as the armoured vans unload their precious cargo. Anderson realises that the van being sent out is just a rouse. Even though his men are is position, he postpones the robbery. Using the radio given to him, by his silent partner, Wheeler tries to make contact, but is discovered by one of Anderson’s men. Wheeler flees and a highway chases ensues. Wheeler ends up driving his car into a ditch and it explodes in a ball of flame. But Anderson doesn’t know who Wheeler was working for. He formulates a plan to capture Phylis and pry the information from her. Meanwhile at the Treasury Department, Jerry advises Mr. Clark not to ship any money until all the loose ends regarding Davis’ mugging are tied up. Clark ignores Jerry and loads armoured van with a total of thirteen million dollars worth of bank notes and diamonds. From his hi-rise position Anderson watches as the van is loaded and alerts his gang that the heist is going ahead. The van follows its regular route out of the city. Anderson’s men are ready and as the van drives under an overpass a magnetic bomb drops down, first to the road, and then attaches itself to the underside of the van as it passes over it. The bomb is detonated by remote control by Anderson and the van crumples like an aluminium beer can under foot. A circular necklace of smokepots are set off around the wreck and Anderson’s goons, wearing gasmasks steal the contents of the armoured van and load it into the back of an ambulance. As the police arrive on the scene, the gang simply drive off in the ambulance under the nose of the constabulary. As head of the Treasury, Clark doesn’t take news of the heist well. He blames himself for not listening to Jerry Cotton’s advice. Like a circling pack of vultures, the Press are outside his office and want his head on a platter. Despondently, he pulls a gun from his desk drawer and is about to blow his brains out, when Jerry bursts into the room and stops him. To relieve the pressure from Clark, Jerry announces to the Press that it was his idea that the armoured shipment proceed. But Jerry’s act of kindness backfires, as Clark has a heart attack and dies. And now, the true facts are buried, and the public is baying for Jerry’s blood. In the aftermath, F.B.I. chief, Mr High, has no option but to suspend Jerry from active duty. Jerry’s occasional partner, Phil Decker takes over Jerry’s case load. As a piece of parting advice, Jerry’s suggests to check the morgue. After a robbery of this size, there usually is strife between the perpetrators, often resulting in murder. He tells Phil to check for hints of the smoke used in the robbery. After the robbery, Andersons gang still has unfinished business with Phylis Vernon. She is kidnapped and locked in an office at a rail yard. Luckily for her, the phone is still connected and she calls Jerry Cotton (with the details on the card that he gave her at the start of the film). She gives Jerry directions to where she is being held. But it is all a trap. Anderson has tapped the phone. When Jerry arrives, he drives into a veritable shower of bullets. Taking deliberate aim, Jerry shoots at a rail petrol tanker. The tanker explodes in a giant mushroom of flame. Anderson and his hoods flee the scene. Jerry rescues Phylis, but is promptly arrested for blowing up the tanker, after all, he isn’t an F.B.I. agent any more. Tip Not Included, is a small step down from the last instalment in the Jerry Cotton series (The Trap Snaps Shut At Midnight) but still reasonable entertainment, if you can get over the technical deficiencies. One strong point in it’s favour is George Nader. He grounds the Cotton films and gives them a sense of continuity. The fact he appears in all the films in the series creates an almost familial ambience. After all, most Eurospy films feature different actors in each instalment (for example OSS 117, Coplan etc.).  Labels: Character: Jerry Cotton, Espionage, Eurospy, Stars: George Nader posted by David at 4:34 AM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Saturday, March 29, 2008The Trap Snaps Shut At Midnight (1966) AKA: 3-2-1 Countdown For Manhattan Directed by Harald Philipp George Nader, Horst Frank, Heinz Weiss, Dominique Wilms, Monika Grimm, Richard Münch Music by Peter Thomas The name is Cotton, Jerry Cotton. The West German series of Jerry Cotton films may seem like an attempt to cash in on the success of the James Bond. Maybe there is a little bit of that, but Jerry Cotton has a huge fan base in German speaking countries. Jerry first made a splash in book form. The first book appeared in 1954, and as of 2005 there were 2,500 Cotton stories written. Just in shear weight of numbers the Cotton series is a whole lot larger than Bond. It is therefore logical that Cotton’s adventures would sooner or later end up on the big screen. The Trap Snaps Shut At Midnight is the third film in the series of Jerry Cotton films starring George Nader. The series was made in West Germany, but set in the U.S.A., so there is plenty of stock footage and rear projection. But this entry in the series is good fun, but plays more like a detective story than a spy film. The movie opens with scenes very reminiscent of Clouzot’s The Wages Of Fear, where an explosive dump at the Hartland Dam site has gone up in flames. Lumbering towards the inferno is a regular delivery of twenty drums of nitro-glycerine. Unlike The Wages Of Fear, they don’t need the nitro to extinguish the blaze and the truck is turned away. The drivers make their return trip with a fully laden truck. As is their routine, they stop at a diner for something to eat and to harass the attractive waitress who is working there. Whilst carousing with the waitress the explosive truck is stolen by two men, Lou Hutton (Gert Günther Hoffman) and Krotsky (Friedrich G. Beckhaus), but the hi-jackers don’t realise the truck is full of nitro. They simply needed a truck. Once they realise their mistake, Krotsky scarpers, and Hutton soldiers on alone. When we next see the explosives truck being driven by Hutton, it is on a crowded New York street, and Hutton ploughs the front end through the window of Cartier and then flees. During the commotion, a svelte blonde named Maureen (Dominique Wilms) helps herself to a selection of diamonds from the store. Arriving late on the scene, the police are worried that the truck will explode any minute. But they are unjustified in their panic as Hutton had unloaded the nitro. But that raises another problem - there are twenty drums of nitro-glycerine hidden in the city and the refrigerated containers they are in will only keep them stable for another forty-eight hours. And to make matters worse, New York is in the grip of a heatwave. That’s where the F.B.I. come in. The clock is ticking. Enter Jerry Cotton and his partner Phil Decker (Heinz Weiss). While Jerry and Phil receive their briefing from their boss, Mr High (what a great name for the head of F.B.I. - played by Richard Münch), Maureen places the stolen diamonds in a locker at the train station and mails the key to Ruth Warren (Monika Grimm), who happens to be Hutton’s girlfriend. Like any city where organised crime is rife, the Mob are not pleased when a caper is pulled and they don’t get their cut. Larry Link (Horst Frank), New York’s number one mobster, wants to know who pulled the Cartier job, and obviously wants his share. He sends his goons out to find the culprits. Meanwhile, Jerry starts his investigation at the diner where the truck had been stolen from. By tracing the dialled phone numbers from the pay phone at the diner, Jerry is lead to Hutton’s girlfriend, Ruth Warren. Simultaneously Link’s men capture Krotsky, the second man in the truck hi-jacking. After some friendly torture, Krotsky reveals that he didn’t take part in the robbery; that he had fled the scene once he realised the truck was full of nitro-glycerine. No longer interested in the diamonds, Link’s thoughts turn to getting his hands on the drums of nitro. With that much explosive he could hold the city to ransom. Link sends his goons out to track Hutton, starting at Ruth Warren’s apartment. Link’s men turn up first at Warren’s apartment, which is at the top of multi-storey apartment complex, and decide to wait till Hutton arrives. Because of the heat, whilst waiting, the mobsters order a case of beer to keep them cool. Jerry and Phil arrive as the case is being taken up in the elevator by a delivery boy. Thinking it strange that a woman would need so much beer, Jerry deduces that she isn’t alone and instead of going direct to her apartment, goes to the roof and commandeers a window washing rig. He lowers himself down outside Warren’s apartment and then crawls out on a