Bond-fever seems to be back in the cinematic air. So what better time to discuss the James Bond knock offs. Let's talk the good, the bad and the ugly!



One of my cult favorites is this 1977 James Bond spoof from director Lindsay Shonteff. Nicky Henson stars as Bind. Charles Bind. He is, obviously, no. 1 in the British spy industry and must face off against agents from K.R.A.S.H. (Killing, Rape, Arson, Slaughter, and Hit). The movie is downright goofy at times but it is fun. It also co-stars Bond series regular Geoffry Green in the "M" role. Shonteff apparently made a series of these films. I have the sequel LICENSE TO LOVE AND KILL but haven't watched it yet. A third film, NUMBER ONE GUN, came out in 1990.

I'm also a big fan of the Harry Palmer series starring Michael Caine. I wouldn't call it a rip-off per se as I'm not sure who came first (Palmer or Bond) but I can imagine they got the greenlight due to the success of Bond. The Palmer films are all fun espionage films that seem a bit more grounded in reality (not so many fancy gadgets and fewer one liners). FUNERAL IN BERLIN (1966) is my favorite and even sports a previous Bond director (Guy Hamilton) at the helm.

Interestingly, Shonteff did a Harry Palmer film as well called SPY STORY (1976). Obviously it doesn't star Michael Caine but I had no idea he did that until I went to his site. Has anyone seen that?

http://www.lindsayshonteff.com/spystory.htm

Was I the only one who spotted Nicky Henson in SYRIANA and thought of the Shonteff film?


As far as 007 ripoffs go, there's Alberto DeMartino's OPERATION KID BROTHER, with none other than Neil Connery, as well as a slew of former 007 co-stars, including Adolfo Celi, plus Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell.

I've never seen any of the OSS-117 films. I know that character was played by at least John Gavin and Frederick Stafford, probably others (there were four or five of them).

And dare I mention FOR Y'UR HEIGHT ONLY.

Thanks for your concern!

I've got this sitting around here as well. I'll try to get a viewing in this weekend.

Funny, I was just reading about THE LIQUIDATOR (1965) with Rod Taylor and Jill St. John. I think it would be unkind calling it a Bond rip-off. KISS THE GIRLS & MAKE THEM DIE (1966) Mike Connors and Dorothy Provine, now that was a Bond rip-off (but fun). Ah, how about this one, LAST OF THE SECRET AGENTS (1966) Marty Allen and Steve Rossi. Gah, I haven't seen that one since forever, which might be just as well. DEADLIER THAN THE MALE (1966) Richard Johnson and Elke Summer. This one is pretty good. MODESTY BLAISE (1966) Monica Vitti, Terrence Stamp, Dirk Bogarde. An interesting failure. DANGER DIABOLIK (1968) John Phillip Law. More of a anti-Bond really. That's all the one's I can think of off the top of my head, though there is the one with a spy with a ring that makes you invisible (no, this is a different ring, not the Ring), but I can't remember enough details...got it! MATCHLESS (1966) Patrick O'Neal, Donald Pleasance, Henry Silva. Nice cast..all I remember is butt naked Patrick O'Neal going invisible (I think he's about to be shot by a chinese firing squad).

Interesting how most of these fall on 1966.

Didn't Tom Adams star in a couple of mid-1960s UK Bond ripoffs as well? I recall one titled THE SECOND BEST SECRET AGENT IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD.

Will we ever be able to see some of these films again?




PS: Just did some checking on imdb. Adams did play one "Charles Vine" in the above film and WHERE THE BULLETS FLY. And THE SECOND BEST....was directed by....Lindsay Shonteff!

It defintely seems like most of these were made in the wake of THUNDERBALL-mania.

OPERATION KID BROTHER aka O.K. CONNERY has a hilarious theme song.

I watched Antonio Margheriti's LIGHTNING BOLT recently. It stars American Anthony Eisley and starts off slowly, but becomes relatively fun in the second half.

