Ken Clark
Dorado Films
R1 DVD
Web: Http://www.doradofilms.com
Ken Clark is Agent 077 in “From the
Orient with Fury” (aka as Fury on the Bosphorus and
Fury on the Orient), an international spy thriller with worldwide appeal, or so
the description goes of this quirky yet charming Eurospy
James Bond clone.
The film has a typical spy drama- secret
weapons theme with its opening scene showing Professor Kurtz being badgered by
the media for information on his latest discovery, a beta ray gun which has
total disintegration power. While he is being hounded by the press, his
supposed minder is kept busy with a fake international phone call long enough
that the professor can be kidnapped, with a replacement body booby-trapped with
explosives left in his place. It takes a while but Dick Maloy
is hot on the trail of the missing doctor who is being held captive by the evil
Goldwyn (Franco Ressel), who wants to sell the beta
ray gun to the highest bidder. But it is not just the crime lord who wants the
weapon, the Russians are on it’s tail as well.
With some truly strange and bizarre
gadgets ranging from self developing camera belts to the evil poison pin
lighter, cigar lock picks to Morse code-sending suspenders, this film does not
take itself too seriously. But it should not be written off as simply a B grade
Bond copy, it has a charm and style of its own as do all the Agent 077 films
and should be experienced on its own merits.
Ken Clark as Dick Maloy
is suitably over the top, handy with his fists in the most outrageously bad
fisticuffs you will ever see and his FBI partner Margaret Lee who looks like a
Marilyn Monroe copy has got to be seen to be believed. While she is meant to be
some sort of spy, she seems only to be there to walk around looking superb and
getting into trouble. The dialogue has its strange moments too and the plot
seems to wind in and out of intrigues involving the FBI, CIA, KGB, super
criminals and a few others thrown in for good measure.
The music is what today is considered
retro lounge, it is so out of date that it is cool and groovy and adds a lot to
the experience. The conclusion of the film is notably over the top with lots of
“beta ray” special effects, some impressive overacting and a nice bit of
harpoon action.
Ken Clark is the real calling card here,
originally starring in major Hollywood films such as South Pacific and the Last
Wagon, he headed towards
Difficult to locate for many years it is
great to have such a rare film now available in widescreen and with restored
soundtrack and audio, sure it still shows it’s age
here and there, but considering the condition of the original prints it is
still an amazing achievement. The picture is reasonably clear with only a small
number of jumps and some flecks here and there and the sound is as clear as an
be. It is a solid soundtrack in stereo with very clear dialogue.
This is a silly, fun sixties eurospy classic at last made available in a form which does
it justice.