Fantomas vs. Scotland Yard (1967)

Fantomas vs. Scotland Yard, released in 1967, was the last of the three French Fantomas eurospy thrillers directed by André Hunebelle.

The first of a prolific series of novels featuring the arch-criminal Fantômas and written by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre appeared in print in 1911. The first of Louis Feuillade’s Fantomas movie serials was released in 1913.

It was obviously Bond Fever that created the commercial environment in which the 1960s Fantomas movies could be made but they have quite a different feel. They’re crazy and very lighthearted but they’re not the same kinds of spy spoofs as the Matt Helm movies. 

The Fantomas movies are very very French.

Diabolical criminal mastermind Fantomas has surfaced again. His latest scheme is to tax very rich people. If they pay the tax they will be allowed to live. If they don’t pay they will be killed.

Lord Edward MacRashley (Jean-Roger Caussimon) is very rich indeed and he isn’t happy about this. He gets together with his super-rich friends to discuss the matter.

They decide to call in Commissioner Juve (Louis de Funès) from Paris. Juve arrives in Scotland, at Lord MacRashley’s castle. Which is of course haunted.

There’s another quite separate conspiracy being hatched. There are gangsters also. And ghosts, although Commissioner Juve is confident that they’re fake. There’s the obligatory séance scene. All these elements eventually come together very satisfactorily. There’s also a fox hunt but it’s a fake fox, another of Fantomas’s schemes. Nothing is what it seems to be.

We also find out that Fantomas has built a flying car and is now working on a spaceship. There are not as many gadgets as you might expect but the mobile beds are fun. And Fantomas has a video recorder in an attache case.

Juve is accompanied by his assistant Inspector Bertrand (Jacques Dynam), his old friend the reporter Fandor, and Fandor’s girlfriend Hélène Gurn (Mylène Demongeot).

Juve intends to lay a trap for Fantomas but the arch-villain is laying traps of his own.

Fantomas is a master of disguise which plays a key role in the story. This is something that betrays the 1911 origins of the character. Disguise played a huge role in countless Victorian and Edwardian potboilers but was going out of fashion by the 1920s. It is however a nice touch that gives these movies some of their flavour.

The basic plot is not particularly elaborate.

They managed to keep the core cast intact for all three films. I find that a little bit of Louis de Funès goes a long way but this is after all a spy comedy and Juve is a comic character. Jean Marais as usual plays both Fantomas and Fandor, with his customary charisma. Mylène Demongeot is cute and adorable and amusing.

The Château de Roquetaillade stands in for Lord MacRashley’s castle. It doesn’t look all that Scottish but it does look nice.

There are some action scenes but they’re played for zaniness rather than thrills.

As with any spy spoof you need to have a high tolerance for silliness.

Fantomas vs. Scotland Yard is good-natured fun. Recommended.

Kino Lorber have released all three Fantomas movies in a boxed set, available on both DVD and Blu-Ray.

I’ve also reviewed the first two movies, Fantomas (1964) and Fantomas Unleashed (1965). And I’ve reviewed the 1913 movie serial Juve contre Fantômas (1913) and the first of the novels, Allain and Souvestre’s Fantômas.

The Vengeance of Dr Mabuse (1972)

Jess Franco’s The Vengeance of Dr Mabuse, released in 1972, was the last Dr Mabuse film. Purists might argue that it’s not a proper Dr Mabuse film but considering the vast differences between the three Fritz Lang Mabuse movies (made over a period of almost 40 years) and the 1960s CCC Mabuse films there really isn’t any such thing as a proper Mabuse film. It was never a rigidly structured franchise. Franco’s movie has a Mabuse vibe and that’s good enough for me.

This movie exists in two different versions. The Kino Cult Blu-Ray offers us the longer German cut, released with the title Dr. M schlägt zu. The much shorter Spanish cut included most of the same footage but totally rearranged.

The movie was shot in Germany and Spain but is set in the United States, somewhere close to the Mexican border.

Even more than most Franco films this is a movie that it going to bring out all the smarmy sneering snarkiness in reviewers with mainstream tastes. The Vengeance of Dr Mabuse is so far removed from conventional Hollywood filmmaking as to inhabit an entirely different cinematic galaxy.

As usual Franco had no money, and as usual he didn’t care. He wanted to create a particular feel in this film and he does just that and does it brilliantly. Everything is too cramped. Scenes look like they were shot inside closets. The framing is too tight. The camera is too close. He uses fisheye lenses when he shouldn’t. Everything is weirdly off-balance. Then there’s the red tint to everything.

Everything is wrong, and it’s all absolutely deliberate. The result is a feeling of paranoia and madness spinning out of control. Franco isn’t interested in being polished - he wants that swirling maelstrom of craziness feel. And it works.

And this is a fine example of one of Franco’s greatest assets as a director - the ability to find bizarre locations that work perfectly and that allow striking disturbing visuals without spending any money at all.

