Siete minutos para morir (1969) Poster

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6/10
Spanish/Italian Euro-spy movie with ordinary ingredients : thrills , noisy action , crossfire and various international locations
ma-cortes4 July 2022
This Spain-Italy co-production displays action enough , plot twists , and several villain roles ; being pretty entertaining from start to finish .This Spanish/Italian "thriller" to rediscover and claim was compellingly directed and in his own style by Ramón Fernandez . Colorful and acceptable rendition about European spy subgenre , an usual genre during the sixties , not taking any situation seriously . A US Secret Service agent named Bill Howard (Paolo Gozlino as Paul Stevens) is recruited and he has to go to Hong Kong because of the disappearance of some essential documents that another one carried . If these documents go to Chinese hands it will cause the killing of an underground spies ring . Bill must retrieve it at whatever cost , before the Italian Mafia nicknamed Gamma and China authorities take all the names of the nationalist agents working undercover in Red China. Along the way , he confronts his nemesis Al Monks (Rubén Rojo) , a nasty who has his own greedy agenda.

Ordinary Euro-spy movie with usual components : pursuits , car crashes , struggles , fantastic gadgets , strange artifacts , international conspiracy , explosive women and of course , the typical , simple helicopters that used to appear in the genre. 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 . Dealing with an international plot in which some thorny documents have been robbed , if they fell into enemy hands, could be very dangerous and to cause many more deaths . It has rhythm enough , slight violence , the action never falters , the performances are quite acceptable , the issues raised are interesting , the direction is compelling , along with an attractive musical score from composer José Torregrosa , as well as colorful outdoors showing sightseeing from Milan , Lombardia , Genova , Liguria , Italy and interiors in Estudios Roma, Madrid Milan . The main and support cast -with everyone having fun- are passable and adequate to their functional characters . It has some flaws and gaps , as it does tend to get a bit old , including repetitive nature of some fight scenes , and excessive nonsense , but it has big fun , so it cares . The unknown Paolo Gozlino or Paul Stevens gives a sympathetic acting as a brave playboy/secret agent who takes on an criminal organization . Gozlino has an easy-going air about him that makes him great to see . Co-stars various Eurotrash starletts , such as : Betsy Bell , Nieves Navarro or Susan Scott , Claudia Gravy and Marisol Ayuso . Along with a plethora of Spanish secondaries , usual in the 60s and 70s , such as : Rubén Rojo , José Marco , Emilio Rodriguez , Rufino Ingles , Julio Pérez Tabernero , Francisco Sánchez , among others . And special appearance by George Hilton , the antihero of multiple Spaghetti Westerns , here in a brief role as a secret agent piloting a helicopter.

The motion picture was well directed by prolific filmmaker Ramón Fernández . He was a craftsman who made a lot of films, being his greatest hits ¨No desearas el vecino del quinto¨ that is deemed to be the most commercial and grossing movie of the Spanish cinema , as well as ¨Margarita se llama mi amor¨. Ramón Fernández made all kinds of genres such as thriller as ¨Rueda de Sospechosos¨, ¨La muerte ronda a Monica¨ ; Religious movies as ¨El Cristo del Oceano¨, ¨Sor Ye Ye¨, and especially comedy : ¨Aqui el que no corre vuela¨, ¨Casa Flora¨, ¨Un lujo a su alcance¨, ¨La chica de la piscina¨, ¨Simón contamos contigo¨, ¨Doctor me gustan las mujeres¨ , ¨La gloriosa hazaña del cipote de Archidona¨, ¨Cateto a babor¨, ¨Las panteras se comen a los ricos¨, ¨El diablo cojuelo¨, ¨Los novios de mi mujer¨, ¨Ahi va otro recluta¨, among others . Rating : 6/10 .Acceptable and decent thriller/Euro spy movie.
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7/10
Lots of bullets and action, so sorry, no time for clever dialogs
VanheesBenoit8 May 2008
It all starts in Hong Kong. Al Monks, theoretically the Cultural and Commercial Attaché of the American Consulat is in reality a CIA-man. One day, he lays his hands on a list containing all the names of Chinese Nationalist agents working undercover in Red China. In stead of bringing it to his "Consul", he strikes a deal with the Italian Mafia organization Gamma. In exchange for money, and a new name -he wants to divorce his wife, who doesn't want to let him go- he will bring Gamma the list. The Mob offers him 200 000 $ and proposes the killing of his twin brother Domeinico Le Monaco in Italy. Monks' twin brother was working for Gamma, but became dispensable, so the Mafia kills him as part of the deal. At more or less the same time, at the other side of the world, Monks kills someone who resembles him vaguely. He puts the body in his own car, and makes sure that the hands of the dead body are burned. His girlfriend Karin Foster reinforces the cover up, by claiming that the unidentifiable body found in the car is indeed Monks'. The real Monks disappears to Italy, and takes the place of his twin brother Le Monaco, killed by Gamma. Soon he's joined by his lovey dovey Karin . Still following or is a drawing already needed ? The CIA sends special agent Bill Howard to investigate things in Hong Kong. Howard soon discovers that the body -supposedly Monks'- isn't his. He knew Monks in Korea, and a tattoo from 1945 draws his attention. He finds out the real Monks has slipped to Italy, and he gets after him. Monks/Le Monaco finds out that Gamma can get 5 mio. $ for the list, and insists in getting 1 mio. in stead of 200 000 $. So, now we have the Red Chinese angry with Gamma, and Gamma and the CIA are both trying to capture Monks and the list. Don't buy the movie if you want fast and funny dialogs... The aspect "action" gets all the attention: lots of fighting, shooting, climbing, jumping, flying etc. at a very steady rhythm. Lots of James Bond-ish exotic weapons, like an armored sports car than can spray slippery stuff to get rid of tailing cars, brief cases that can shoot, pistols that seem to be able to fire 26 shots, etc. The title refers to one of the tricky situations in which Special Agent Monks almost gets killed. He and a secretary who is helping him get trapped in a kind of gigantic press. Gamma's boss gives him only 7 minutes to commit suicide, before the walls will have squeezed both him and the secretary flat as a pancake. But fortunately enough our Billy has got some explosives with him ! Always handy, no ? All these exotic weapons makes it something closer to a Bond movie than to let's say "The spy who came in from the cold" or the "IPCRESS file". However, forget about the (so called) glamor and about the (rather dubious British) humor that Bond fans seem to enjoy so much...
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7/10
Not bad!
RodrigAndrisan26 June 2021
Film without big names of actors, no star in the cast. The director is not a resonant name either. But, it's worth seeing, it's well done. A good Eurospy among hundreds of other very bad.
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