THE LAST OF THE SECRET AGENTS' trailer is on the new 42ND STREET FOREVER compilation disc, and it looks awful, despite Nancy Sinatra in bikinis. I interviewed Marty Allen a couple of times back in my radio days, and he was a very nice guy, but few professional comedians are less funny than he is.

Has anyone ever seen ANGEL OF H.E.A.T., Marilyn Chambers' legit spy spoof?

SECRET AGENT 00 SOUL

Billy Dee Williams stars in this low budget 007 spoof from the '80s that probably won't entertain anyone over the age of 7. There's lots of poorly done slapstick and mugging for the camera, but the theme song, rapped by Billy Dee himself, is (unintentionally?) hilarious.

The first Harry Palmer film, THE IPCRESS FILE (1965), a fave little flick in my collection, doesn't exactly count as a Bond rip-off. It was developed by Bond producer Harry Saltzman, working independently from Broccoli to create a kind of anti-Bond. He brought over Bond composer John Barry, production designer Ken Adam, and editor Peter Hunt. Michael Caine is superb, a movie star right out of the gate and brilliant actor with an established style. The Anchor Bay DVD is worth seeking out, with a widescreen-enhanced transfer and commentary by director Sidney Furie accompanied by Hunt. They are very candid about the behind the scenes drama and conflict between Hunt and Saltzman, while also pointing out the many ways the film attempted to subtly subvert the Bond concept.

The third Palmer film BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN, is an utterly insane Ken Russell flick. It's almost like this bastard crazy stepchild of STRANGELOVE, a satire far removed from the fairly sober first two films. I prefer IPCRESS over the plot-heavy FUNERAL or daffy BRAIN. It's a shame Furie wasn't kept on-board. I dig his crazy camera angles, which give a paranoid edge to the dry tone. I read a post on some board, here or elsewhere, that compared the camera angles from the opening office scene in this year's CASINO ROYALE to the IPCRESS style.

Mike Myers said that Austin Powers' glasses were a direct Harry Palmer reference.

. . . we greatly enjoyed OSS-117: NEST OF SPIES/OSS 117: LE CAIRE - NID D'ESPIONS (2006) which played at the Seattle Film Festival last year and won the audience award . . . very funny, filmed in the style of the 50s/early 60s, it is actually a smart discussion/satire of colonial/cultural arrogance . . . the secret agent, played by Jean Dujardin, is a bit like Bond, but a lot like Maxwell Smart . . . this one was a big hit in France, but never received American distribution; hopefully it will get a R1 DVD release down the road . . .

Does anyone beside myself remember the number of Bond-inspired spy yarns made for the small screen in the late 70s / early 80s?

Stephen J.Cannell wrote DR. SCORPION (1978), starring Nick Mancuso as John Shackleford. This pairing predates their short lived series STINGRAY by a number of years. I can't remember much about this now - who was the villain? Roscoe Lee Browne?

Both BILLION DOLLAR THREAT (1979) and ONCE UPON A SPY (1980) were written by Jimmy Sangster. THREAT has Dale Robinette as the hero and Patrick Macnee the heavy. It even incorporates Harold Sakata into its cast! Ted Danson stars in SPY, battling the nefarious Christopher Lee. I mainly remember this for having lovely Mary Louise Weller (ANIMAL HOUSE) in the film.

Bond vet Richard Maibaum scripted S.H.E. (1980), starring Cornelia Sharpe & Omar Sharif, while Robert Logan went up against evil Clive Revill in DEATH RAY 2000 (1981) - basically a pilot for the Robert Conrad series A MAN CALLED SLOANE.

In fact it wouldn't surprise me to learn that all of these films had been intended as pilots for potential series.