ledge. Link’s men notice Jerry and suggest he moves on, but Jerry forces open a window (which is more like a door - but there is no balcony?) and leaps into the apartment. But a quick thinking mobster slams the window back closed on Jerry. The window shatters, and Jerry falls back outside, surely to his death! One of the hallmarks of the Jerry Cotton series, is the way Jerry miraculously escapes from ‘certain death’ situations. This film is no exception and at the last second, Jerry grabs a rope that it is dangling from the window washing rig. Hanging precariously, he starts to crawl back up. Now, your probably wondering what Phil, Jerry’s partner, has been doing all this time? Well, he was waiting outside the door to Warren’s apartment. Hearing the glass shatter and Jerry fall, Phil burst through the door and holds the mobsters at gunpoint. But Phil isn’t too observant and one of Link’s men sneaks up behind him and clocks him over the head with a piece of broken glass. Phil goes down. But Phil’s actions have given Jerry time to climb back up and he bounds through the window and a fist fight erupts. Once the fists start flying, the mobsters flee. The good news is Ruth Warren is okay, and apart from having their egos dented Jerry and Phil are too. Warren tells Jerry where Hutton is waiting for her, and she gives him the key to the locker where the diamonds are hidden. This film features a few more good set pieces. Later, Link gets his hands on the twenty drums of nitro and holds the city to ransom. Raising the stakes, Link also calls a major newspaper and tells them that there are drums of nitro hidden in the city and the F.B.I. refuses to pay the ransom. To prove that he is serious, Link intends to explode one of the drums in a very public place in New York. The press release the story and panic breaks out. All the highways are blocked as the citizens attempt to flee. By tracing the detonating device required to set off a canister of nitro, Jerry and the team track the drum to the Manhattan Bridge where it dangles precariously from the girders underneath. In front of some dubious rear-projection, Jerry struggles with one of Link’s henchmen balanced on the metal beams. The henchman falls to his death and Jerry stops the canister from exploding with seconds to spare. A close call. Link still has nineteen drums of nitro, and it’s up to Jerry to find them, and stop Link from doing some real damage. Does Jerry save the day? Of course he does as there are another five films to follow in the series, but you don’t really want me to give the ending away? As I mentioned at the outset, this film is great fun and moves so quickly, the technical deficiencies barely have time to register. The Jerry Cotton films may not be the best Eurospy series to come out of the sixties, but it certainly have to be one of the most enjoyable. Labels: Character: Jerry Cotton, Espionage, Eurospy, Stars: George Nader posted by David at 12:16 AM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Friday, March 28, 2008The Body In Central Park (1967) AKA: The Brooklyn Murder Club, Murderer's Club Of BrooklynDirected by Werner Jacobs George Nader, Heinz Weiss, Helmut Fornbacher, Karl Spenanek, Helmuth Rudolph, Helga Anders, Helmut Kircher, Rudi Schmitt, Dagmar Lassander, Ira Hagen Music by Peter Thomas Based on the novel by Gustav H. Lubb The Body In Central Park is the fifth film in the West German Jerry Cotton series. It is also the first to be shot in colour - although this may have been an after-thought, because the pre-title sequence is in black and white. And even though a bit more money was thrown at this production, is still uses a large amount of rear-projection - some good, and some pretty bad! Here's how Jerry gets drawn into the action this time: FBI Agents, Jerry Cotton (George Nader) and Phil Decker (Heinz Weiss) are invited to a lavish party in New Brighton. Upon arrival, three business men, McCormick (Rudi Schmitt), Johnson (Helmuth Rudolph), and the host Dyers (Karl Stepanek), confess that they have received blackmail threats. Each of them of them have been asked to supply the blackmailers, one million dollars or some harm will befall their children. Before Jerry and Phil have had a chance to sample the selection of fine food from the buffet a team of masked men with machine guns gatecrash the party. As the party guests are kept at bay, the 'perps' rush up stairs and kidnap Jean Dyers (Dagmar Lassander). They disappear into the night with their hostage. Naturally Jerry and Phil tried to give chase, but the tires to their cars had been slashed. It's only after the kidnappers are in the clear, do they realise they have made a mistake. They did not grab Jean Dyers, they have grabbed her best friend, Sally Chester (Ira Hagen). Sally is of no use to the kidnappers, so they kill her, and leave her body in Central Park. Mr. Dyers receives a new blackmail letter. This one says, pay the money or Jean's fate will be the same as Sally's. They leave instructions to leave the money in a locker at Kennedy Airport. Dyers arranges for the money, and as you'd expect from the F.B.I.'s top men, Jerry and Phil are at the airport, watching and waiting.  There's a few good set pieces in this movie, and without giving too much away, the first features a chase through the New York Subway. And Jerry once again, gets to prove his prowess at crawling around on moving vehicles - one scene takes place on a moving freight train, and another on a refrigerated tray truck.Like most of the entries in the Jerry Cotton series, The Body In Central Park is more of a crime film than a spy film, but it is still worthy of inclusion here. In fact this installment plays a bit like a Raymond Chandler mystery, with a 'whodunnit' element to the plot - rather than an outright villain. The score by Peter Thomas is pretty good too. It is not as jazzy as earlier efforts, and in places, even ventures into electronic sounds (maybe Thomas had been listening to Oskar Sala). But naturally enough, whenever Jerry performs one of his trademark, outrageous stunts, we are treated to the whistling Jerry Cotton theme. I enjoyed this entry in the Jerry Cotton series very much. I recommend it highly to fans of the series, and if you have never seen a Jerry Cotton film, and wondering where to start, this is a bit glossier than the earlier entries and as such is a bit more accessible. Maybe this is the one to try. Labels: Character: Jerry Cotton, Espionage, Eurospy, Stars: George Nader posted by David at 1:36 AM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Tuesday, March 25, 2008Le Magnifique (1973) Directed by Philippe De BrocaJean Paul Belmondo, Jacqueline Bisset, Vittorio Caprioli, Hans Meyer, Monique Tarbés Music by Claude Bolling Le Magnifique starts with an inspired Bond rip-off sequence, where a secret agent in a telephone booth is airlifted by helicopter and dropped into the ocean. But the ill-fated agents trouble doesn’t end there. Trapped in the booth, he drifts down to the sea bed, where a caged shark awaits to be released into the booth. The violent death of this agent forces the Head of the Secret Service to assign the best secret agent they have; Bob St. Clare (Jean-Paul Belmondo). Bob St. Clare is suave, self confident and lethal, and quickly finds himself in Acapulco and in the arms of the beautiful Tatiana (Bisset). But their interlude is interrupted when they are attacked on the beach by an army of scuba divers, armed with machine guns. At this point the movie pulls the rug out from under the audience and reveals that Bob St. Clare is the fictional alter ego of reclusive novelist, François Merlin (also played by Jean-Paul Belmondo). Merlin creates a fantasy life within his novels far more exciting than his own, one in which characters from the real world drop in unannounced. Jacqueline Bisset, looking her finest (even better than The Deep – although I do miss that wet t-shirt) plays the female lead, Merlin’s neighbour Christine (a sociologist) in the real world, and Tatiana, a beautiful, scantily clad operative in the imaginary one. But in this movie most of the sexual situations are based on misunderstandings, rather than conquest for power. And wait till the end, which I won’t reveal – it’ll will show you just how confused the characters are sexually (in a humorous ‘French’ way, of course!) Le Magnifique is not particularly psychedelic like some of the late 60’s spy films, but it has some surreal moments, with events from the real world intruding on the literary one. Notable sequences include the cleaning lady vacuuming a path through the centre of a gun battle on the beach, and the arrival of the François’ son during a torture