Also known as Bang You’reDead, this Eurospy film was released in the U.S. by American International Pictures and released as part of a double feature with Secret Agent Fireball.
Secret Agent Bert Morris (Brett Halsey, The Devil’s Honey) mist rescue Paula Krauss (Pier Angeli, lover to both James Dean and Kirk Douglas, she died of an overdose at only 31 after making Octaman), whose father has developed a death ay. However, his boss Colonel Lancaster (Dana Andrews, Laura) has had a miniature camera inserted into his eye, which is broadcasting everything to the Russians.
As a fan of Yor Hunter from the Future, I feel duty bound to report that Pag (Luciano Pigozzi) is in this. And, of course, the evil Asian is played by George Wang, who covered that role for nearly every Italian film.
Tont means dumb in Italian and this was amongst the first spoofs of the Eurospy genre.
It’s directed by Sergio’s younger brother Bruno Corbucci and Giovanni Grimaldi, who are both known for their comedy work.
Lando Buzzanca, who was in Fulci’s Operation St. Peter’s, stars in this as James Tont and he’s up against Goldsinger, with the help of Barbara Ray, Agent SOS 112 (she’s played by Evi Marandi from Planet of the Vampires).
During the height of the Eurospy craze, so many Italian films used 007 that United Artists threatened the Italian film with a lawsuit. This movie wasn’t given a U.S. release, but did play American television as part of a package called “Continental European film” by RKO. However, United Artists and Danjaq prevented this movie from being shown.
Based on a novel by Umberto Lenzi — and directed by him — this Bond clone starts Roger Browne (The Spy Who Loved Flowers, Emanuelle in America) as Agent Superseven Martin Stevens. He’s joined by Fabienne Dali (Kill, Baby, Kill), Massimo Serato (Autopsy, The Blood Stained Shadow), Rosalba Neri (The Arena) and Paolo Bonacelli, who has the disturbing movie daily double of being in both Salo and Caligula.
A new radioactive metal has been found and its up to our hero to go to Cairo to find it. This means that he must, of course, romance the ladies and kill several people. You know what it’s like for those 1960’s spies.
Jess Franco wrote the script and music for this movie, so between that and me watching over a hundred Eurospy movies in a month, I just had to tackle this. Brett Halsey in the main role? Added bonus.
An international gang pretends to have the means to destroy a small country in thirty seconds. A spy group believes that this could be true, so they set out to take it from them.
Director Tulio Demicheli (who also worked with Federico Aicardi on this) directed Ricco, a movie that takes the crime vengeance genre into very gory territory.
It’s not the most exciting spy movie you’ve ever seen, but if you’re trying to see as many of these movies as you can, it has its charms.
This is the first of three Eurospy films that Ken Clark starred in as Dick Malloy, Agent 077. This time, he’s on a search and destroy mission to take back Bloody Mary, a portable nuclear weapon, from the Black Lily crime syndicate.
Eurospy movies unite more countries than a world war, let me tell you. This was an Italian, French and Spanish co-production with an American lead actor.
It was directed by Sergio Grieco, who would also make the Eurospy films Agent 077: From the Orient, Password: Kill Agent Gordon, Special Mission Lady Chaplin, Argoman the Fantastic Superman and The Tiffany Memorandum.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Seeing as how so much of Austin Powers was influenced by this film, it seemed natural to bring back this review, originally posted on September 1, 2018. This is one of my favorite of the Eurospy-influenced movies. Enjoy!
How do you avoid warfare in the future? The Big Hunt is the answer. It’s the most popular form of entertainment there is, bringing in all types of people who want to be rich and famous. Every competitor has to complete ten rounds of the game — five as a hunter, five as a victim. If you survive, you retire with more wealth than you can ever dream of. And if you don’t make it…
Caroline (Ursula Andress, Dr. No, The Mountain of the Cannibal God) is one of those competitors, using a powerful shotgun to hunt her final target. If she gets a perfect kill, right in front of the cameras, she’ll make even more money, thanks to her sponsorship from the Ming Tea Company. And that target? Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni, La Dolce Vita, 8½), a man whom she finds herself in love with. The big problem is neither is sure if they have the right target and if you accidentally kill the wrong person, you lose the game.