I watched it on VHS back in the mid-80s, and I don't recall much about it. I seem to remember that Marilyn got naked a few times, but it wasn't that entertaining; I recall it seemed like the budget was REALLY low. (My favorite softcore Marilyn opus of the VHS era was the shot-on-video MY THERAPIST, which was awful but had a scintillating softcore sex scene near the beginning that really tested the freeze-frame and rewind buttons on my VCR :rolleyes: )

Back on topic, the best Bond rip-off IMO was OUR MAN FLINT, which was my favorite film growing up when I could catch it on our local UHF channel during it's annual showing. I have the DVD now (both the original release and the new ULTIMATE FLINT collection with each FLint film given an entertaining commentary track, some nice featurettes, trailers, etc. The promised screen test for Raquel Welch for OUR MAN FLINT was not included, however; must have been a last-minute removal). The original FLINT is still one of my favorite films, and I actually like it more than any of the Bonds. IN LIKE FLINT is good, but the Flint TV-Movie (included in the new set) is horrible.

Here's one tv made-for-tv movie/pilot you didn't mention: Madame Sin (1972) with Bette Davis and Robert Wagner. She's plays kind of a female Fu Manchu.

The spy film I miss is the one that never was: TREE FROG, based on the first of a series of novels (popular enough at the time to make Reader's Digest Condensed Books) by Martin Woodhouse. The hero, Giles Yeoman, is an electrical engineer, computer scientist and chemist who gets trapped into espionage work a la Harry Palmer, but unlike Palmer, he's dragged kicking and screaming every step of the way, his terror belied by an almost fetishistic (or as his CIA counterpart would have it, thoroughly fetishistic) tendency to play with very large explosives. Woodhouse's style is dry, droll and wholly British, which I guess should be expected from an early scriptwriter for THE AVENGERS!

The only hint out there that there were any plans for a film is a blurb on the back of paperback editions of TREE FROG, but Flint producer Saul David had memories of meeting Woodhouse while the script was in development at 20th Century-Fox. I do wonder how it might have gone and who would have been involved! David recalled Woodhouse's aim in writing the novels was to buy an island to retire to in the Caribbean...it was a fantasy played out by Yeoman in the final novel, MOON HILL, but I'm not sure Woodhouse himself ever made it there, as he later co-authored a set of novels featuring Leonardo da Vinci as the hero--entertaining, but not nearly so light on their feet as the Yeoman series was. (Ah, I see there is a new Wiki, but no elaboration on the film.)

There was a totally surreal Italian 007 spoof called JAMES TONT: OPERATION GOLDSINGER that I saw as a kid that really blew me away. I remember that the famous "laser castration" scene was played out on a two-story high sewing machine with our hero tied to a giant swath of cloth being pulled closer and closer to the needle.

Around 67-69 a zillion Italian bondesque movies hit TV in dubbed feature film packages that played late at night. Many of them had gorgeous color design and mindblowing sadism - I remember one which features a man burned alive by a flamethrower at an elegant evening pool party.

Love to hear recommendations on these - there was some really great pulp filmmaking from the Italians in this spy production trend.

Wholeheartedly agreed.

Just watched all three Palmer films yet again in a post-CASINO ROYALE spy frenzy and loved every second of them. The message that comes across loud and strong from most of Saltzman's collaborators is what an oafish philistine he could be - this is the man who famously derided Barry's GOLDFINGER theme tune as "the worst crap he'd ever heard" and went apoplectic with rage over the non-too-subtle phallic subtext to DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER's title track. He hated Furie's wacky directorial stylistics on IPCRESS so much he fired him from the show the moment the cameras stopped turning...but John Barry met with Furie in secret to discuss what sort of score IPCRESS should have. It turned out to be one of Barry's best-ever compositions, though predictably Saltzman hated it (Barry has since called the producer "completely impossible to work with").

The mystery is how so many good-to-great movies emerged under Saltzman's guidance: the early Bonds, the Palmers, BATTLE OF BRITAIN...good work springs from conflict, perhaps?

Ha! Sheer Morricone brilliance, ain't it? Insanely catchy chorus (Ah-ah-amore!) and possibly the absurdist epitome of the hysterical crescendo school of songwriting...perhaps even rivalling Christy's room-shaking vocal contortions on THE BIG GUNDOWN/LA RESA DEI CONTI, another favourite.

