Daily Archives February 18, 2018

Posted in USA | UK SPY MOVIES

WHERE THE SPIES ARE (1966)

¿Dónde están los espías? (Spain)
Passeport pour l’oubli (France)

1966 UK
Direction: Val Guest
Actors: David Niven, Françoise Dorléac, John Le Mesurie

Rosser, a British agent is assassinated in Beirut. British intelligence boss MacGillivray recruits Dr Jason Love (Niven), who did some intelligence work during World War Two, to attend a medical conference and find out what is going on. Love stops off in Paris and meets MagGillivray’s contact, a model called Vikki. The two get along well, causing Love to miss his flight, which promptly explodes.

Love arrives in Beirut and meets another agent, Parkington. Together they discover a communist plot to assassinate the pro-British Prince of Zahlouf, thereby threatening Britain’s Eastern oil treaties. Parkington is killed and Love meets up with Vikki again, who reveals she is a double agent. Love manages to stop the assassination, but when escaping is captured by the Russians. They put him on a plane touring the world, the “Dove of Peace”, and try to extract information from him. Also on board is Vikki. A Russian defector reveals Love’s location to the British. When the plane flies over Canada, the British arrange a fake emergency so the plane will land. Vikki shoots the Russians enabling Love to escape but she is killed in turn.

WHERE THE SPIES ARE (1966) TRAILER

WHERE THE SPIES ARE (1966) POSTERS

Music: Mario Nascimbene
Cinematography: Arthur Grant
Edited by: Bill Lenny
Art Direction: John Howell
Costume Design: Beatrice Dawson
Production companies: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Running time: 110 minutes

Posted in EUROSPY

SOMEBODY’S STOLEN OUR RUSSIAN SPY (1968)

O.K. Yevtushenko (original title)

1965 Italy | France | Spain
Direction: José Luis Madrid
Actors: Tom Adams, Tim Barrett, Barta Barri

Agent Charles Vine finds himself on the trail of a missing Russian spy and soon finds himself involved in a bonkers plot involving Albanians and the Chinese.

Shot in Spain instead of the usual UK location. Never saw a theatrical release as it languished in a film laboratory until 1976 until finally shown on TV.

Follows Licensed To Kill (1965)
Follows Where the Bullets Fly (1966)

SOMEBODY’S STOLEN OUR RUSSIAN SPY (1968) PREVIEW SCENE

SOMEBODY’S STOLEN OUR RUSSIAN SPY (1968) MUSIC FROM SOUNDTRACK

SOMEBODY’S STOLEN OUR RUSSIAN SPY (1968) POSTERS

Music: Bruno Nicolai, Giovanni Simonelli (as Simonelli)
Cinematography: Federico G. Larraya, Alejandro Ulloa
Edited by: Otello Colangeli
Art Direction: Nedo Azzini
Set Decoration: Ramiro Gómez
Costume Design: Federico Forquet, Gaia Romanini
Production companies: Sincronía, Fida Cinematografica, Les Productions Jacques Roitfeld
Running time: 99 minutes (Italy) 101 minutes (Spain)

Posted in USA | UK SPY MOVIES

WHERE THE BULLETS FLY (1966)

Cuando las balas vuelan (Spain)

1966 UK
Direction: John Gilling
Actors: Tom Adams, Dawn Addams, Tim Barrett

The film begins with a pre-credit sequence in which a group of unnamed terrorists have parked a vehicle containing a guided missile pointed straight at the Palace of Westminster whilst politicians are heard on the film’s soundtrack. They are thwarted by a group of older women in a tour group who turn out to be cross-dressing commandos who eliminate the terrorists with sub-machine guns and grenades. They are led by Agent Charles Vine with his second-in-command being Lt. Guy Fawkes who has saved the Parliament of England.

The film proper begins with the Royal Air Force testing a secret light-weight metal called “Spurium” that enables nuclear aircraft to fly. An unnamed sinister organisation led by a man named Angel hijacks the DC-3 aircraft by hypnotising the RAF Regiment guards and flying the plane to another location but they are shot down by the RAF.

Afraid the incident may happen again, Vine is assigned as security to the project. However Angel’s organisation kidnap Vine and replace him with one of their own men named Seraph. Obtaining information before he escapes allows Seraph to steal a sample of Spurium to be sold to the Soviet Union; however the Russians believe he is double-crossing them and kill him.

Vine escapes and reports to the RAF airbase, where he meets his RAF counterpart, Flight Lieutenant Felicity “Fiz” Moonlight. Angel’s men try an all-out assault on the airfield to capture the next nuclear aircraft set to fly. Vine and Angel end up in the nuclear aircraft that takes flight but Vine is rescued by F/L Moonlight.

Second of three films in the Charles Vine Series.