Jack Taylor is odd casting as Mabuse but he’s terrific - he’s a total madman who has no idea just how insane and doomed to failure his madcap scheme is. He’s never specifically referred to as Mabuse, but the German title Dr. M schlägt zu makes it fairly obvious that he is Dr Mabuse. And apparently in the Spanish version he is definitely stated to be Dr Mabuse.

What his scheme is doesn’t matter. It’s a total McGuffin.

Having Mabuse in America, and having him come up against a laidback cowboy sheriff (played in a nicely subtle tongue-in-cheek way by Fred Willliams) adds to the nuttiness.

And there’s the monster, Andros, one of several references to Franco’s early Dr Orloff movies. And yes, there’s a Professor Orloff in this one.

There’s a sinister sexy sadistic kinky female. There’s a stripper. There’s the cowboy sheriff’s girlfriend. There are kidnappings, and murders, and break-ins at secure facilities. The plot makes no real sense, and that’s a good thing. What matters is that things are crazy and they get crazier and everybody is paranoid and they get more paranoid. Dr M and his crew have completely control of events.

And of course there’s a kinky nightclub dancing scene.

It’s quite fitting that the final Dr Mabuse movies should have been made by Jess Franco, given that Fritz Lang was an admirer of Franco’s work.

The Vengeance of Dr Mabuse is not quite like any other Jess Franco movie except that it’s weird and offbeat. Which of course means it’s very Jess Franco indeed. He could make movies that were weird and offbeat in lots of different ways. In this case there’s an odd mistiness to everything and the brutalist architecture is perfect for a Dr Mabuse movie.

I enjoyed this one. Highly recommended.

The Kino Cult Blu-Ray looks nice and there’s an audio commentary by Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth.

OSS 117 Double Agent (1968)

Pas de roses pour OSS 117 (OSS 117 Double Agent, OSS 117 Murder for Sale) was the sixth of the eight French eurospy movies made between 1956 and 1971 based on the popular novels of Jean Bruce.

For this movie John Gavin took over the role of Agent OSS 117. CIA Agent OSS 117 is Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, of French descent but American-born.

A shadowy organisation has been masterminding political assassinations. OSS 117 has to infiltrate the organisation by posing as a notorious hitman named Chandler. He does so successfully. The given him another new identity, James Mulligan. To avoid confusion I’ll just refer to him as OSS 117 throughout.

The leader of the assassination organisation, the Major (Curd Jürgens), gives him a tough assignment to prove his mettle and his loyalty. He has to kill a United Nations official Heinrich Van Dyck who is brokering a peace deal between two warring factions in the Middle East. The assassination will wreck the peace deal and this will benefit the powerful interests who are behind the Major.

It starts slowly and at first it’s all a bit predictable. Secret agents posing as assassins is a familiar enough spy/crime trope.

It gets more interesting when OSS 117 meets the girl. Of course there’s a girl and of course she’s beautiful. Her name is Aïcha Melik (Margaret Lee). She’s the daughter of a rich banker. It doesn’t take much to get OSS 117 interested in pretty girls and he gets even more interested when for some inexplicable reason the bad guys instruct him to keep away from her.

Of course you never know if beautiful girls will turn out to be delightful companions or evil lady super-spies. That’s what makes beautiful girls so enticing.

The vaccine he is given is one of the nicest touches in the movie. It’s a time-lapse killer vaccine. If he isn’t given the antidote regularly he’ll drop dead. It’s a good way to keep new employees in line. It allows for the introduction of another villain, a sinister doctor.

A couple of goons have been tailing the girl. They could be working for the Major or for some other faction or could even be good guys. It doesn’t matter. It gives OSS 117 the chance to do the protective hero thing. Chicks always go for that. Pretty soon Aïcha thinks OSS 117 is a total dreamboat.

Thee are double-crosses going on and there’s the Major’s vicious henchman Karas to worry about. Karas took an immediate and intense dislike to OSS 117.

There’s nothing terribly wrong with the plot. It just doesn’t have quite enough twists and quite enough interest. It’s a bit too routine.

The fight scenes are done well but it needed at least one reasonably cool action set-piece and sadly it never eventuates. It’s like an aircraft that taxies along the runway but never quite manages to get airborne.

This movie has the cosmopolitan feel of so many 1960s/70s European genre movies. It’s a French movie with an American leading man, an English leading lady, a German actor as the villain and several Italian supporting players. John Gavin is quite OK. Margaret Lee is adorable and charming and is really the best thing in the movie. Curd Jürgens was a great actor and should have made a terrific super-villain but the Major never becomes the colourful larger-than-life presence that was needed. Look out for Rosalba Neri and Luciana Paluzzi in small roles.