sequence in a South American pyramid. Vittorio Caprioli plays the dual role of Merlin’s editor, who has less than honourable intentions towards Christine (Bisset), and he also plays the black leather clad Colonel Karpof the Head of the Albanian Secret Service. As this is a comedy there is no real menace to the villain and the henchmen all drop like tenpins. It really is the type of movie where one shot can kill ten bad guys! Ultimately, Le Magnifique is one of the genres better spoofs. But be warned, although this movie is a comedy, it is extremely violent, in a comedic way, similar to various Monty Python sketches (you know the ones). So if you don’t mind your laughs covered in blood and brains, this movie is highly recommended. Just a spot of trivia: Both Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jacqueline Bissett also appeared in the James Bond spoof Casino Royale. The old one...not the new Daniel Craig one. So if you are trying to track down a copy of Le Magnifique, you have two choices. • From amazon.com (America) you can get a version with subtitles (French Dialogue) • But if you go to amazon.fr (France), their version has a strangely over the top dubbed version. (But no choice of subtitles). To watch the trailer, click here. Labels: Espionage, Eurospy, Stars: Jean-Paul Belmondo posted by David at 12:14 AM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Tuesday, March 18, 2008Our Man In Jamaica (1965) Directed by Richard JacksonLarry Pennell, Brad Harris, Roberto Camardiel, Barbara Valentin, Linda Sini, Margitta Scherr Music by Marcello Gionbini "The mission is tough...but we have a lot of faith in you!" Our Man In Jamaica is a middling Eurospy production. Generally, it's not too bad and there is a lot to enjoy, but the film-making (editing and direction) and pretty loose in some parts. Many Eurospy films are only available on the grey market and the picture quality can often be 'scary'. Many are fourth or fifth generation dupes from old VHS cassettes, and only the most diehard fan will have the stamina to sit through them. Thankfully an excellent print is available for Our Man In Jamaica, and that greatly enhances the viewing experience. I realise that a film shouldn't be reviewed on the strength of it's presentation or on the quality of print available, but I'm afraid, these days, they are a big part of the viewing experience. It is much easier to sit through a good print of a mediocre film, than to sit through a diabolical print of a good film. I think that sums up Our Man In Jamaica. It is not a great Eurospy film, but it looks great and it sounds great, and that in itself makes it one of the more appealing Eurospy productions available. Here's a quick look at the story: Agent 001, Ken Stewart (Larry Pennell) receives a briefing from his chief. It appears that Agent 009, Larry Peacock has gone missing. He was investigating an illegal arms trafficking ring, which seemed to be centred in Jamaica. Stewart's mission is to find Larry Peacock and replace him on the mission. His chief sends him off with these words of encouragement, "The mission is tough...but we have a lot of faith in you!"  Pennell is quite okay as the lead in this film. He may not be the most talented actor but he has the tools and the haircut to convey the super cool, male chauvinist secret agent. Unlike other jet-setting spies of the sixties, Stewart is not provided with his own private jet, or even a ticket on a Pam-Am or BOAC commercial flight to Jamaica. The poor bloke has to fly his own Piper Cherokee. As Stewart approaches Jamaica, he contacts the tower for landing instructions. He is told the 'strip' is not clear and to circle out to sea whilst awaiting instructions. I thought that this might be a scheme arranged by the unknown villains of the piece, so he could be blown out of the sky. But Our Man In Jamaica doesn't have that kind of budget. This is simply an opportunity for some nice overhead locations shots. They look great in a travelogue kind of way, but don't really progress the story. On the ground and in his hotel suite, Stewart is contacted by a 'mystery man', who says to meet him at the Alligator bar. In a rental car, Stewart weaves his way through some more glossy location footage. Kingston at night is a kaleidoscope of splashy neon signs and flickering lights. Stewart then arrives at the Alligator Bar. After the gloss and polish on the external footage, it's a bit of a come down to land on the cheap set for the Alligator Bar. It looks like it has been left over from a Spaghetti Western with lots of raw wood and railings. But in some ways it is appropriate, because within a minute of arriving Stewart starts a bar-room brawl. Fans of Eurospy films will recognise one of the patrons in the bar. He's Brad Harris, brawny star of the Kommissar X films. He doesn't say or do much in this scene, but rest assured that he'll make his presence felt, later in the film. Harris leaves the bar, and Stewart is beaten up by the locals.  The owner of the bar, has Stewart's unconscious body dragged to his office. Once alone, it is revealed that it was just a fake set-up. The bar-owner is in fact, Stewart's contact in Jamaica. He steers Stewart in the direction of Signora Cervantes (Linda Sini). She is a wealthy antique dealer who Larry Peacock was seeing regularly.Naturally enough, Stewart makes his way to the Cervantes mansion. At the door he meets Signora Cervantes secretary, Gloria (Barbara Valentin). She is not too receptive to Agent Stewart's charms and tries to impede his investigation. This only makes him more suspicious. Signora Cervantes is not much help either. But he does learn that she has a warehouse at Flamingo Bay, where her antiques are shipped into and out of. Stewart decides to pay a visit to Flamingo Bay. It doesn't go well. He ends up in a gun battle with the men working at the site. His resolution is simple. He fires a few shots at some drums of flammable liquid. They explode and so does the warehouse. Agent Stewart is certainly making his presence felt.  As a warning to Stewart, Larry Peacock turns up dead, on the doorstep of Signora Cervantes home. Peacock's body has burn marks on his feet and temples. The doctor surmises he was electrocuted. Earlier I mentioned Brad Harris. In this film he plays Captain Mike Jefferson, England's man in Jamaica. He starts to make his presence felt in the second half of the film, when he joins forces with Stewart. Other cast members of note are, Roberto Camardiel as the villainous and reclusive Elmer Hayes, and Margitta Scherr as Jane Peacock, Larry's younger sister who joins the investigation. Our Man In Jamaica is a decent light weight imitation Bond product. You get all the things you'd expect. There are girls, guns and gadgets. There is some fine location footage, and there is enough mayhem to satisfy most fans of spy cinema. This review is based on the Avantz Japan DVD
posted by David at 3:16 PM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Sunday, March 16, 2008Our Man Flint: Dead On Target Directed by Joseph L. ScanlanRay Danton, Sharon Acker, Lawrence Dane, Donnelly Rhodes, Gay Rowan, Franz Russell, Linda Sorensen. Music is uncredited. Apparently Our Man Flint: Dead On Target hasn’t been shown for 27 years. The rumours are that it was buried because it was such a stinker. It isn’t quite as bad as people make out. The problem with it though is the writer Norman Klenman (and the director for that matter) don’t appear to have watched a Coburn Flint movie – or at the very least have little respect for the source material. For example: Coburn Flint would never carry a gun – he’d consider it crude. But Danton Flint kicks down doors armed with a cannon even Dirty Harry would be proud of. What I don’t understand is why you would take the character of ‘Derek Flint’ and take away all the attributes and trappings that make Flint, Flint. (I am talking about the globe hopping high living, gourmet dining, pursuit of arts, surrounded by a bevy of beautiful girls etc…) Danton’s lifestyle seems to be very much within the grasp of you or me. Whereas Coburn Flint lived a life that I for one envied. More rumour mongering (cos I don’t know if it is true), but it is said that a third Flint film was in the works in the late sixties, called ‘Flintlock’ and a script had been prepared by Hal Fimberg, writer of the first two films. If this is true, why wouldn’t you recycle or adapt that script for Danton? The script that was used, shows nothing but contempt for the fans of the original films. Here’s a bit of a rundown. The film opens with a small cow-catcher set in San Francisco, and in particular, the offices of Southern Hemisphere Oilco. Wendle