Follows Licensed To Kill (1965)
Followed by O.K. Yevtushenko (1968)

WHERE THE BULLETS FLY (1966) PREVIEW SCENE

WHERE THE BULLETS FLY (1966) POSTERS

Music: Kenny Graham
Cinematography: David Holmes
Edited by: David Holmes
Art Direction: George Lack
Costume Design: Jan Wright
Production companies: Alastair Films, Puck Films
Running time: 88 minutes

Posted in EUROSPY / USA | UK SPY MOVIES

THE 2ND BEST SECRET AGENT IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD (1965)

Licensed to Kill (original title)

Secret service (Italy)
Licencia para matar (Spain)
Unser Mann vom Secret Service (West Germany)

1965 UK
Direction: Lindsay Shonteff
Actors: Tom Adams, Karel Stepanek, Peter Bull

Dauntless British agent Charles Vine is called upon to escort to London the famed Swedish scientist Henrik Jacobs to negotiate the sale of a secret formula. However, sinister forces gambling for enormous stakes are already at work. With the aid of the most fantastic gadgets, Vine manages to extricate his charges from the most diabolical traps until the final battle in a mile-a-second showdown fought along the Thames dockside and culminating to a wild and unexpected climax.

First of three films in the Charles Vine Series.

Followed by Where the Bullets Fly (1966)
Followed by O.K. Yevtushenko (1968)

THE 2ND BEST SECRET AGENT IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD (1965) FULL MOVIE

THE 2ND BEST SECRET AGENT IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD (1965) POSTERS

Music: Herbert Chappell (as Bertram Chappell)
Cinematography: Terry Maher
Edited by: Ron Pope
Production companies: Alistair
Running time: 96 minutes

Posted in EUROSPY

THE MAN FROM CAIRO (1953)

Dramma nella Kasbah (original title)

That Man from Cairo (USA)
Crime Squad (UK)
Amenaza en Casbah (Spain)
Le secret de la Casbah (France)

1953 Italy | UK | USA
Direction: Ray Enright (as Ray H. Enright), Edoardo Anton
Actors: George Raft, Gianna Maria Canale, Massimo Serato

Hollywood icon George Raft’s final starring role finds the gangster icon swept-up in espionage and intrigue in the mean streets of Algiers as an American tourist mistaken for a spy. Rome supplied an atmospheric stand-in for Algiers, with the film shot almost entirely in Italy, complete with a majority Italian crew and cast save for Raft and actress Irene Papas (a Greek beauty making her American debut; she would later would become one of the biggest international stars of the 1950s). Missing gold, thumbless men, fortune tellers, roulette wheels, sinister forces and other pulp flourishes keep the plot moving briskly while the postwar ruins and decay of Rome provide a unique, fascinating atmosphere that sets this low-budget noir apart from the rest.

THE MAN FROM CAIRO (1953) FULL MOVIE

THE MAN FROM CAIRO (1953) POSTERS

Music: Renzo Rossellini
Cinematography: Mario Albertelli
Edited by: Mario Serandrei
Art Direction: Giulio Bongini
Costume Design: Marilù Carteny
Production companies: Michaeldavid Productions, Societa Italiana Gestioni Manifestazioni Artistiche Italarte
Running time: 81 minutes

Posted in USA | UK SPY MOVIES

THE LAST OF THE SECRET AGENTS (1966)

1966 USA
Direction: Norman Abbott
Actors: Marty Allen, Steve Rossi, John Williams

Two Americans in Paris (Allen & Rossi) are reluctantly recruited by the Good Guys Institute (GGI) led by J. Frederick Duval (John Williams) to thwart the plans of the evil crime and espionage organisation T.H.E.M. led by Zoltan Schubach (Theo Marcuse). T.H.E.M. has plans to steal priceless international art treasures, most notably the Venus de Milo.

The Last of the Secret Agents? is a 1966 American film that spoofs the spy film genre, starring the then-popular comedy team of Allen & Rossi.

In addition to the then popular spy film genre, the film spoofs many other items of the day such as cigarette commercials.

Nancy Sinatra had made several film appearances previously, and it was planned that she would sing a song written for her by Paramount’s Famous Music division’s Burt Bacharach and Hal David, but it was cut due to budget constraints.[2] During post-production in January 1966, Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” composed by Lee Hazlewood was a smash hit. Paramount ordered the producer to have Sinatra sing in the film with Hazlewood quickly composing a title song for her reminiscent of John Barry’s Thunderball. The resulting song, “The Last of the Secret Agents”, did not appear on the Pete King soundtrack album.

At the end of Nancy Sinatra’s performance of the title song, she suffers a comic “wardrobe malfunction” leaving her only clad in bra, panties, stocking and heels.