From the jazzy score by Piero Piccioni to a scene where Andress kills a victim with a bra that has gun barrels inside it, this film is pure 60’s pop spy retro-future perfection. Director Elio Petri (A Quiet Place in the Country) turned Robert Sheckley’s short story into a comic book-looking film with incredibly gorgeous lead actors. Anne Margaret and Sue Lyon (Lolita herself!) were both considered for the role, but no one but Andress would have been right in my opinion.
If you’re watching this and thinking, this movie looks like Austin Powers, that’s no accident. The character of Austin Powers started in a Mike Myers music side project known as…Ming Tea. Yes, the very same Ming Ting from this movie. Featuring The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs as Gillian Shagwell, Matthew Sweet as Sid Belvedere, Stuart Johnson as Manny Stixman and Christopher Ward as Trevor Aigburth, the band recorded several songs, including two that appeared in Austin Powers films.
The look of those films come directly from this movie and other 60’s pop art films, such as Barbarella, Danger: Diabolik!and Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (it’s not an accident that two of Bava’s films are on this list, he had this look down pat). It’s worth mentioning that the film’s costumes were designed by Andre Courreges, one of the most iconic clothing designers of the twentieth century, who is credited with innovating so much of the mod look and is credited with redefining the go-go boot and inventing the mini-skirt (along with Mary Quant).
If you’re looking for this yourself, Shameless Films put out one that works on UK region players that has a lenticular animated cover. For those of us in the US (and elsewhere), Blue Underground has also released this on DVD.
After James Bond gets killed, who can stop the evil Goldginger? If you said Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia — yes, the same duo from Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs — then you’d be right. How did you guess?
Somehow, this movie was bought by American International Pictures, dubbed into English and sold as part of their AIP-TV movie package as The Amazing Dr. G. It’s also known as Goldginger.
Just as a warning: the comedy duo spends a great deal of time in this movie in blackface. This was 1965, long before people understood how horrible this behavior was. It’s not an excuse, but I want you to go in warned.
The henchman Molok is played by Dakar, a Peruvian pro wrestler who fought in the Luna Park against Martín Karadagián as part of Titanes en el Ring. He’s also in the Umberto Lenzi spy film Last Man to Kill, Zombie and played the High Priest of the Spider in Ator the Fighting Eagle.
I don’t know if much media was considered meta in 1965, but this film definitely fits the bill. Somehow it combines everything American-International Pictures did best — Edgar Allan Poe movies, beach films and movies that appealed to the teenage zeitgeist — and mashes and mixes them up into one overall satisfying piece of ridiculousness.
It all started with AIP president James H. Nicholson looking for a way to show off contract player Susan Hart, who would become his wife. It went through plenty of drafts before Norman Taurog (who had made movies with Martin and Lewis, Elvis Presley and was the youngest director to win an Oscar when hs film Skippy was honored in 1931; Damien Chazelle has since beaten him out when La La Land won in 2017) came on board. While most AIP films had slender budgets, this one had over a million dollars to spend. That said, it also recycled plenty of their famous props and sets, but to great effect.
Originally, the film was to be a musical, but the script got rewritten to the displeasure of Price. Susan Hart would say, “One of the best scenes I’ve seen on film was Vincent Prince singing about the bikini machine – it was excellent. And I was told it was taken out because Sam Arkoff thought that Vincent Price looked too fey. But his character was fey! By taking that particular scene out, I believe they took the explanation and the meat out of that picture.”