Runsler, the President of the company is handed a cup of coffee by his assistant, Ms. Carter. The cup doesn’t only hold coffee, Carter has also thrown a tablet into the mix. Runsler passes out and is spirited away in a filing cabinet by two burly goons. Then we have the title sequence. The credits run over a colourful animated background – I use the word ‘animated’ loosely because there is not much movement. Gone too is the Jerry Goldsmith score. In its place is a fat chunk of 70’s funk. To be honest the music in general isn’t too bad, but it doesn’t replace Goldsmith’s original title tune which you expect to hear. Southern Hemisphere Oilco isn’t happy about the kidnapping of their President and acquire the services of Derek Flint as an intermediary for the release. The villains of the piece are a shady outfit called B.E.S.L.A. (Ba-El-Sol Liberation Army). Ba-El-Sol is a fictitious Arabian country that has a wealth of oil. Guess which company has the oil concessions? Anyway B.E.S.L.A. has kidnapped Runsler. They want the usual type of political demands met: leader released from captivity, corrupt political leaders to resign, and two million dollars. Flint receives his instructions and returns to his home. He heads home because an alarm has gone off on his watch. As I hinted at earlier, it is far from the stylish pad that Coburn had. Apart from some garish plum coloured carpet, his home seems rather normal. Back to the break-in. It is not Flint’s enemies who have perpetrated this home invasion, but a young woman named Benita Rogers. She wants to work for Flint – be his apprentice. Without giving away the highlights of the film, as they are few and far between, what follows is a mildly amusing scene, featuring a pair of handcuffs. For a brief second it appears that Mr. Flint’s charm and style have returned, but no – it’s an anomaly. Soon after Flint is clubbed unconscious and taken to B.E.S.L.A. They re-iterate their demands and Flint is allowed to see that Runsler is still alive. Flint is knocked out once more and returned home. Next Benita contacts B.E.S.L.A. saying she wants to join their movement. A meeting is arranged and she is taken away. Flint tails her. The tracking device in his car is a particularly noisy orange light that flickers on and off. Flint loses the signal and Benita becomes another hostage. That’s all I am going to outline. I am sure you have the gist of it all, and I think you can guess the twists that come up (they are not too shocking – they are not in Columbo’s league). But the films does feature some archery, remote control planes making money drops, and one masseuse, and a corpse burnt beyond recognition (and we all know what that means?) Time has been kind to this film. In the mid 70’s when it was released it may have been seen as a sloppy TV movie (which it is). But now 30 years later, it is a time capsule. It’s fun to watch the giant box like cars, listen the funky sounds and ogle at the goofy fashions…speaking of which, in Australia we have a group of children’s entertainers called The Wiggles. Apparently they are a world-wide success these days, so if you have kids, you probably know who I am talking about. For the rest of you, The Wiggles are four male singers/dancers who are coded with bright candy coloured skivvies. There is a Blue, Red, Purple and a Yellow Wiggle. Unfortunately, Ray Danton gets lumbered with a yellow skivvy for the last third of the movie – and sorry I cannot take any hero seriously who just may burst into song with Dorothy The Dinosaur at any moment.  Before I sign off, I suppose a word or two about Danton is in order. He is a little more paunchy than in his Eurospy efforts (but maybe forgivable as 10 years had passed), but he does seem decidedly uncomfortable in this role. He doesn’t seem to know how to play it. I guess times had changed. In the mid 70’s ‘camp’ was out and the quasi futurism of The Six Million Dollar Man was in. And maybe that explains the whole tone of the film. So Danton walks through the role, not sure of whether to smile or scowl.Of the Danton spy films I have looked at, this is easily the weakest, but as a curio for the Flint fans it probably is a must-see. Burying it for nearly 30 years has probably only increased it’s status as desirable viewing. (I felt that I ‘had’ to watch it!) So if you’re one of them, whatever I say will have no effect – you’ll have to watch it. Others with little or no allegiance to the Coburn Flint films can safely skip this item. Labels: Espionage, Stars: Ray Danton posted by David at 4:23 AM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Saturday, March 15, 2008Codename Jaguar (1965) Directed by Maurice LabroRay Danton, Pascale Petit, Horst Frank, Wolfgang Preiss, Roger Hanin Music by Michel Legrand Codename Jaguar is a wild Eurospy extravaganza. It is loud, lurid (I think – the colours on the print I viewed were ‘bleeding’ into each other) and ultimately extremely entertaining. This time Danton is Jeff Larson, a swinging secret agent. No, he’s not just a ‘secret’ agent, he a ‘super’ agent. He is sent on a mission to Spain after a U.S. submarine, on a routine mission, rises from the sea off the Spanish coast. Beside the sub, in restricted water, is a scantily clad young lady in a small boat with a broken engine. Minutes after this seemingly innocent accident, footage of the incident is being beamed into Russia. From this, the Americans realise that there is a security breach on their Spanish military base, and somewhere nearby, there must be some cameras and a really BIG transmitter. I’ll go over the opening scenes in depth because it is a bit confusing (call me stupid if you will) and it took me a couple of viewing to really work out what was going on. As I mentioned a submarine rises from the sea off the Spanish coast. But the camera pulls back to reveal that we are actually watching all this unfold on a monitor in some kind of intelligence headquarters. A unformed officer with a miniature camera hidden in the button of his blazer stands behind the men at the console and secretly takes pictures of the sub rising. On my initial viewing I thought that the headquarters was American. They were overseeing the mission, and the officer with the miniature camera was a Russian and he sneaked the images out. But on second viewing I think that the headquarters are Russian. They have hidden cameras around the coastline and are watching (or more correctly ‘spying on’) the Americans. The footage they are watching has been beamed directly to them. The officer with the miniature camera must be an American agent and he must be taking film footage…not just they odd Kodak moment. The footage that this American smuggles out is then later played for the chiefs in the war room, and they realise they have problems. Enter Jeff Larson. I may have that wrong. But it makes more sense to me. After all, Larson wouldn’t begin to look for cameras, because he’d know where the footage came from - The Americans. He only be searching for a transmitter! (Feel free to correct me if you have another opinion!) So the Americans have a problem and they send Larson to investigate. No sooner than he has arrived in Spain, he is mugged as he leaves the airport and bundled into a waiting car. But it is a ruse to throw the ‘reds’ off the scent. The men who have abducted him are good guys. In particular ‘Our Man In Spain’ Bob Stuart (Roger Hanin). But Stuart is only one part of the team Larson will be working with. After all Larson is a ‘swingin’ super agent. He can’t spend the whole mission surrounded by hoary old military types. That’s where ‘Our Girl From Spain’ comes in. Her name is Perez (Pascale Petit) or ‘Kitten’ as Larson likes to call her. I am quite fond of the scene where Larson and Perez meet. Larson is in his hotel room taking a shower, when Perez sneaks in, believing him to be an impostor. As he exits the shower, she points a gun at him. The way he disables her is quite amusing, culminating in Larson grabbing the hem of her skirt, and raising it above her head, trapping the top portion of her body like…er, like a sack of potatoes really. Her arms and head are trapped inside. Her only weapons are her legs which dangle free, so she kicks out blindly. Great fun. Back to the story. Larson starts his investigation with the girl who was in the boat next to the Sub. She lives in the township of Alicante and is the manager of a nightclub called (you guessed it) The Flamenco (well it was either the Flamingo or The Flamenco – script writers lack imagination when naming their nightclubs!) Her name is Ms Calderon. Larson quickly makes friends (doing quite a nice Clark Kent impersonation) with Calderon and