Eurospy movies could not match the budgets or the spectacles of the Bond movies. The best of them, such as Special Mission Lady Chaplin (1966) and Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill (1966), make up for this by adding inspired craziness, surreal touches and lots of style. OSS 117 Double Agent by comparison is too straightforward which means that you notice the limited budget.

It’s all pretty tame. No nudity. Very restrained violence.

OSS 117 Double Agent is perfectly decent entertainment but for me it’s one of the weaker entries in the series. It’s still worth a watch if you buy the five-movie Kino Lorber boxed set (on both Blu-Ray and DVD) and if you’re a eurospy fan you simply must buy it. The transfers are excellent. It’s a real treat to see such movies decently presented in their correct aspect ratios and looking so good.

I’ve also reviewed the really excellent OSS 117: Mission for a Killer (1965) and OSS 117: Mission to Tokyo (1966).

Night of Open Sex (1983)

Night of Open Sex (La noche de los sexos abiertos) is a 1983 Jess Franco movie that springs a few surprises. It’s not quite what it initially appears to be.

This is one of the movies Jess Franco made for Golden Films. This was both the worst and the best part of his career. It was his worst period in the sense that Golden Films turned out to be totally incompetent when it came to securing foreign distribution for his movies. These movies remained entirely unseen and unknown outside of Spain.

On the other hand it was his happiest period because Golden Films offered him an unprecedented level of creative control. He could do absolutely anything he wanted to do. And nothing mattered more to Franco than creative control.

Even when Franco’s cult following later started to build these movies continued to be almost totally unseen and unknown to his fans outside of Spain. This finally started to change some years back and these movies are now available, in subtitled form (they were never dubbed into English) and in remarkably good transfers, on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Their initially very poor reputation among eurocult fans has gradually grown but they are still far too often overlooked.

Night of Open Sex introduces us to erotic dancer Moira (Lina Romay). Through the rather sleazy Vickers (Miguel Ángel Aristu) she has become mixed up in some sort of espionage plot. Her job is to take the place of another girl, Tina Klaus (Juana de la Morena), and deliver a secret message to the General. Vickers has kidnapped Tina and she has been forced to reveal the plan concerning the message.

Al Crosby (Antonio Mayans) appears on the scene. The name suggests that he is going to be another variation on the Al Pereira character who pops up in so many Franco films, usually in the guise of a hardboiled private eye.

Whatever deal is going down, Al wants in on it. He wants Moira to accept him as a partner.

He also wants to sleep with Moira. He has to be very forcefully persuasive at first but Moira seems delighted with the outcome.

Al and Moira have a problem. They have the message but it’s in code and they have no idea what it’s all about. Al figures there’s money involved.

There’s still the problem of Vickers, and there’s another couple who want a piece of this action. There’s plenty of potential here for violence and double-crosses.

It all leads up to a totally unexpected ending which I absolutely loved.

There’s a staggering amount of sex and nudity. Lina Romay is nude for the majority of the film’s running time and you won’t be surprised to see a lot of shots of the most intimate parts of her anatomy. The other actresses spend a lot of time naked as well. The sex scenes are softcore but very raunchy.

The highlight of any Franco movie is likely to be the nightclub act scenes and Moira’s act has to be seen to be believed. When you’ve seen it you still won’t believe it. The things she does with those magazines. And the car. She’s a very imaginative lady.

At some point in this movie you’re going to have one of those “I don’t think we’re in Kansas any more Toto” moments. It’s not that anything supernatural or paranormal or science fictional, or impossible, happens. You just know that this is not reality. Maybe part of it is reality. Or maybe none of it. You start to realise that the plot is following dream logic rather than ordinary logic. Characters suddenly do wildly unexpected out-of-character things. It’s clear that this is not a flaw in the script. This is intentional. Uncle Jess is playing with our heads.

Stephen Thrower has suggested that the entire movie is an extended sexual fantasy (or series of sexual fantasies). I think he’s probably spot on. It’s a sexual fantasy rather than a dream or a hallucination or an exercise in surrealism.

Which raises lots of interesting questions. Are we supposed to believe that these people have any actual existence? Is this Jess Franco’s sexual fantasy which he’s inviting us to share? Is it to any extent Moira’s fantasy? And given the close collaboration between Franco and Lina Romay and the fact there was apparently quite a bit of improvising going on, are there any elements that might be Lina’s fantasy? Or a fantasy shared by Jess and Lina?

There is one genuinely shocking scene, but of course if this really is supposed to be taken as a fantasy then that scene becomes much less disturbing. Other mildly disturbing scenes become not disturbing at all.

The sex scenes are very passionate but they’re also just a little jokey. They’re mostly good-natured. You have to love the way Moira starts yelling “Oh Tarzan” as her sexual frenzy increases and in one encounter she gives an actual Tarzan jungle call when she comes. It’s one of the things that is so engaging about this movie - these sudden goofy moments.