Anyone who's interested in this topic should also check out the book "Eurospy Guide" by Matt Blake & David Deal from Midnight Marquee Press http://www.midmar.com/history.html (page down to find the title).
I wrote a bit about it in a post when it first came out but couldn't find the thread...

I have too many favorite Bond rip-off/Eurospy films to list, but a few of the highlights that haven't been mentioned by others:

The Kommisar X series of films: Starring Tony Kendall as the swingingest private eye in the world and Brad Harris as his uptight and often unwilling partner. Absolutely off the wall insane movies full of fist fights, cocktail music, smart suits, underground lairs, secret societies, sportscars, and everything else that makes spy films great.

Moving Target -- Sergio Corbucci directs. Pretty grim, violent stuff.

Aankhen and Farz -- two Bond-inspired spy films from Bollywood, both a great amount of fun.

Baraka X-77: French spy film with good action, Sylvia Koscina, and the single worst hero theme song ever (it sounds like player piano saloon music)

Golden Buddhas, Angel with Iron Fists -- two Bond-inspired thrillers from Hong Kong, both very good.

Operation Atlantis -- featuring John Erricson, whose face is permanently frozen in a cocked eyebrow smirk. The plot is absolutely daft and includes Chinese agents attempting to cover up some sort of atomic experiments by convincing the world that the radiation is coming from the lost civilization of Atlantis. Huh???

And need we even mention the Dean Martin "Matt Helm" series?

Another little unsung gem in 1960s spy cinema is Richard Johnson's one-off, low-key, non-Bulldog Drummond entry, DANGER ROUTE (1968), brought to you by the good people at Amicus. Fairly serious, more akin to THE IPCRESS FILE or FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE than GOLDFINGER, plus you get both Barbara Bouchet and Carol Lynley! I first saw/heard of it when Quentin Tarantino took over programming the (now extinct) TRIO channel for a week, in a promotional tie-in with KILL BILL's theatrical release, and I'm glad I did.

Also worth checking out:

THE DOUBLE MAN (1967) Franklin Schaffner directs twice as many Yul Brynners as usual!
MASQUERADE (1965) Cliff Robertson is pressed into service, secretly.
AGENT FOR H.A.R.M. (1966) Ackkk! The spores!
William Castle's strange, sci-fi spy flick, PROJECT X (1968), with Christopher George, and special effects by Hanna-Barbera (!).
HAMMERHEAD (1968) fun, psychedelic spy cheese with superspy Vince Edwards M.D. and Judy "Thank you, Mr. Thackery" Geeson.
SOME GIRLS DO (1969), the goofier sequel to DEADLIER THAN THE MALE, with Richard Johnson again as Bulldog Drummond, and fembots galore.
WHERE THE SPIES ARE (1966), David Niven's pre-CASINO ROYALE '67 spy spoof, courtesy of director Val Guest.
INNOCENT BYSTANDERS (1972), with Stanley Baker, another cynical, Palmer-esque spy (with Donald Pleasance as his boss!).
DANGER!! DEATH RAY (1967) Code name: Gordon Scott, a.k.a. "Bart Fargo". Known to most for the MST3K treatment it got, during the series' Comedy Central era.
And, of course, TARZAN & THE VALLEY OF GOLD (1966) --a gentleman ape with a license to kill.

Anybody see A MAN CALLED DAGGER (1967), with Paul Mantee? I've only seen the trailer, so far.

Hopefully, CASINO ROYALE's much-deserved success will inspire the major and independent labels to scour their vaults for these and other spy-fi goodies, and release 'em on R1 DVD (beyond what Fox and MGM have already done).

Spy jazz is one of the great genres of music, and I have a lot of soundtracks, but I'm curious to see the real low-budget Bond cash-ins to see if they've used library cuts or what.