they head out on a speedboat to where the submarine incident happened. Backtracking to where it all began, Larson and his team are able to find some of the cameras that the Russian’s have planted. So now Larson has a bad girl on one arm and a good girl on the other. Naturally enough the two girls don’t get along and he dialogue between the two ‘catty’ female leads is quite good. I’ll leave the synopsis there, but will mention a couple of set pieces though. A chase scene with several front end loaders in a quarry is well staged, but never quite looks truly threatening. The other set piece takes place on a Russian trawler at sea. The choreography during the fight sequences is quite sloppy, but Danton still ‘sells’ it. Michel Legrand’s score is adequate, but doesn’t have any catchy hooks. Some of the musical cues appear to have been used, almost note for note, eighteen years later in Legrand’s score for Never Say Never Again. But at least you don’t have to put up with Lani Hall singing a dreary title song. A little bit about Legrand (very little). He’s a French composer, and a prolific musical artist, having over 200 scores to his credit. He has been rather successful, collecting three Academy Awards, and five Grammys. To western audiences, his most successful musical score was for the Steve McQueen version of The Thomas Crown Affair, including the song Windmills Of You Mind. Apart from the above mentioned spy films he also did the score for Ice Station Zebra. Labels: Espionage, Eurospy, Stars: Ray Danton posted by David at 7:24 PM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Friday, March 14, 2008Lucky The Incrutable (1967) AKA: Speciale Agente LK - Operazione Re MidaDirected by Jess Franco Ray Danton, Dante Posani, Barbara Bolt, Rosalba Neri, Beba Loncar Music by Bruno Nicolai Lucky: “You want my autograph don’t you? You recognised me without my disguise on. Oh, all right, I will sign it for you. But don’t tell anyone I’m here – it’s supposed to be a secret.” Jess Franco. For fans of Eurospy films, the name either conjures up fear or perverse delight. And Lucky The Inscrutable should be no exception. It is a weird hybrid of comic book and spy movies. If you enjoy (maybe ‘enjoy’ isn’t the word!) Jess Franco’s films, you may find this film has a great deal to offer. In some ways it may be Franco’s most accessible film, as it at least has a sense of humour. The film opens in London with your standard espionage style sequence. A man is shot down in his hotel room because of the contents of his suitcase. What does his suitcase contain? A large amount of money, that’s what. But the killer doesn’t want the money. He sets the suitcase and the room on fire. Then we move into a weird title sequence. A girl in a mirrored bikini dances in front of a bank of mirrors. (Think Enter The Dragon but with less martial arts, and more bikinis). Our hero pops up too, as sort of a animated statue. Ray Danton, is ‘Lucky The Inscrutable’, a masked super hero - spy who wears superman style costume with a large yellow ‘L’ on his chest. Naturally for a man of his stature, he is surrounded by a bevy of beautiful women. It’s carnival time. Decorated floats parade down the street and everyone is wearing costumes and masks. In the evening there is a masquerade ball. Naturally enough, Lucky attends. With his costume and mask he doesn’t even have to dress up. Lucky watches as Beba Loncar weaves through the crowd. On a balcony overlooking the dance floor, she moves to a seat. She is expecting company, but Lucky ingratiates himself upon her. She is not impressed, because she is waiting for Julius Caesar (it is fancy dress). Lucky moves on, but Caesar is then skewered by a trident thrown by a gladiator. His dying words to Beba are: “Find Lucky at once. Take him to Archangel.” Beba doesn’t have to look to find Lucky. A murder at a masquerade ball causes quite a bit of commotion and he soon finds himself at the scene. A little too close perhaps, as he is blamed for the killing. Lucky and Beba are forced to flee. During a brief respite in the chase, Beba asks Lucky to accompany her to America. Before he can respond the villains of the piece, catch up. Lucky is attacked by a clown and then netted by the murderous gladiator. The three costumed men slug it out. Meanwhile an assassin named Hans catches up with Beba and shoots her. Lucky dispatches his attackers and makes it to Beba’s side before she expires. She hands him a pendant with the emblem for Archangel. Who or what is Archangel. They are the Financiers Secret Society, which appears to be run more like a church, with members dressed in black silk robes. (At this point I do expect to see Charles Grey pop out with a knife. The setting does seem somewhat like one of those adaptations of Dennis Wheatley’s ‘Devil’ novels in the early 70’s. So Lucky is now in American and he is addressing the members of Archangel. For some strange reason he adopts a hybrid Italian / Shakespearian accent. It’s not exactly Merchant Of Venice, more like your favourite character out of The Godfather playing Hamlet. Are you finding this review weird? Let me assure you the film is! Recapping we have a super hero wannabe, wearing a black leotard impersonating an American gangster while addressing a council of financiers who are dressed like a coven of devil worshippers (maybe that bit isn’t weird). And Lucky’s motivation is the word of a woman who was dating Julius Caesar, Caesar not dying at the hand of Brutus, but on the end of a trident by someone who looks like Woody Strode’s understudy from Spartacus. Got that? As I said earlier – it’s a Jess Franco film. Remember at the start I mentioned a fellow who was killed in London and had his suitcase full of money burnt. Well it seems he was a paper chemical specialist who was on the trail of Albanian counterfeiters. The money that was torched was fake. Lucky has to go to Albania and pick up the trail. How does Lucky learn all this? Get ready for more weirdness. During the council, a Jewish Nazi in a wheel chair, who happens to be wearing a white bridal veil, tells him. That simple. That’s enough synopsis. You’re aware of Lucky’s mission. You should have some idea how offbeat this film is. It’s now up to you if you choose to ride along with him. While I was watching this film, I was reminded of a film we ‘Aussies’ call Flying High - that’s Airplane to most of you. Both are very broad comedy. That’s not to negate it. Some of it’s quite funny, and for it’s genre (the really, really stupid, comedy spy film) it is pound for pound (laugh for laugh) a whole lot better than the Abraham’s, Zucker Brother’s foray into spy films, Top Secret. Bruno Nicolai’s soundtrack, by today’s standards, is pretty cheesy. The standout track is ‘Lopagan Island’ which is a jaunty calypso style number with Edda Dell’Orso’s soprano voice warbling over the top. The music lives better in the context of the film, than as a standalone piece of music. That’s the film (well, a taster anyway). It’s very different to New York Calling Superdragon, but if you are in the mood for a bit of silliness, then Lucky The Inscrutable is another winner from Rampaging Ray Danton. Labels: Director: Jess Franco, Espionage, Eurospy, Stars: Ray Danton posted by David at 8:16 AM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Thursday, March 13, 2008New York Calling Superdragon (1966) AKA: Secret Agent Super DragonDirected by Calvin Jackson Padget (Giorgio Ferroni) Ray Danton, Margaret Lee, Marisa Mell, Carlo D’Angelo, Jess Hahn, Carlo Hinterman Music by Benedetto Ghiglia Rembrandt 13: “So you’re the famous Superdragon?” Superdragon: “That’s right. Would you like an autograph?” Rembrandt 13: “If that’s all you can offer a lady…” Superdragon: “Well in public, yes! But in private I try to be more generous!” New York Calling Superdragon is an extremely entertaining Eurospy film starring Ray Danton as the Brian Cooper – the aforementioned ‘Superdragon’. While many Eurospy films tend to be blatant ripoffs on the James Bond series, Superdragon is a slightly different in that seems to have been influenced by Our Man Flint. When we first meet our hero, he is practising some weird yoga technique, which to all intents and purposes seems like suspended animation or death. While Superdragon is …er, resting a metronome beats beside him, only to awaken him once it has finished its cycle. This is extremely reminiscent of when Derek Flint (James Coburn) would stop his heart for relaxation, only to be awoken by a tiny pivot on his watch that would start his heart again, in Our Man Flint. Given both Coburn’s and Danton’s easy way with a smile, it is not surprising that Danton would take over from Coburn in the role of Derek Flint for the TV movie, Our Man Flint: Dead On Target which was made almost a decade later. Let’s have a quick look at the plot. Strange things are afoot in Freemont, Michigan, a college town in the United States. Two students have died from heart failure, another four have collapsed from an unknown nervous disorder, and fights are breaking out amongst the student population for no known reason.  