The final sex scene is priceless. It may be the culmination of Franco’s career as a filmmaker. It’s not that it’s graphic, it isn’t, but the context is delightfully surprising.

Night of Open Sex is crazy, but it’s crazy in a subtle way. The craziness creeps up on the viewer. I liked it a lot. Highly recommended.

Severin have provided a great transfer with some very desirable extras. As always the pick of the extras is Stephen Thrower’s perceptive video essay.

OSS 117: Mission to Tokyo (1966)

OSS 117: Mission to Tokyo (AKA Terror in Tokyo, original title Atout coeur à Tokyo pour OSS 117), is a 1966 French eurospy movie directed by Michel Boisrond and starring Frederick Stafford. This was the fourth of the 1960s OSS 117 movies, based on Jean Bruce’s novels featuring secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, codenamed OSS 117.

A mystery organisation claim to have invented a super-weapon which they will use unless governments pay them a hundred million dollars. Military bases will be their targets.

CIA agent OSS 117 is assigned to the case. The best lead is a woman in Tokyo who is being blackmailed by the mystery organisation into providing them with the information they need to target those bases.

The woman is Eva Wilson (Marina Vlady). The plan is for Eva to make contact with the bad guys. Hubert will pretend to be her husband (her actual husband is in Washington).

Hubert and Eva decide that it’s important to make Hubert’s masquerade as her husband convincing so they sleep together.

There’s a meet in a girlie bar where Hubert encounters a pretty Japanese girl, Tetsuko (Jitsuko Yoshimura). Tetsuko might be able to provide a further lead but even if she can’t Hubert doesn’t mind. He doesn’t really need a reason to pursue pretty girls.

Hubert’s problem is that he is now involved with two women and he can’t be sure if he can trust either of them. Maybe he’ll have a better idea of that after he’s slept with both of them.

Hubert’s bigger problem is to find the villains’ secret headquarters, and their super-weapon. He has to deal with lots of heavies who want to do him harm.

This was Frederick Stafford’s second and final appearance as OSS 117. He looks like the kind of guy who might be a secret agent, he’s good in the action scenes and he’s likeable and charming. Hubert is a skirt-chaser, but he only chases girls who like to be chased.

Marina Vlady and Jitsuko Yoshimura are fine as the two women mixed up in the case. Jitsuko Yoshimura in particular is bubbly and cute.

Perhaps the villains could have been more colourful.

The plot is a pretty standard eurospy plot but it’s serviceable enough. The movie moves along fairly briskly. The fight scenes are reasonably good.

The bad guys’ secret lair doesn’t compare to anything from a Bond movie but it’s OK.

Director Michel Boisrond doesn’t try anything fancy but he’s quite competent.

There’s a decent mix of action and romance. Perhaps surprisingly it’s all played very very straight with no comic interludes.

The action finale is fairly exciting. Obviously a lot less spectacular than a Bond movie but for a modestly budgeted movie perfectly satisfactory.

OSS 117: Mission to Tokyo doesn’t quite have as much eurospy craziness as I would have liked.

On the whole this is a thoroughly enjoyable rather lighthearted spy thriller and it’s highly recommended.

I’ve reviewed the two previous OSS 117 movies, OSS 117 Is Unleashed (1963) and Panic in Bangkok. They’re worth seeing.

Mission Bloody Mary (1965)

Mission Bloody Mary, released in 1965, was the first of a series of three eurospy movies featuring Ken Clark as American secret agent Dick Malloy, Agent 077. It was an Italian-French-Spanish co-production. It was followed by From the Orient with Fury (Agente 077 dall'oriente con furore) and Special Mission Lady Chaplin (Missione speciale Lady Chaplin).

Confusingly it appears that Agent 077 was named Jack Clifton in the European versions but renamed Dick Malloy in the English dubbed versions.

Mission Bloody Mary begins in a typical eurospy way. Someone has been causing US military aircraft to crash and they have stolen a new super H-bomb nicknamed the Bloody Mary.

It’s obviously a case for the CIA’s top agent Dick Malloy, if they can tear him away from the case he’s working on at the moment. That case happens to be a beautiful blonde. Agent 077 hates leaving a job unfinished but he promises the blonde that he’ll be back to finish the job.

Agent 077 finds his contact and of course she’s a glamorous female, Dr Elsa Freeman (Helga Liné). There’s another glamorous female who seems likely to be more dangerous, a Chinese stripper named Kuan (played by Mitsouko).

The bodies slowly start to accumulate. And people are trying to kill Dick Malloy, so he must be getting close to something.

The CIA can’t provide Dick with much information. They know the Black Lily is involved, but they don’t know whether the Black Lily is an organisation or a person, or whether it refers to a man or a woman. The Black Lily might be operating independently, or on behalf of the Chinese or the Soviets. And that bomb could be hidden anywhere.

There will of course be double-crosses. This is after all a spy story. The script provides plenty of twists. Some of them you’ll see coming but some of them you won’t.