Let's not forget my all time favorite, JAMES BOND 777 from India. I like to pretend I "discovered" this film ages ago. I found it in a video bin at a store on Devon street in Chicago back in the mid-90's and posted about it on the web. Now - judging by a recent websearch - it appears that at least a DOZEN of people have seen it!

D.

Wow, that one sounds like a winner. I stumbled upon a site covering another Indian James Bond copy called AGENT VINOD. They have some great clips in their report.

http://poptique.blogspot.com/2006/11/popti...likes-part.html

If we're talking spoofs, who couldn't have a soft spot for DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE BIKINI MACHINE (1965)? They just don't make 'em like that anymore. :)

HCH

A film nobody mentioned in this thread so far is TERMINATE WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE starring the godly Miles O' Keeffe! I never saw any positive reviews for this anywhere but I thought it was very entertaining when I watched it. Plus the soundtrack was killer! Plus there is O' Keeffe in it! lol

How much Keeffe?

Miles o' Keeffe!

Ha! Every time I read the name Miles O'Keeffe I insert it into that famous Robert Frost poem.

"And miles to go before O'Keeffe."

Naturally, it is also read in my head by Donald Pleasance.

How did this thread get this far without anyone mentioning FOR YOUR HEIGHT ONLY? You really can't call yourself a well-rounded film fan until you've seen Weng Weng kicking butt and taking names, using his powerful midget kung fu to smash the testicles of his enemies. Whether he's using his mighty midget mojo to sex up hot Filipinas or mowing down dozens of henchmen with his deadly trick pistola, Weng Weng makes Sean Connery and Steve McQueen, in their primes, look like pantywaists.

Let me put it this way--there are two kinds of people in this world: those who have experienced the awe and mystery of Weng Weng and those who have not. You don’t want to be someone who has not.

Man, you are right. We should all be ashamed of ourselves. FYHO is one of the top Bond ripoffs. Someone made this amazing trailer for it on YouTube that hits all the highlights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5KeUMxyAwM

The second post in the thread mentions For Y'ur Height Only. We're not so incompetent as you think!

I've always been a huge fan of Our Man In Jamaica, from 1965 which follows the adventures of Secret Agent Gary (!) played by Larry Pennell (Dash Riprock on the Beverly Hillbillies). A great cheap-o Bond rip-off. I like it better than any of the Roger Moore 007 films.

Deadlier than the Male has been mentioned in passing. Let me expand a little on my favorite counterfeit Bond seen to date.

It slots in chronologically very neatly between Thunderball (1965) and You Only Live Twice (1967). There was no genuine installment in 1966. This substitute must have filled the gap very nicely for Bond addicts at the time.

While more modest in budget and scope (at times reminiscent of the B plus Bulldog Drummond second features it's distantly theoretically related to; at others to the usual sub-Bondian films with a surfeit of footage featuring playboys and girls and bombs on yachts), DEADLIER is fairly regularly a dead ringer for the real thing, astonishingly good imitation, and even occasionally, gasp, better or at least equally good in a different way, one closer to a far out Avengers adventure thanks to good, droll-campy use of some of England's finest character actors like Nigel Green (major part here) and Leonard Rossiter (he of RISING DAMP and THE FALL AND RISE OF REGINALD PERRIN and my favorite actor of all time every other day of the week, a vole like creature with big grinning fangs ingratiatingly ready to eat you up, and a mastery of aggrieved rudeness and sarcasm that rivals John Cleese's)...plus some nifty mod set design and situations (the giant chess board of one of the climaxes, for example)...AND several clever Bond parody concepts (including a very surprising one that makes fun of back projections while using them expertly)

What's AS good? The climactic moment of the precredit sequence segueing into the excellent musical anthem variation by The Walker Brothers as Elke Sommer ejects from the plane, sails into freefall, the parachute's opening tugs her acoss the screen and she floats as the fireball immediately follows in synch with the opening chords of the song.