THE LAST OF THE SECRET AGENTS (1966) TRAILER

THE LAST OF THE SECRET AGENTS (1966) TITLE SONG: NANCY SINATRA

Music: Pete King
Cinematography: Harold E. Stine
Edited by: Otho Lovering
Art Direction: Roland Anderson, Hal Pereira
Set Decoration: Robert R. Benton, James W. Payne
Costume Design: Edith Head
Production companies: Paramount Pictures
Running time: 92 minutes

Posted in EUROSPY

THE BLONDE FROM PEKING (1967)

La blonde de Pékin (original title)

La bionda di Pechino (Italy)
Die Blonde von Peking (West Germany)
La rubia de Pekín (Spain)

1967 France | Italy | West Germany
Direction: Nicolas Gessner
Actors: Claudio Brook, Mireille Darc, Françoise Brion

A CIA man (Edward G. Robinson) poses an actor (Claudio Brook) as the husband of an amnesiac (Mireille Darc), all for Chinese missile data and a jewel.

THE BLONDE FROM PEKING (1967) TRAILER

THE BLONDE FROM PEKING (1967) POSTERS

Music: François de Roubaix
Cinematography: Claude Lecomte
Edited by: Jean-Michel Gautier
Art Direction: Georges Petitot
Set Decoration: Fernand Bernardi
Production companies: Clesi Cinematografica (co-production), Hanns Eckelkamp Filmproduktion (co-production), Les Films Copernic (co-production)
Running time: 87 minutes

Posted in EUROSPY

THAT MAN IN ISTANBUL (1965)

Estambul 65 (original title)

That Man in Istanbul (USA)
Operación Estambul (Spain)
L’homme d’Istanbul (France)

1965 Italy | France | Spain
Direction: Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi (as Antonio Isasi)
Actors: Horst Buchholz, Sylva Koscina, Ángel Picazo

Kelly (Sylva Koscina) is a gorgeous FBI agent who is investigating the disappearance of Professor Pensdergast (Umberto Raho) , director of a major US government research on nuclear energy . She arrives in Istambul where is the prime suspect , Tony Mecenas (Horst Buchholz) , a con who carries out illegal games supported by his hoodlums (Gustavo Ré , Alvaro De Luna) , being pursued by the stiff Inspector Mallouk (Angel Picazo) . In the course of the investigation , Kelly meets Tony , who , moved by the beauty of Kelly and the reward of one million dollars , will help her find the professor . As several international agents and Chinese spies track him , chase him , unarm or undress him , but Tony goes on his dangerous adventures full of action and amusement.

THAT MAN IN ISTANBUL (1965) ORIGINAL TRAILER

THAT MAN IN ISTANBUL (1965) FULL MOVIE

THAT MAN IN ISTANBUL (1965) POSTERS

Music: Georges Garvarentz
Cinematography: Juan Gelpí
Edited by: Juan Pallejá
Set Decoration: Juan Alberto Soler (as Juan Alberto)
Costume Design: Antonio Cortés (as Tony Cortes)
Production companies: Compagnia Cinematografica Mondiale (CCM), Edition et Diffusion Cinématographique (E.D.I.C.), Isasi
Running time: 114 minutes

Posted in EUROSPY

SUPERSEVEN CALLING CAIRO (1965)

Superseven chiama Cairo (original title)

SuperSeven Calling Cairo (Worldwide)
Countdown to Doomsday (USA)
Supersiete llama al Cairo (Spain)
Super 7 appelle le sphinx (France)

1965 Italy | France | Spain
Direction: Umberto Lenzi
Actors: Roger Browne, Fabienne Dali, Massimo Serato

A piece of a brand new metal has been hidden in a camera, but this one is sold by mistake ! Superspy SuperSeven is called out to retrieve the camera and finds it in Cairo, where he has to fight Russian agents and dangerous women.

Follows The Spy Who Loved Flowers (1966)

SUPERSEVEN CALLING CAIRO (1965) FULL MOVIE

SUPERSEVEN CALLING CAIRO (1965) POSTERS

Music: Angelo Francesco Lavagnino
Cinematography: Augusto Tiezzi
Edited by: Jolanda Benvenuti
Production Design: Pier Vittorio Marchi
Set Decoration: Franco D’Andria
Costume Design: Walter Patriarca
Production companies: Prodex, Romana Film
Running time: 95 minutes

Posted in EUROSPY

THE SPY WHO LOVED FLOWERS (1966)

Le spie amano i fiori (original title)

The Spy Who Loved Flowers (USA)
Hellcats (USA)
El gran dragón, espía invisible (Spain)
Des fleurs pour un espion (France)

1966 Italy | Spain
Direction: Umberto Lenzi
Actors: Roger Browne, Emma Danieli, Daniele Vargas

After retrieving an electronic device that can shut off the power of entire cities, secret agent SuperSeven is assigned to eliminate the only three remaining persons who have knowledge of the device.

Follows SuperSeven Calling Cairo (1965)

THE SPY WHO LOVED FLOWERS (1966) FULL MOVIE

THE SPY WHO LOVED FLOWERS (1966) POSTERS

Music: Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, Armando Trovajoli
Cinematography: Augusto Tiezzi
Edited by: Jolanda Benvenuti
Production Desing: Pier Vittorio Marchi
Set Decoration: Franco D’Andria
Costume Design: Walter Patriarca
Production companies: Leda Films Productions S.L. (uncredited), Romana Film
Running time: 93 minutes