There are glamorous women and poor Malloy has no idea which of them he can trust. He gets into plenty of tight corners but he’s a tough guy and he can slug or shoot his way out of most situations.

Ken Clark was one of those American actors who realised that they weren’t going to reach the top in Hollywood but might do a lot better in Italy. He made peplums, spaghetti western, eurospy and action movies. He was the ruggedly handsome American type who prospered in 60s eurocult movies. He makes a more than adequate square-jawed wise-cracking hero.

Helga Liné and Mitsouko add some glamour. The other cast members are all perfectly competent.

The major difference between the Bond movies and eurospy movies was of course money. The makers of eurospy movies did not have the budgets for elaborate sets, fancy gadgetry and spectacular action set-pieces. They had to rely on more conventional action scenes. A lot depended on just how good a director was at staging such scenes. In this case Sergio Grieco proves to be very competent. The action scenes are excellent.

And there are plenty of them. Pacing is crucial to the success of these kinds of movies. The lower the budget of the movie the less forgiving the audience is going to be of slow patches. This movie has no slow patches. It just keeps powering along.

Director Sergio Grieco had a fairly typical career for an Italian genre director. He made peplums, swashbucklers and quite a few eurospy movies. Later he dabbled in poliziotteschi and sex comedies.

This was 1965 so there’s no nudity but there are some witty sexy moments. A good place for a woman to hide a secret message is in her bra, especially if she can be sure that the man for whom the message is intended will get the chance to look inside her bra. And Mitsouko gets to do a strip-tease routine.

At one point Malloy has to make sure that a female agent is not an imposter. To do so he will have to make a careful examination of her left breast. Fortunately one of Malloy’s secret agent skills is persuading young ladies to remove their clothing.

The violence isn’t graphic but the fight scenes are quite full-blooded.

Mission Bloody Mary has relatively few of the outrageous and fantastic elements that populate a lot of eurospy movies, in fact it has almost none, but it manages to provide plenty of excitement, and it’s stylish enough in a slightly gritty sort of way. On the whole this is a top-notch eurospy offering and it’s highly recommended.

The German Pidax Jack Clifton Agent 077 DVD boxed set includes all three 077 movies, with the English soundtracks as well. The transfers are fine.

I’ve reviewed the other two Agent 077 movies, From the Orient with Fury (1965) and the superb Special Mission Lady Chaplin (1966).

OSS 117: Mission for a Killer (1965)

OSS 117: Mission for a Killer (Furia à Bahia pour OSS 117) is one of the French eurospy thrillers based on Jean Bruce’s books featuring secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, codenamed OSS 117. It was the third movie in the series to be directed by André Hunebelle.

Kerwin Matthews had played OSS 117 in the previous two films. In OSS 117: Mission for a Killer the role was taken over by Frederick Stafford.

Our spy hero is enjoying a skiing holiday but the holiday is cut short when he is assigned to investigate a series of suicide bombings in South America. The suicide bombers have no political histories and there is a suspicion that they are being turned into human robots through the use of some mysterious drug. OSS 117 soon finds himself on an airliner bound for Rio de Janeiro. He will be posing as a man named Hubert Delcroix.

On arrival he discovers that his contact, Ellis, has had an unfortunate car accident which was unlikely to be an accident. Visiting Ellis in hospital leads to a wild and lengthy (and very well done) fight scene but Hubert is too late to save Ellis from an assassin. Hubert has to beat a hasty retreat from the hospital before the police arrive and he takes the girl with him.

What girl you may be asking? The girl is Anna-Maria Sulza (played by the gorgeous Mylène Demongeot) and Hubert doesn’t know where she fits in but she fits in somewhere.

Hubert has three females to deal with (all of them gorgeous) and he’s by no means sure which of them (if any) he can trust. Of course there are also various people trying to kill him.

There’s an important clue in Ellis’s safe, which suggests that Hubert needs to find out what is happening with a remote Indian tribe. This might lead to an explanation of the hypnotic super-drug being used to turn people into remote-controlled killers. The tribe lives near Anna-Maria’s ranch.

There’s some kind of revolutionary group behind all this. In fact it’s a whole revolutionary army. Their agenda isn’t too clear but they definitely want power and they mean business.

Frederick Stafford makes a fine hero. He’s a fairly typical eurospy hero, quick with the wise-cracks and with an eye for the ladies and he has real charm. Mylène Demongeot makes a terrific sexy heroine.

Eurospy movies naturally couldn’t hope to match the truly spectacular action set-pieces and the outrageous sets of the Bond movies. The most successful eurospy movies tried to make up for this with as many decent fight scenes as they could shoehorn into a movie and the fight scenes in this movie are good and very imaginatively staged. In fact they’re very good indeed. And there’s a well-handled full-scale battle at the end. Lots of stuff gets blown up.