The female villainesses of the title (their deadliness borrowed from the Drummond book of the same name which has as little relation to this movie otherwise as most Flemings to their movie adaptations), Sommer as dominatrix control freak nordic blonde and her polymorphously perverse crypto-lesbian partner Sylva Koscina (an infantile-wicked smile on her lips; her chronic klepto and nympho manias driving Elke to distraction; the pair of them extravagantly, sumptuously sexy but as funny as a passive-aggressive professional team as Laurel & Hardy). Both have body types that are the anithesis of Britney but the quintessence of Bond, though Elke is tending prophetically in the wrong hard bodied and thin direction. When she asks Richard Johnson-Drummond "Do you like my body?" in the coolly professional way that went with courtesy lovemaking prior to assassination at dawn in those days, he answers, "Not bad. A little over muscled and lean in the parts that count for my tastes, but I suppose that's inevitable in your line of business..."

The two women and the villain and the Bulldog Drummond (Johnson is Connery-cloned but with some John Steed dandyish gentleman as well) are supplied with one liners and characterizations that rival the real thing.

Not to oversell it. It's only a cut above cheap in budget, the American cousin-sidekick is just too Beach Blanket Bingo a rude intrusion as well as adding up into a strangely gay-like bachelor companion configuration at times (Drummond wonders: "Are you planning yet another evening of football players clambering and panting hotly all over the furniture?" when asked to loan out his digs for the night. The lack of girls in the sentence is either an editorial solecism or a telling remark: like so many daringly 'pop' comic book movies with an archly 'camp' component of this date, the film seems perpetually addressed in two registers to separate audiences, a mass one following the latest modish, vaguely wicked futuristic sexy action adventure, and an in the know 'cult' coterie who collects Andy Warhol, quite fascinating as period cultural sociology in retrospect but distractingly ambiguous in terms of straightforward narrative and movie-hero desires that prevail, one keeps tripping over intentionally planted subtexts that add up only to 'something for everyone' incoherence); despite its heights of ingenuity, the same highs get repeated too regularly when it comes to knocking people off; and, of course, it's a Bond-ripoff, but it's still the best direct imitation with some soul of its own that I know.

After recording it from the Flix Channel, I have just witnessed DEADLIER THAN THE MALE. Everything James Cheney wrote is true. If you have seen 007, "The Avengers", "The Saint", Dr. Goldfoot, Kommissar X, Jerry Cotten, CROSSPLOT, "Secret Agent Man", and Dr. Mabuse countless times and have you not the nerve for Jess Franco's THE DEVIL CAME FROM AVKASAS. Well than.......


DEADLIER THAN THE MALE is for you!

I sat down last week with both KISS THE GIRLS AND MAKE THEM DIE and DEADLIER THAN THE MALE. I'm a fan of Mike Connors' MANNIX series, and KISS THE GIRLS seems like a warmup for the wisecracking, swinging private eye Connors would make famous on television. KISS THE GIRLS is flatly directed by Henry Levin and feels more like a ripoff of Matt Helm than James Bond, even though I suspect it was made before Dean Martin's first Helm movie. It's silly and cheap and puts Dorothy Provine into some hideous fashions. I guess one can't really fault the movie for not having a Bond-size budget, and perhaps a more stylish filmmaker than Levin could have put some much-needed pizazz into it.

DEADLIER THAN THE MALE is a better movie, even though I imagine the biggest reason it was made is because Richard Johnson looks almost exactly like Sean Connery. It also suffers from a budget that doesn't match the director's ambitions, most notably harming the climax, which takes place on a large chessboard with 7-foot game pieces. The women are indeed sexy (much more so than KISS THE GIRLS' wet blanket Provine), though the film is lacking in big action scenes. I think Virginia North as Johnson's nephew's wild date steals the thunder from the voomy Sommer and Koscina.