Coleman (Carlo Hinterman), head of an un-named secret organization has sent two agents in to investigate. The first, Wilson, was found dead at the bottom of an elevator shaft. The second, Jackson, lost control of his car on Canyon Road and crashed into a river. Coleman’s third choice is Brian Cooper. He has retired and needs a little coaxing to return to duty. The coaxing is provided by ‘Comfort’ Fulton (Margaret Lee), a fellow agent, who turns up at Cooper’s home, poolside, dressed in hot pink.Cooper agrees to look into the matter. His first stop is at the police station in Freemont. From the local police chief, Cooper gleans that Jackson had been travelling with a beautiful girl named Christine Brewder. She was a visitor from Amsterdam, who was friends with Mr. Ross, the owner of the local Bowling Alley. Strangely, Brewder’s body was not found in the wreckage. It was presumed it had been swept upstream. Cooper isn’t so convinced. Cooper’s next stop is at Jackson’s apartment, There he finds some documents hidden in the cuckoo clock. They are import documents from Amsterdam for five Chinese vases. They are made out to Christine Brewder. There is also an analysis request for a piece of chewing gum from Ross’ bowling alley. Cooper takes the lead and makes the bowling alley his next port of call. At the alley, Cooper witnesses Ross, working the concession stand. He is handing out free packs of chewing gum to the teenagers. The teenagers are all hyped up, singing, dancing and clapping along to the jukebox. One girl in particular is shaking up a storm. Cooper then approaches Ross, and tries to buy some gum. He is given a different brand to the kids, but doesn’t protest. It just raises his suspicions. Continuing his investigation Cooper visits the local university to talk to the Dean about the events in the town, and to be shown the establishment. The Dean assures Cooper that nothing is wrong. But as they watch the gym class go about their activities, a fight breaks out between two girls. One of the girls was the young lady who had been dancing up a storm the night before. The fight soon escalates into a full-scale brawl. After calm has been restored, the dancing girl is lying on the floor in the throes of a convulsive fit. She is quickly sent to hospital but no sign of drugs are found in her system. Cooper’s not happy about events. He returns to the bowling alley as Ross is locking up. Accompanied by a couple a persuasive backhands to the jaw, Cooper asks Ross a few questions. As Ross is about to talk a car whizzes past, and Ross receives a .38 calibre hole in his forehead. No answers there. After retrieving the key, Cooper heads to Ross’ apartment and starts to snoop around. He is examining a Ming vase when an assassin bursts through the door. His shot misses, but Cooper’s return fire collects the assailant in the shoulder. The assassin runs into the bathroom and locks the door. By the time Cooper has kicked in the bathroom door it is too late. The assassin has taken his own life. That’s it for Freemont. Cooper returns to headquarters and debriefs Coleman. Coleman says that the tests on the chewing gum have come back negative. There only hope is to follow up on Christine Brewder. A trip to Amsterdam is planned. Cooper says he will only continue with the mission if he can get some help. The man he wants is called ‘Babyface’ (Jess Hahn). He is a gangster who happens to be in Sing Sing Prison. Coleman pulls some strings and ‘Babyface’ is released. 'Babyface', apart from being a thief, happens to be a technology expert. He is essentially the ‘Q’ character. He equips Cooper with a communicator watch and a bulletproof vest, plus a few other little devices that come into play as the movie progresses. It is a refreshing change to see the ‘Q’ character not played as a stuffy buffoon as so often happens. ‘Babyface’ is still comic relief and seems to get in the way more than he helps out, but at least he isn’t a cut price Desmond Llewellyn. Back to Amsterdam. Cooper and ‘Babyface’ meet with their agent in Holland – Agent Rembrandt 13, Charity Farrell (Marissa Mell). Farrell says that nobody has seen Christine Brewder in over a year, but she did have one special man in her life. A millionaire named Fernand Lamas (Carlo d’Angelo). Farrell arranges a meeting between Cooper and Lamas. With all the jumping about, shooting and deaths, you’d think we’d be almost to the end of the movie. It may surprise you to know, that the scenes I have described above only make up the first twenty minutes of the film. As you can see it is all smartly paced with a far amount of action. The grey market print I viewed still was quite vibrant in colour – I am guessing a pristine print would positively shine, or glow in the dark with it’s sensational mod colour schemes. Dear reader, I am not going to outline any more of the plot for you. Not because I am lazy, but I think I have given you a fair taster of what this movie has to offer There are a couple of set pieces that I enjoyed that I will bring to your attention though. The first is where Cooper’s neck is wired to the rails of a dry dock in a shipping yard. It’s like him being tied to a railroad track, but rather than a train coming to remove his head from his body, a ship is set in motion and sliding down the rails. Another interesting set piece happens after Cooper has been knocked out in a fist fight with four thugs. They put his body in a coffin, screw down the lid, and then drill some large holes in the side of the coffin. The holes are not to let air in, but to let water in as the hoods dump the coffin in a canal. It’s all good corny fun, and five years before Mister Connery got trapped inside a coffin in Diamonds Are Forever. So that’s what you have in store if you choose to watch New York Calling Superdragon. And why wouldn’t you. It has everything you’d expect from a swinging sixties spy film – action colour, humour and some beautiful girls. The real glue that holds it all together though, is Ray Danton’s performance. It’s cheeky, charming and extremely entertaining. And it isn’t the up front womanising or beating up of suspects that make the character endearing. It’s the little things that have nothing to do with the plot. For example in one scene he stops at a souvenir stall to ask for directions. The seller gives him his directions, but asks that he buy a small souvenir. He does out of politeness, but as he walks off, in the background you can see that he passes the gift off to a little girl as she walks by. As I said, it has no bearing on the plot, but it is simple and charming. It’s touches like this that lift New York Calling Superdragon above Danton’s two other Eurospy efforts, Codename: Jaguar, and Lucky The Inscrutable. (Don’t worry – reviews of those bad boys coming soon!) I know Eurospy films aren’t everybody’s cup of tea, but if you are interested, this film is one of the easier titles to track down, and one of the better examples of the genre. Labels: Espionage, Eurospy, Stars: Ray Danton posted by David at 3:22 AM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Tuesday, March 11, 2008The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973) Directed by Ivan DixonLawrence Cook, Paula Kelly, Janet League, J.A. Preston Music by Herbie Hancock Based on the novel by Sam Greenlee Today’s audiences may see this The Spook Who Sat By The Door as a low budget blaxploitation film from the early seventies that has little to offer the genre. But that isn’t quite so. The film opens with a white politician checking the polls and his numbers to see if he will be re-elected. His numbers are down. The black vote in particular is a source of concern. To swing numbers in his favour, his assistant suggests that he accuse the C.I.A. of being racist and elitist because they have no Negroes in their ranks. This sets the ball rolling. The C.I.A. begin an integration program for black Americans. Hundreds are interviewed, police checked and tested. Slowly their numbers are whittled down to forty, then ten. One of the final candidates is Dan Freeman (Lawrence Cook), who is diligent in his studies and doesn’t go out on the town with the other candidates. This causes friction between the applicants and they accuse him of being a ‘puppet for the white man’. But as the evaluation process continues, Freeman proceeds through to the final round. He does all the right things. When he does venture out of the training camp, he goes to a prostitute. In this day and age, you may think that this indicates that he has low moral fibre. But no, this is the early seventies, and to the powers that be, this indicates that Freeman is not a homosexual. And anyone who has watched alot of spy films from the sixties and seventies knows that homosexuality was viewed as a weakness, or an illness, which often lead to communism. 