Eurospy movies also relied on style, and this movie has plenty of that.

It manages not to look cheap and there’s some fine location shooting in Brazil. The budget was obviously reasonably generous.

Director André Hunebelle did this sort of thing extremely well. He directed several of the OSS 117 movies as well as the three 1960s Fantomas movies (which are much more lighthearted but just as energetic and fast-moving).

The plot has the touches of outrageousness that the eurospy genre demands but it remains quite coherent.

I’ve now seen three of the OSS 117 movies and this may be the best I’ve seen so far.

Kino Lorber have released five of the OSS 117 movies in a Blu-Ray set (and on DVD as well). The transfers are excellent. This set is an absolute must-buy for eurospy fans. It’s a real treat to see such movies decently presented in their correct aspect ratios and looking terrific.

OSS 117: Mission for a Killer is pure high-octane fun and is highly recommended.

I’ve reviewed the two previous OSS 117 movies, OSS 117 Is Unleashed (1963) and Panic in Bangkok as well as André Hunebelle first two Fantomas movies, Fantomas (1964) and Fantomas Unleashed (1965). All are worth seeing.

Claude Chabrol’s Blue Panther (1965)

Claude Chabrol’s Blue Panther (the original French title is Marie-Chantal contre Dr Kha) is a lighthearted 1965 eurospy romp, or at least that’s what you might assume you're going to get. That assumption would be entirely incorrect.

What you're actually going to get is a French New Wave deconstruction of the spy movie. And it gets very meta and very postmodern. If that sort of thing appeals to you then you'll enjoy this movie. If you were hoping for a fun eurospy move you'll be very disappointed.

My full review can be found at Classic Movie Ramblings.

Kommissar X – Three Golden Serpents (1969)

The seven West German Kommissar X eurospy movies made between 1965 and 1971 were based on the incredibly popular Kommissar X book series. Paul Alfred Mueller (1901-1970) wrote 620 Kommissar X books under the name Bert F. Island. Yes, you read that right. 620 books.

Drei goldene Schlangen (AKA Three Golden Serpents AKA Island of Lost Girls AKA Beautiful Lost Girls in Hell's Island) was the sixth of the Kommissar X movies and was released in 1969.

The Kommissar X films started out as standard erospy movies (albeit very good eurospy movies) but the later entries in the cycle have more to do with crime-fighting than espionage. At least in this one it’s an international crime syndicate so the feel is not too different from a eurospy film, it just lacks the gadgets and the slightly science fictional touches one associates with eurospy flicks. It seems quite likely that the switch to crime-fighting was the result of increasingly tight budgets.

The two lead actors are once again Tony Kendall (as Joe Walker) and Brad Harris (as Captain Tom Rowland). Rowland is on holiday in Bangkok when an American woman, a Mrs Leighton, asks him for help. She believes that her daughter Phyllis has been kidnapped. The mother doesn’t want the police involved. Rowland reluctantly agrees that maybe Joe Walker is the man who can help.

In these later movies Joe Walker is a private eye rather than a secret agent but he’s as cocky and cheerful and irresponsible as ever. Tom Rowland is still pretending to be horrified by the thought of having to work with Joe yet again. He disapproves of Joe’s irresponsibility but of course if you’ve watched the earlier movies you know that these two really are buddies. Tom just likes to complain. It makes him feel better.

Almost immediately there is an attempt on Joe’s life. Followed by numerous additional attempts. It’s obvious that he’s stumbled into something big and he’s up against people who are both murderous and persistent. Fortunately they’re not very competent.

Joe and Tom do have one important clue. Two of the would-be assassins have a tattoo showing three entwined snakes. It sounds like a religious cult or a crime gang.

Phyllis has indeed been kidnapped and her captors intend to sell her into prostitution. First they will break her spirit wth drugs and psychological torture. While being held captive she meets Petra. Petra appears to be working for the crime gang, but she promises to help Phyllis. We don’t know what to make of Petra. Is she planning to double-cross the crime gang or is she intending to betray Phyllis? Either way Petra is definitely one feisty gal. After escaping she steals a boat, and killing the three crew members is like child’s play for her.

Joe and Tom have heard rumours of an island which men can visit, but they have to agree to be drugged for the trip there so that they have no way of knowing where the island is. When they get there they will find an assortment of very pretty girls to entertain them.

The island may be owned by Madame Kim Soo, a very rich very respectable lady active in charity work. The police are sure she would never be involved in anything shady, and would certainly not be running an island brothel.

Joe decides he’d like to visit this island. He’ll pretend to be a Texan millionaire. He’s sure no-one will recognise him.

Nothing can go wrong because he has a radio transmitter in his sunglasses. Tom Rowland will be able to keep in touch with him and the police should be able to use the signal to locate the island (which they do using a groovy machine with a spinning globe on top of it). It’s a good plan. As long as nothing happens to those sunglasses.