Strangely, I just happened to record THE DEVIL CAME FROM AKVASAS on the Sundance Channel early this morning (as well as THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN). It sounded interesting from the TV listing, and it wasn't until later than I learned Jesus Franco directed it. I'm not much of a Franco fan, and I'm now wondering whether I should bother to watch it.

I also caught CROSSPLOT on Turner Classic Movies Friday night. It's mediocre and hampered by poor process photography (it seems as though Roger Moore spent half his shooting schedule standing in front of a projection screen), but it has a lot of action and the same type of light charm Moore excelled at on THE SAINT. It isn't really a spy movie or a Bond ripoff, and doesn't quite belong in this thread. If you liked THE SAINT, you may get some enjoyment from CROSSPLOT.

I recorded and watched it when Sundance aired it on Halloween night. Imagine being trapped in the Phantom Zone for oh, say, 35 years. Then, checking your watch, realize you have another 80 minutes of film left to view...

I, on the other hand, just got the "Matt Helm Lounge" DVD box set, and although I have watched each film more times than a sane man should, and although I recognize shoddy filmmaking when i see it...man do I love these films. In fact, the worse they get, the more I love them, especially by the time we get to "Wrecking Crew," and Martin is constantly seen reading off cue cards and glancing at the camera.

Here's one that's eluded us:

THE INTELLIGENCE MEN (1965) - Morecambe And Wise

Morecambe And Wise are two bumblers who bumble into a Bondish spy caper.

I haven't seen it, but since I ordered the Morecambe And Wise Boxset :rolleyes: I will be before too much longer. (The box also includes: THAT RIVIERA TOUCH (1966) and THE MAGNIFICENT TWO (1967)). The first two are supposed to be pretty good, the last...ah well.... (may have to take the time to look up their tv show).

I see that tomorrow brings us ASSASSINATION IN ROME, with Cyd Charisse and Hugh O'Brian and ESPIONAGE IN TANGIERS(S.077 SPIONAGGIO A TANGERI) (1965), George Lazenby's first film appearance apparently (he's very definitely not the star). They're both on Dark Sky's Drive-In Double Feature: ASSASSINATION IN ROME/ESPIONAGE IN TANGIERS disc. They're both wide-screen, 2.35:1/1.85:1 respectively with English audio and subs. No telling what the actually pictures are like. Should I be lunging for this?

Is Lazenby really in this or is this an imdb-perpetuated myth? Much was made of him having zero film experience prior to playing 007.

Well, the movie is listed in his filmography on the imdb (hardly conclusive). He could just be an extra or maybe one step above that...a faceless minion or would a minion qualify has a extra too? I suppose the only way to be sure is to watch the movie.

I have checked out the three El Dorado DVD releases of the Ken Clark Bond-rip-offs from the 60s, MISSION BLOODY MARY, FROM THE ORIENT WITH FURY, and SPECIAL MISSION LADY CHAPLIN, where he plays CIA Agent Dick Malloy. I found the first two somewhat dull, with BLOODY MARY somewhate better than ORIENT, but Ken Clark's speaking voice (whether his or someone else's) not fitting his physicality at all -- the voice was rather annoying and put me off the films. Physically, he was fine.

Interestingly enough, Alberto De Martino's SPECIAL MISSION LADY CHAPLIN is the best of the three, by far, and if you were going to try these out I'd start (and maybe finish!) with this one, largely because of the lovely Daniela Bianchi's co-starring role as the mysterious Lady Chaplin (is she good? is she bad?). She's someone who didn't appear in much that showed up in the U.S. outside of FROM RUSSIA, so I was persuaded to give this one a chance despite selling off the first two, and it's a keeper. Not really a great film, but I found its pacing better than the first two, and if I'm not mistaken (and I might be) Clark's voice doesn't seem as annoying in this one. And Bianchi may not be a great actress, but she was the best female character in all three films by a long shot.

Also, as a Staten Island native, I liked how CIA Agent Dick Malloy meets his handlers on the Staten Island Ferry! (heading towards Manhattan, of course, no one ever films someone on the boat heading into S.I.!)