9Not my view - simply an observation. Finally Freeman makes it through the selection process. He alone, will be the first black American to join the C.I.A. Despite this honour, his worth to the C.I.A. is illustrated by the position he is entrusted with. Is he to become a covert agent out in the field performing daring missions? No way! He becomes the Top Secret Reproduction Section Chief...that is, he is in charge of the photocopier. But he does his job enthusiastically. Soon his professionalism and amiable manner are noticed, and he almost becomes a propaganda tool for the C.I.A. Whenever a dignitary or politician visits C.I.A. headquarters, it is Freeman who shows them around the facility. He is on show as much as the building and the technology. But after five years of duty, Freeman decides to leave the agency to become a youth worker in Chicago. As an important role model for black America, he is given a hearty handshake and wished the best of luck. This is where the film hots up. Freeman heads back to Chicago and does become a youth worker by day, but by night he moulds gangs of ghetto kids into a highly trained guerilla army. He teaches them all the tricks he has learned during his time at the C.I.A. And I am not going to ruin the film for you by telling you what happens next. It is fairly predictable, but the action set pieces and violence aren’t the point of the film. It is the message that’s the important bit. And it’s a simple message of equality…not really an equality of rights…but an equality in skills and the ability to think and to act for oneself without handouts and welfare from the state. It’s about being your own man, or woman. It’s important to remember that before the film came out, there was a book of The Spook Who Sat By The Door, by Sam Greenlee, which was released in 1966. Obviously the title is a play on The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, and like LeCarré’s novel both are works of fiction. The comparisons end there. Greenlee’s book, while containing many espionage elements, had an underlying message for black America. I talked about the message in the above paragraph. It seems harmless enough, doesn’t it: the ability to think and to act for oneself without handouts and welfare from the state. But in 1973, when the film was released, it still was a message that many white American communities didn’t want to hear. While I am hardly an expert on Black Civil Rights, it seems that a fictive story with espionage genre trappings should barely raise a ripple. But for Black population that didn’t have the right to a voice, seeing the militant stylization in the movie was a powerful statement. So powerful in fact that the movie was rumoured to be pulled from distribution. For many years the only way to see it was underground screenings or on bootleg video. The Spook Who Sat At The Door is a fascinating film. It is a low budget production, so don’t expect to be blown away by the visuals. At the heart, is it’s story and a subversive little story at that. If you are after slam-bam action, this will not be your film, but if you are after a spy film with a voice, or are simply interested in the times, then this movie is highly recommended. This review is based on the Obsidian Home Entertainment / Monarch Home Video USA DVD Labels: Espionage posted by David at 5:39 PM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Saturday, March 8, 2008The Osterman Weekend (1983) Directed by Sam PeckinpahRutger Hauer, JohnHurt, Craig T. Nelson, Dennis Hopper, Chris Sarandon, Meg Foster, Helen Shaver, Cassie Yates, Jan Triska, Burt Lancaster Music by Lalo Schifrin Based on the novel by Robert Ludlum Although directed by the legendary Sam Peckinpah and based on the best selling novel by Robert Ludlum, The Osterman Weekend is a huge disappointment. With security cameras everywhere, voyeurism is one of the main themes of the movie. Maybe Peckinpah in his prime could have made a valid point about privacy and security issues. But in this case, the voyeurism is used for cheap titillation. It seems that whenever the pace of the movie slows down, the female characters disrobe. In fact the female leads spend most of their screen time in various states of undress. At the end of the movie, John Tanner (Rutger Hauer), during a broadcast of his TV program, makes a speech urging viewers at home to turn off their television sets. At the same time, with the subtlety of a wrecking ball, Peckinpah tries to convince us that we the viewers (be it cinema or at home) had the same opportunity to ‘turn off’ or ‘walk out’ during the previous ninety minutes. Instead we chose to watch the show. We wallowed in the violence and leered at the sex. Maybe Peckinpah’s right. But if you paid good money to see the film in the cinema or hired a copy from a video library, you’d want to get your money’s worth. Perhaps Tanner’s speech should have been printed on the movie poster and on the video/DVD packaging, so we could decide to ‘turn off’ before we had spent good money. For the opening scenes the image is pixelated and grainy, like it would appear if you were watching closed circuit television. The image is Lawrence Fassett (John Hurt) having sex with his wife. Once Fassett is spent, he leaves the room to have a shower. While he’s out of the room, two KGB agents enter the bedroom. One stops Fassett’s wife from screaming, while the other produces a hypodermic needle and inserts it up her nose – I guess this is so that there are no obvious puncture wounds on the body? When Fassett returns his wife is dead! It is indeed a video tape we are watching, and we are in C.I.A. headquarters. Chief Maxwell Danforth (Burt Lancaster) is being debriefed on his agent Fassett. After the death of his wife, Fassett went wild in his attempts to track down her killer. In the process he discovered a cell of KGB agents called Omega. Omega are three successful American business men, who operate under communist spy master Andrei Mikalovich. The men from Omega are: • Stockbroker, Joseph Carbone (Chris Sarandon). • Plastic surgeon, Richard Tremayne (Dennis Hopper). • Television producer, Bernard Osterman (Craig T. Nelson). Apart from being communist spies, the three men also have one other thing in common. They all went to college together with their friend John Tanner (Rutger Hauer). Tanner is now the successful host of ‘Face To Face’, which is a television talk show. His show is controversial and he often tackles weighty issues and interviews politicians and members of the defence force. He wants to interview C.I.A. Maxwell Danforth. And luckily he will get his chance. Danforth and Fassett seek Tanner’s help. They want him to help ‘turn’ one of his communist friends. Tanner reluctantly agrees, but on one condition – that he gets to interview Danforth. The deal is done. Since college days, the four men, Tanner, Carbone, Tremayne, and Osterman arrange holiday weekends together. They call these weekends ‘Ostermans’ as it was Bernie who started the tradition in college. The upcoming weekend an ‘Osterman’ is planned and Tanner is to be the host. Fassett moves quickly an crams all the latest surveillance equipment into Tanner’s house. And then waits for the guests to arrive. The music for The Osterman Weekend is by Lalo Schifrin. I am a big fan of Schifrin’s work, but this is not one of his greatest moments. The music is soft saxophone jazz, that sounds like music from a 70’s porno flick. Given this films subject matter and style, it may be a purposeful stylisation, but it doesn’t make for great listening. Generally speaking, and with the exception of the Matt Damon Bourne movies, Ludlum’s books haven’t translated too well to the silver screen. The first attempt at The Bourne Identity with Richard Chamberlain was a misfire, and The Holcroft Covenant was undone by an air of sleaze and unpleasantness. Similarly, The Osterman Weekend is a sleazy affair. I know that Peckinpah is making a point about voyeurism and media manipulation, but it doesn’t mean I want to watch it. Labels: Espionage, Stars: Burt Lancaster, Stars: Rutger Hauer posted by David at 5:07 PM | 