Joe’s mission is not just to close down Madame Kim Soo’s sex island. His main task is to rescue Phyllis, presumably held prisoner on that island.

The action is pretty much non-stop and it’s done quite well. The violence isn’t graphic at all but the body count is high.

The Thai locations are used well. By this time the Kommissar X movies were being shot in colour and Three Golden Serpents looks impressive.

There are lots of beautiful women and lots of topless scenes.

The battle on the mud flats is a crazy but effectively weird touch.

Tony Kendall and Brad Harris were working together as a well-oiled machine by this stage. The supporting players are all perfectly competent.

Director Roberto Mauri worked in the usual array of genes and was also responsible for the delightfully goofy King of Kong Island (1968). His work on Three Golden Serpents might not be inspired but he keeps things moving.

Three Golden Serpents isn’t trying to be anything more than pure entertainment and as long as you accept this and don’t try to analyse the movie it works on that level. Perhaps not quite as good as the previous movie in the series, Three Blue Panthers, but still recommended.

The German DVD boxed set offers this movie in both German and English language versions. It gets a pleasing anamorphic transfer.

Kommissar X - Drei blaue Panther (1968)

Released in 1968, Drei blaue Panther (AKA Three Blue Panthers AKA Kill Panther Kill) was the fifth of the seven Kommissar X eurocrime/eurospy movies made in Germany between 1965 and 1971. They were based on a prolific and hugely successful series of books written by Paul Alfred Mueller under the name Bert F. Island. He wrote no less than 620 Kommissar X books!

The heroes of both the books and the films are American private eye Joe Walker (played in the films by Tony Kendall) and New York cop Tom Rowland (played by Brad Harris). Joe Walker is a devil-may-care sort of guy fitting pretty neatly into the stereotype of a glamorous private eye. Tom Rowland is a tough no-nonsense cop who thinks his pal Joe is wild and irresponsible.

This adventure begins with the ambush of a police van. The object was to spring convicted robber Arthur Hillary. Hillary knows where the loot from a spectacular jewel robbery is hidden. His brother Robert has the jewels and Arthur doesn’t know exactly where they’re hidden.

The two brothers don’t get on, partly because Arthur thinks Robert stole his girl Elizabeth (Erika Blanc). Elizabeth is now married to Robert.

In the English dubbed version the surname Hillary is changed to Tracy.

Robert lives in Canada and that’s where Arthur and his accomplices are heading. That’s also where Tom Rowland is. He’s helping the local Canadian police on this case.

Tom is rather taken aback when he discovers that Joe Walker, who is supposed to be Brazil has just checked into the same hotel he’s staying in. What on earth is Joe doing in Canada?

Joe is in fact working for the insurance company so he’s trying to recover the jewels. Since Tom is trying to find the thieves it makes sense for them to coöperate which, after much squabbling, they do.

There’s much more serious disagreement between the two Hillary (or Tracy) brothers. When I tell you that they’re twin brothers you’ll have some idea of the likely nature of those complications.

Arthur’s accomplices want the jewels as well. There’s not much honour among these thieves.

Finding the jewels is the challenge. Whenever they are they’re very well hidden.

Another complication is Robert’s nurse/secretary Emily (Corny Collins). Robert seems very fond of her, and Elizabeth has noticed this.

Tom also seems to have grown very fond of Elizabeth, in a way that might conceivably affect his professional judgment.

The plot revolves around those missing jewels, with various characters willing to bump each other off and resort to other nastiness in order to get them.

At this point you might be thinking that this doesn’t sound like a eurospy movie. Where are the gadgets? Where is the outlandish spy thriller plot in which the fate of the world hangs in the balance? You’d be right to wonder. The Kommissar X movies certainly started out as typical (and very fine) examples of the eurospy genre. By the time we get to this fifth film we find that the series has morphed into something entirely different. This is a pure crime thriller. There’s no hint whatsoever of spies or diabolical criminal masterminds or international intrigue.

It seems that the producers had decided that the 60s spy craze had just about run its course and that glamorous crime thrillers set in exotic locations (liberally sprinkled with pretty girls) were going to be the wave of the future. They may have been correct in feeling that the eurospy genre was close to being played out.

You might also think that Canada is an odd choice as the setting, since eurospy movies usually had more exotic settings. The reason may have been that Expo 67 was happening in Montreal at the time the movie was being shot. Expo 67 was the biggest and most successful world’s fair in history. It’s used as the background for much of the action in the movie and at the time it would have given the movie a very up-to-date and topical feel. And since this is a crime movie rather than a spy movie the futuristic trappings of Expo 67 (monorails and such things) supplied some of the technological coolness that had been provided by the secret spy headquarters and the gadgetry of the earlier spy-oriented films.