Honestly, there isn’t much story. Price plays Dr. Goldfoot, who has an army of female robots who seduce, marry and murder men — after taking their money, of course. The femme fatales include Deanna Lund (Land of the Giants, Elves and nearly the wife of Larry King), China Lee (Mort Sahl’s wife who had been a Playboy Playmate for the month of August 1964 ; she also shows up in What’s Up Tiger Lily?), Sue Hamilton (Playboy Playmate of the Month for April 1965; also the first Playmate to have breast implants, as well as be under five foot tall), Marianna Gaba (Playboy Playmate of the Month September 1959), Nicholson’s daughter’s Luree and Laura and Alberta Nelson (who often played a motorcycle girl named Puss in the AIP beach movies).
Speaking of that motorcycle gang, their leader Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) shows up. And so does Annette Funicello for the briefest of moments. And Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman just switch their names from Ski Party and play the same parts. Other beach party cameos include one-time Gidget Deborah Walley and Aron Kincaid.
The movie also boasts a Claymation title sequence by Gumby creator Art Clokey, a title song by The Supremes and a reappearance of the set from The Pit and the Pendulum.
There’s also a scene where Goldfoot shows off his ancestor’s portraits, which include Price AIP roles like Verden Fell from The Tomb of Ligeia and Roderick Usher from House of Usher. And the missles that supposedly wipe out the evil doctor at the end were lifted from Mothra vs. Godzilla, which AIP had released as Godzilla vs. The Thing. Due to a lawsuit by Eon Productions, this movie was titled Dr G. and the Bikini Machine in England. It did modest business everywhere but Italy, where it was a major success. That would lead to a sequel, Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs, which would be directed by Mario Bava.
There was also a TV special that aired in the place of Shindig! on November 18, 1965 on ABC. The Wild Weird World of Dr. Goldfoot featured Vincent Price, Tommy Kirk and Susan Hart, along with the songs that were cut from this film’s release. Through the magic of the internet, you can watch it right now.
Thunderball would have been the first Bond film, if not for all the lawsuits.
Yes — back in 1958, Ian Fleming was already planning a James Bond movie.
Fleming and a young writer and director named Kevin McClory wrote a script that had many working titles — SPECTRE, James Bond of the Secret Service and Longitude 78 West — but mainly concerned spying and an underwater battle. McClory’s first film, The Boy and the Bridge, bombed and somewhere along the way Fleming grew disenchanted with the script and the author.
Not disenchanted enough that he didn’t turn said script into his next James Bond novel. By November of 1963, the case was in court. It lasted three weeks, with a pause after Fleming had a heart attack. The end result? McClory got the literary and film rights for the screenplay, while Fleming could publish the novel, as long as he stated that it was based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and the Author. Fleming would die nine months later.
The legal issues would find their way to Bond producers Broccoli and Saltzman, who were faced with the fact that McClory retained screen rights to the novel’s story, plot, and characters. This could have allowed McClory to make his own series of Bond films — more on that later — and is the reason why so many of the licensed properties, like Victory Games’ RPG, didn’t have SPECTRE.
Guy Hamilton — citing creative burnout — stepped away from the series. And Terence Young, who directed the first two films, stepped back in.
Bond starts this film by punching out the widow of a SPECTRE agent at her husband’s funeral. Surprise — the man was never dead and 007 chases him with his Aston-Martin and a jetpack, which was a practical effect. That said, Connery and several of the stuntmen were nearly killed by sharks while making this, just in case you’re wondering why CGI works.
SPECTRE isn’t having any of this, so Number One Blofeld (still Anthony Dawson in disguise) and Number Two Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi, who used this movie to basically have a career in the Eurospy field; he’s in OK Connery and Danger: Diabolik, two of the better films in this genre as well as tons of giallo) decide to steal some nukes and blow up the world real good unless they get paid $100 million pounds.
Miss France Monde and first runner-up in the 1958 Miss World contest Claudine Auger plays Largo’s mistress Domino. She — of course — ends up with Bond. Auger would later appear with two of her fellow Bond girls (Barbara Bouchet and Barbara Bach) in Black Belly of the Tarantula.
There’s all manner of SCUBA action in this one, some of it coordinated by Ricuo Browing. There’s also a ship called the Disco Volante, an exceedingly long running time and a battle at the end that seems to go on forever.
