5/10
Very mediocre Spanish/Italian /German Euro-spy spoof with ordinary ingredients : thrills , noisy action , fights and various international locations
18 June 2022
This very campy picture contains thrills , action , phantasmagoria , tongue-in-cheek , absurd situations , but being middlingly developed . Typical Italian/Spanish spy film dealing with an American secret agent , a master of disguise called Lucky (Ray Danton) who is assigned a dangerous mission . As he is sent to Europe to track down a ring of counterfeiters . His investigation takes him from Rome to Albania, where he gets involved with a sexy Albanian police commissioner (Rosalba Neri) who's usually whipping people. Along the way, Lucky being helped by Michele (Dante Posani) against a megalomaniac mastermind , Gafas de Oro (Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui) . After many chases and intrigue, he arranges to get away with "the secret plans". Our valiant , easy-going playboy/agent , takes on a powerful criminal organization commanded by a fabulous counterfeiter and his hoodlums whose aim is to rule the world .

Colorful but mediocre rendition about European spy subgenre , an usual genre during the sixties , not taking any situation seriously . This spy sub-genre borrows heavily from the OO7 series that at the time starred Sean Connery , such as : Dr No, From Russia with love , Thunderball, and Goldfinger . Ordinary Euro-spy movie with usual components : pursuits , crashes , struggles , fantastic gadgets , strange artifacts , international conspiracy , and explosive women .The picture was made by the time in which Franco directed nice movies such as : The sadistic Baron Klaus , Rififi En La Ciudad , Miss Muerte or Diabolic Doctor Z , Necronomicon and Gritos en la Noche , developing a consolidated professionalism , as his career got more and more impoverished in the following years, but his endless creativity enabled him to tackle films in all genres, from "B" horror , erotic films to ¨Z¨movies . The main and support cast -with everyone having fun- are passable , but they are really wasted It has some flaws and gaps , as it does tend to get a bit old , including repetitive nature of some fight scenes , and excessive sillines , but it has big fun , so it cares . Ray Danton gives a sympathetic acting as a brave playboy/secret agent who takes on an criminal organization that especializes in relevant assassinations . Lang has an easy going air about him that makes him great to see . Co-stars various Eurotrash starletts , such as Rosalba Neri , Beba Loncar , Barbara Bold and Teresa Gimpera . Along with a plethora of Spanish secondaries , usual in the 60s and 70s , such as : Maria Luisa Ponte , Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui Cándida Losada , Josep Maria Angelat, and brief appearance by Patty Shepard . Of course, usual Jess Franc cameos , this time three short acting as blind vendor / Zoltan / Guitarist.

It packs atmospheric cinematography in Panavision and Eastmancolor by cameraman Fulvio Testi in terrific locations from Madrid, Canary Islands , Levante Coast , Spain , Albania , Rome, Lazio, Italy . And moving and lively musical score in the seventies style by Bruno Nicolai , including catching sons . The motion picture was ordinarily directed by Jesus Franco , and it definitively worth checking out if you are a hardcore fan of Euro spy genre . In the Sixties Jesús Franco made various Euro-spy movies , some of them starred by beautiful women , as he directed ¨Two Undercover Angels¨, ¨Besame Monstruo¨ , ¨The Seven Secrets of Sumuru¨and ¨Golden Horn¨. Jesus Franco was a Stajanovist filmmaker who realized 203 movies . He often used his trademarks , as he pulls off a botcher narration , lots of zooms and lousy pace . As the picture belongs to Franco's first period in which he made passable flicks . Jesus uses to sign under pseudonym , among the aliases he used, apart from the names Jess Franco or Franco Manera, were Jess Frank, Robert Zimmerman, Frank Hollman, Clifford Brown, David Khune , Toni Falt, James P. Johnson, Charlie Christian, David Tough , among others . Franco used to utilize usual marks such as zooms , nudism , foreground on objects , filmmaking in ¨do-it-yourself effort¨ style or DIY and managing to work extraordinarily quickly , realizing some fun diversions, and a lot of absolute crap .
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