The action moves along at a brisk pace. There’s a pretty cool fight scene in a martial arts club. Theres an epic fight scene later on. Being outnumber six or eight to one doesn’t even slow Joe and Tom down. Corpses slowly accumulate. Lovely ladies are threatened with torture.

Tony Kendall (who was of course Italian) and Brad Harris always make a great team. In this film their constant efforts to get the better of each other provide extra amusement. There are very satisfactory villains and three lovely ladies all of whom can act. There’s mayhem aplenty but no graphic violence and no sex.

The early Kommissar X movies have long been available in English dubbed versions but sourced from very poor washed-out prints. The recent German DVD boxed set provides lovely bright vibrant transfers and the English-dubbed soundtrack of Kommissar X - Drei blaue Panther is provided as well.

Although it’s not technically a eurospy movie it still has much of the eurospy vibe to it. A fast-paced fun movie. Highly recommended.

Fantomas Unleashed (1965)

Fantomas Unleashed, released in 1965, was the second of André Hunebelle’s three Fantomas movies.

The great diabolical criminal mastermind Fantomas, created by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre, made his first appearance in print in 1911 and would eventually feature in 43 novels, as well as comics and movies. The Fantomas books are outrageous pulpy fun with unbelievably convoluted plots and an air of breathless excitement and mystery as Fantomas seemingly has the ability to strike when and where he chooses.

The first of Hunebelle’s movie adaptations, Fantomas, came out in 1964. It was a huge success and very influential. The various pop art and comic-inspired fantasy adventure movies of the 60s, movies like Danger: Diabolik and Barbarella, were inspired to some extent by Fantomas. Fantomas also had a huge influence on the spy and action-adventure genres in the late 60s.

What’s interesting about Fantomas Unleashed is that it makes use of many of the plot devices that Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre loved so much. Both the good guys and the bad guys in the novels are continually adopt ingenious disguises and it’s obvious right away that this 1965 movie is going to make plentiful use of this device. I think this is very cool since it’s totally in tune with the spirit of the source material.

In the novels Fantomas’s arch-enemies, Inspector Juve and journalist Jérôme Fandor, often have to battle official scepticism. In this movie Commissioner Juve (Louis de Funès) has just been presented with an official decoration for his achievement in ridding France of the menace of Fantomas.

In fact Fantomas is still very much alive and he’s hatching his most ambitious and most evil plot to date. He has kidnapped a scientist, Professor Marchand, and he intends to force the unfortunate scientist to develop a super mind control weapon for him. But one scientist is not enough. Fantomas will also need to kidnap Professeur Lefèvre.

This is where the disguise idea really takes off in outrageous directions. Fantomas is impersonating Professeur Lefèvre, but Fandor is impersonating him as well in an attempt to trap Fantomas. There are three Professeur Lefèvres running about, creating ever-increasing chaos.

Fantomas also tries to manipulate Fandor’s girlfriend Hélène. He hopes to use her to put pressure on Fandor but mostly we get the impression he just wants to make her his mistress.

Juve disguises himself as well, as the chaos level just keeps increasing.

Juve also puts a great deal of faith in gadgets (this was 1965, a time when the Bond movies were just beginning to embrace the idea of gadgets). Juve’s gadgets are remarkably silly although it has to be admitted that his trick raincoat really is quite funny.

Naturally Fantomas has some gadgets of his own up his sleeve, one of which provides a rather Bond movie ending.

The movies have a sillier more lighthearted tone than the novels but in the mid-60s that was probably a sensible commercial decision. Personally I think Louis de Funès overdoes the comic stuff a little as Juve. Juve becomes a bit of a Clouseau-like bumbling ass. It does have to be said however that Louis de Funès did know how to do comedy.

Jean Marais plays both Fantomas and Fandor, as he does in all three Fantomas movies. In a movie in which so much of the plot hinges on disguises that was quite a clever move. And in this movie Marais plays Professeur Lefèvre as well. Marais’ performance is one of the movie’s greatest strengths.

Mylène Demongeot is funny and charming and sexy as Fandor’s fiancée Hélène. She played Hélène in all three Fantomas movies.

Fantomas is like Dr Fu Manchu. You know that his plans will almost certainly be foiled but you also feel pretty sure that he’ll escape. He has to escape, in order to appear in the next instalment.

The sets are wonderful, very pop art and very eye-catching. And of course the Fantomas blue makeup became iconic. The pacing just doesn’t let up. There’s no danger of boredom. There are fine stunts and the special effects were pretty cool in 1965.

This movie is included in Kino Lorber’s three-movie Fantomas boxed set (on DVD or Blu-Ray) which really is an absolute must-buy if you’re a eurospy fan or a fan of comic book-inspired eurocrime movies. The transfers are excellent.

Fantomas Unleashed is a worthy follow-up to the first Fantomas movie. Highly recommended.

I've reviewed several of the books at Vintage Pop Fictions, including the book that started it all in 1911, Fantômas.