French answer to Dr No.
dbdumonteil
1962 was historical for spy thriller:James Bond had happened!André Hunebelle,who was a "swashbuckler" specialist("le bossu","le miracle des loups","le capitan"…
1962 was historical for spy thriller:James Bond had happened!André Hunebelle,who was a "swashbuckler" specialist("le bossu","le miracle des loups","le capitan" etc)realized -and he was one of the first!- that the wind had shifted.Now the knight would become a secret agent,and he 'd swap his sword for a gun,and his horse for a car (and what a car!a "dauphine" 1960,now a museum piece)So why not Jean Bruce's hero,OSS 117 -Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath-,why not the Corse -an ersatz for Bond's Jamaica-,and two OSS girls -Irina Demick and Nadia Sanders- two good-looking starlets .But there was another problem:using Jean Marais ,his interpret for all the movies I mention above ,and aristocrat to a fault,would have been a mistake.So hire a young American actor,Kerwin Matthews(the seventh voyage of Sindbad,Nathan Juran,1958)and hope for the best.That's not exactly the best we get,by a long shot.The story will seem naive even to a four-year old,there are no special effects,but some underwater scenes predate,in their own modest way "thunderball"! There's some humor,and one regrets it was not shot in color,because the côte d'azur in black and white ,it's a crime.André Hunebelle would carry on with OSS (And Matthews ,then Frederick Stafford),3 movies in all ("furia à bahia pour OSS 117" "banco à Bagkok pour OSS 117" ),both shot in color,with bigger budgets and for "furia"a true star Mylène Demongeot as the OSS girl) .The three movies are naivete itself but they are pleasant to watch if you're interested in the evolution of the spy film genre.
★ 6 / 10
A Pretty Good EuroSpy Movie
Uriah43
This film essentially begins with an American agent working for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) by the name of "Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath" (Kerwin…
This film essentially begins with an American agent working for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) by the name of "Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath" (Kerwin Mathews) being sent to Corsica to investigate the disappearance of another agent named "William Roos" (Jacques Harden) who had been investigating the presence of a secret Soviet submarine listening device in that area. Naturally, since he has very little information to go on the first person he seeks out is a man by the name of "Renotte" (Henri-Jacques Huet) who was the last person to see William Roos alive. However, sensing that Renotte isn't telling him the full truth he then turns his attention to his beautiful assistant "Brigitta" (Nadia Sanders) who seems much more open and honest. What he doesn't know, however, is that his presence has been monitored from the very start and there are certain people who will do whatever it takes to prevent him from discovering their clandestine operation. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film turned out to be a pretty good Eurospy movie in that it had an intricate plot and some good action scenes here and there to keep things interesting. Likewise, having a couple of beautiful actress like Irina Demick (as the Soviet agent "Lucia") along with the aforementioned Nadia Sanders certainly didn't hurt either. In any case, although some might not like the fact that it was filmed in French (with English subtitles) and produced in black and white, I enjoyed this film and have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.
5.5/10
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Audio seems to be out of synch. Merde!