On SPECTRE’s side:
Assassin Fiona Volpe is played by Luciana Paluzzi (The Green Slime, Jess Franco’s 99 Women, A Black Veil for Lisa)
Agent Number Four is Guy Doleman, who was also in the Michael Caine-starring Harry Palmer series; he was also the first Number Two on The Prisoner.
Vargas is Largo’s main henchman; he’s killed off with a spear gun.
SPECTRE Number Five, who planned the Great Train Robbery, is played by Phillip Stone, Alex’s dad in A Clockwork Orange.
On Bond’s side:
Felix Leiter is played by a new actor in this one, Rik Van Nutter, who was once married to Anita Ekberg.
The doomed Paula Caplan is played by Martine Beswick, who was also Zora in Dr. No; she also played the titular roles in Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde and The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood.
Molly Peters plays a doctor who saves Bond’s life; she’s also the first woman to take her clothes off in the series.
French spy Madame La Porte is played by Maryse Guy Mitsouko, who appears in the Eurospy films Agent 077 – Mission Bloody Mary, Code Name: Jaguar, Z7 Operation Rembrandt, Furia a Marrakec and Bob Fleming: Mission Casablanca.
There’s also a scene where all the 00 agents are gathered, but we don’t get to see much of them. They would be 002 John Bill Fairbanks, the unnamed 003 through 005, 006 Alec Trevalyan and several others who aren’t named. Of them, only Bond and 008 don’t die all the time.
The theme song for this movie was originally going to be Shirley Bassey’s “Mr. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang,” whose title was taken from the Italian nickname for 007. That track was too short, so it was re-recorded with Dionne Warwick. And then the producers worried that the name of the movie wasn’t in the lyrics, so they got Tom Jones to sing the theme. Jones wanted to impress them so much that he held the last note so long that he passed out.
Johnny Cash sent in a song. It wasn’t used.
This is the first Bond movie where the ladies are nude in the opening credits and the actual actor — Connery of course — appears in the gun barrel sequence. It’s also the biggest blockbuster in Bond history, making $141 million in 1965, which would be worth $1.16 billion today.
As for the legal battles, they would continue long past the release of Thunderball.
In 1976, McClory planned to produce an original James Bond film — called either Warhead, Warhead 8 or James Bond of the Secret Service — but United Artists and Fleming’s estate sued. McClory won two different trials and licensed the rights to Jack Schwartzman for Never Say Never Again.
Speaking of that film — the script is insane. As written by Sean Connery, spy writer Len Deighton (who wrote those aforementioned Michael Caine Harry Palmer films) and McClory, it involves Blofeld, the Bermuda Triangle, sharks with nukes strapped to their heads, an underwater kingdom called Arkos and Bond only showing up for three scenes.
A few decades later, McClory resurfaced with plans to make Warhead 2000 A.D. with Sony, who ended up settling with MGM/United Artists. He also worked with Sony in 1999 to try and get the rights for all past Bond films, but this suit was thrown out as it was decided that McClory had “waited too long.”
A decade or so later — and after McClory’s death — MGM, Danjaq and his estate came to an amicable conclusion over nearly half a century of legal and business disputes.
Mike Murphy is Agent S 077, which has absolutely nothing to do with Bond. But you know what’s great about this movie? It’s directed by Greg Tallas, who would someday make The Nightmare Never Ends, which was then edited into Night Train to Terror.
That fact is more interesting than this movie.
Jose Greci, who was the Virgin Mary in Ben-Hur, shows up here in one of her many Eurospy roles (she’s also in Operation Poker, Last Man to Kill and Special Code: Assignment Lost Formula). And hey! It’s Perla Cristal from The Corruption of Chris Miller, Naschy’s The Fury of the Wolfman and Franco’s The Awful Dr. Orloff!
In Europe, this was known as Marc Mato, agente S. 077 and it was a big success. Time has not been kind to this film, however. There’s a laser beam, as there usually is, but I’ve never seen a movie where the hero is saved from a bullet to the chest because that’s where he carries his Bible.
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