0 Comments | Links to this post Sunday, March 2, 2008Firefox (1982) Directed by Clint Eastwood Clint Eastwood, Freddie Jones, David Huffman, Ronald Lacey, Nigel Hawthorne Music by Maurice Jarre Based upon the novel by Craig Thomas In 1982 Clint Eastwood had to re-invent himself again. Although he had massive success with Every Which Way But Loose (1977) and Any Which Way You Can (1981) and increased his fan base considerably, smartarse western characters weren’t as popular in the eighties as they had been in the seventies (Burt Reynolds career, apart from a few bright sparks, never really recovered). Eastwood chose to go hi-tech. The result was Firefox, an espionage thriller based on the novel by Craig Thomas. Briefly, the film concerns Mitchell Gant (Clint Eastwood), a Russian born retired USAF pilot. Because he was born in Russia, he thinks in Russian, rather than thinks in English and then transposes it (if you know what I mean?). Why is this important? The Russians have just developed a new war plane, the MIG 31, codenamed: Firefox. The plane is the most advanced ever built, and features a thought controlled weapons system, can travel at Mach 6, and is invisible to radar. Naturally enough, the West is very eager to get their hands on this aircraft. There plan is to steal it. And that is where Mitchell Gant comes in. His Russian background makes him the perfect candidate to attempt the theft of this fantastic new weapon. There is a slight problem though. Gant suffers from a severe stress disorder, which cause him to blackout. This is the legacy of his days as a pilot in Vietnam. Apparently he was shot down and captured by the Vietcong. Despite this disorder, the Agency behind this mission, decide to proceed, and Gant is launched into a whirlwind training regime. His controller is Kenneth Aubrey, played by veteran British character actor, Freddie Jones. Jones' eyebrows, which have a character of their own, almost steal the movie from Eastwood. After his training, Gant is sent off on his mission, which he knows very little about. His first port of call is Moscow. From there he is guided along by a network of dissidents and sympathizers until he finds his way to Bilyarsk, a military post where the Firefox is housed. Firefox is a film that time has changed. I am not saying that it is better now than it was then. But it is different. But to understand how it has changed, first you must understand that it is a film of two very distinct halves. The first half is a Cold War spy story, and has a KGB - Big Brother is watching - style feel. The scenes are mostly shot at night, and are very claustrophobic. The second half of the film is after Gant has stolen the MIG 31 plane and is racing through the clear blue skies. This is where the special effects and pyrotechnics take over. Now, back to my point about the film having changed with time. When Firefox was released at the cinema in 1982, it was really at the tail end of a cycle of spy films. The first half, with it's Cold War, Harry Palmer wannabe ethos, was very tired an dated. Many people considered it downright boring. The second half, however, was cutting edge visual effects, courtesy of Richard Dykstra, who had worked on Star Wars. When the Firefox flew through the Ural mountains and clouds of snow erupted into the air, there was a real feeling of speed and power. But here we are in the next century and twenty five (plus) years have passed since the Firefox flew, and special effects have leapt forward at a tremendous rate. The models used in Firefox look rather 'fake' today. The whole airplane chase seems rather small and unimpressive. But now that the Iron Curtain has come down, the Cold War story seems far more interesting. The world is a very different place. Now, the first half seems like a solid, good old fashioned, espionage thriller (the type that they don't make anymore). I may be being a little generous in my appraisal there, but none-the-less, the passing years have freshened up the start of this movie. Does that make Firefox a good film? I'm afraid not. However you look at it, then or now, the sum of it's two distinct parts do not add up. The character, Mitchell Gant, would turn up in a few more novels by Craig Thomas. These are the ones that I am aware of: • Firefox Down (1983) • Winter Hawk (1987) • A Different War (1997) And another character, Kenneth Aubrey (Gant's controller), also has appeared in numerous novels. Labels: Espionage, Stars: Clint Eastwood posted by David at 4:02 AM | 1 Comments | Links to this post Friday, February 29, 2008The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967) AKA: The 1000 Eyes of Su-Muru, The Slaves of Sumuru Directed by Lindsay Shonteff Frankie Avalon, George Nader, Shirley Eaton, Wilfred Hyde White, Klaus Kinski, Maria Rohm Music by Johnny Scott Director, Lindsay Shonteff is singularly responsible for some of the worst spy films ever made, No 1 Licensed To Love And Kill readily springs to mind. And I am afraid The Million Eyes Of Sumuru does nothing to redeem Shonteff in the ‘million eyes’ of spy movie fans all over the world. Maybe Shonteff isn’t solely to blame for The Million Eyes Of Sumuru. Producer Harry Alan Towers may have to share some of the burden. He is the man who bought us the sixties, Christopher Lee, series of Fu Manchu films. Some footage from the second Sumuru film (Seven Secrets Of Sumuru – AKA Future Women), featuring Shirley Eaton, mysteriously found its way into The Blood Of Fu Manchu. Apparently Miss Eaton was not happy about it, and who could blame her. The film opens with a Chinese funeral procession. A group of young men march along behind the coffin, while on the side of the road, a girl watches on. Then we hear a voice-over from Sumuru herself (Shirley Eaton): ’This is the funeral of the richest man in the world… These are his seventeen sons… Soon they will share his fate… Along with all other men who oppose my will… The eyes of this girl are watching them… As maybe, some other girl’s eyes are watching you… I have a million eyes… For I am Sumuru!’ A bomb goes off as the procession crosses a bridge and the seventeen sons are killed, and the titles roll. Then we meet Sumuru in the flesh. She lives on an island with her own private army of women. But there is a problem with one of her disciples. One girl, operating out of Rome, has done the unthinkable - she has fallen in love! Sumuru decides to travel to Italy and ‘take care’ of the traitor personally. A voice over provides another piece of Sumuru’s manifesto: ’In the war against mankind, to achieve our aim, a world of peace and beauty ruled by women, we have but one weakness, which must be rooted out and destroyed…Love!’ We see these words put into action, when three women in black bikinis, drown a woman in a white bikini. So much for love!  Still in Rome, next we meet C.I.A. agent Nick West (George Nader). He is greeted by Sir Anthony Baisbrook (Wilfred Hyde-White), who works for H.M.G. (Her Majesty’s Government). It appears that the girl who was killed, is the secretary for the Syronesian Chief Of Security, Colonel Medika (Jon Fong). Sir Anthony seconds West into finding out who the killer is. Along for the ride is Tommy Carter (Frankie Avalon). Carter is not a swinging sixties secret agent. He’s just a spoilt dilettante with too much spare time. You see, his father left him eighteen million dollars – that’d do it!West meets with Medika and they thrash out the path the investigation will take. But soon after the meeting, Medika is kidnapped by Sumuru’s agents, and West is left to solve the remainder of the puzzle, along with a little help from Carter, of course. Sometimes when I jot down a synopsis, as I read back, I think ‘that doesn’t sound bad’. And Sumuru, on paper at least, has all the elements to make a great spy film. Unfortunately it is lumbered with poor dialogue, poor cinematography, and generally poor direction. There is an air of cynicism and perversion that pervades the whole film. You would expect a film that features a scantily clad all girl army, to be slightly erotic. Or at least a good perv, but this film features weird camera angles that make beautiful girls look distorted and ugly, and a script that forces them into acts of cruel violence, that make them unappealing. Even taking a feminist view, that it is a film about empowering women is undone by the cruelty. So begs the question, why watch The Million Eyes Of Sumuru? I would suggest that you don’t, but if you had to, it would be for Shirley Eaton. Eaton was the Golden Girl from Goldfinger and her image, covered in gold paint, is indelibly burnt into the minds of sixties spy fans. Other than that, avoid at all costs. |