Doraldo Films

How Europe Does Babes, Bombs and Guns

Dorado Films Inc

R1 DVD

Eurospy films were the budget answer to Britain’s successful James Bond films of the sixties and seventies. They were made in many countries, especially Italy, and were of varying quality. The British rarely took part as they were working their way into comedy like the Carry On films, although Modesty Blaise is an exception to this. Synergy has already looked at some of the European films. Perhaps the best were the French OSS117 films that were hilarious parodies rather than serious spy films. This set from Dorado looks at some of the Italian and coproduced Eurospy offerings.

Although Italy had a big film industry producing many films for local consumption they found it difficult to export, as their writers did not seem to have the ability to create new genres. They were forced to copy other successful overseas styles. Sometimes they got it right, as in the “spaghetti westerns”, but with other genres their films were very ordinary. The Eurospy films lacked the enthusiasm and humour of the Bond films. The limited budgets meant that the feature gadgets that made Bond films so much fun were missing. The theme music was almost universally awful and the action was mostly fistfights. Outside shots of the cities were rare, generic and had that library footage look to them. After a few years the industry was offered tax benefits by some countries to make part of each film in a recognisable part of their country. This eased the budgets and allowed more outside shots and the films improved steadily.

This doesn’t mean that they were bad films. They were what they were intended to be – budget films “in the style of…..” for mass consumption. Let’s have a quick look at the films in this set to see how they stack up.

From The Orient With Fury (1965)

Agent Malloy (Ken Clark, real name Kenneth Donovan) must track down a stolen ray gun while fighting off women and baddies. He is handicapped by his uncanny ability to walk into a room and find it full of bad men, who will then either hold him at gunpoint or beat him up. This is an unashamedly Italian film even though it is supposedly set in Paris with a showdown in Istanbul. The scenery is mostly anonymous long shots but we see a lot of beautiful interiors of splendid buildings. Orientals? I didn’t see any. Perhaps the title is a take off of another film – like From Russia With Love? Clark does the suave Bond thing quite well, but compared with a Bond film the women are seriously overdressed. So as not to offend the strongly Catholic audiences, perhaps?

It undoubtedly has the worst theme tune and music of the films in the set and the voice overdubbing often seems to belong to another film.

Mission Bloody Mary (1965)

International criminal mastermind The Black Lily has stolen a new type of atomic warhead and is offering it to the highest bidder. Agent 077, Ken Clark again, follows the warhead and The Black Lily around Europe trying to recover it for the U.S. With some help from a double-crossing taxi driver he tracks it down to Istanbul.

Once again there are lots of fistfights, an occasional gunfight and a tour of a marble quarry. Once again there are many women, some making laughable attempts at bellydancing. This film is an improvement on From The Orient With Fury and even the theme music is better.

Special Mission Lady Chaplin (1967)

Agent 077 is given the job of recovering sixteen Polaris nuclear missiles stolen from a sunken U.S. Navy submarine. Along the way he must fight a lethal female assassin and the compulsory diabolical criminal mastermind. His first job is to recover the dog tags of a lone seaman who seems to have survived the sinking. If the tags are genuine this will lend credence to the missiles that have been offered for sale. This, of course, requires him to go to Europe. From here the usual string of beatings and shootings follows.

The assassin is Lady Chaplin, who runs fashion shows with her troupe of models. This gives an excuse for some gratuitous lingerie shots. Although the fashions look a bit dated now, they were probably very trendy in the sixties.

This film was a considerable improvement on the earlier ones. The film was better-financed and there were more outside shots, the sets were more elaborate and well detailed, the fights were more convincing and the plot was better. Even the villain had little Bond-like touches such as his pet fighting scorpion. The standard of the film is more like the earlier Bond films rather than a cheap copy. It’s obvious that more money was being spent on each film and the writers and directors now had a good idea of the style of film they wanted.

Electra One (1967)

Another of the Spanish-French- Italian coproductions. This one is unusual in that it doesn’t star Ken Clark. He only made the three films shown above. The Professor has developed a new drug that can cause hysteria. Released into the military it could lead to the end of the world by allowing the officers to start a nuclear war. The U.S. wants it and so do the Russians who have invented an antidote.

A criminal organization called Electra 1 has stolen the drug and kidnapped the Professor and is threatening the world with destruction. The antidote is also stolen by

freelance thief, Gary. Cue car chase at this point, which seems a little unimpressive after the gimmicks in Bond’s Aston Martin. There are the usual fights and gunplay. Gary gets involved in as much trouble as Ken Clark. He must choose sides to get the help he needs against Electra and rescue the Professor’s assistant. Since none of them trust the others the rescue will be interesting.

The DVD transfer is let down by the poor quality of the original film. It is dark, out of focus, and the sound fades in and out. Otherwise it looks like it would have been a good film. This is not due to Dorado – it is simply a result of these films having been disregarded for so long that few prints survive and those that have are well-used. Dorado makes the most of what they can get.

The Eurospy films faded out with the growth of the spaghetti westerns. This DVD set is a good representation of the genre and its evolution.

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