In a radical departure from fighting werewolves, vampires, mummies and re-animated Nazis from Atlantis, Santo teams up with studly Jorge Rivera and becomes a wrasslin' James Bond on a mission to bust up an international counterfeiting ring controlled by a female MR. BIG. For the rabid Santo fan, this film has all the expected elements: arena matches, the mandatory musical number (almost all his films have one), exotic cars, babes and plenty of wrasslin' around with bad guys. Worthy of a big time crime stopper, Santo tools around in a white Jaguar E-type equipped with a flame thrower, oil slick generator and missiles. Clearly inspired by 007's search-and-destroy Aston Martin, Santo's E-Type is just one of the many historically significant cars that have appeared in his films such as an original Myers Manx, a Pininfarina-bodied Cadillac and other assorted sweet rides like an MGA and first-year Mustang. His buddy Jorge drives a very nice Renault Alpine, a limited production car with a rally heritage. Somebody behind the scenes had a real appreciation for interesting cars because they make such a significant presence in all his movies. Borrowing heavily from the 007 films and from Warner Brothers cartoons, Operacion 67 has some over the top elements that will leave the uninitiated screaming. Santo and Jorge share a swingin' spy bachelor pad with a faux beach room complete with sand and a secret communications room the size of a plane hangar. Somehow, the bad guys can communicate with Dick Tracy style wrist radios. Santo and Jorge need something the size of a city bus to do the same. The film runs very much by the numbers. The overly fleshy MRS. BIG tries to seduce and kill Jorge, Santo intervenes, lots of gun play and wrasslin' ensues and we reach a predictable conclusion. Along the way, there are bizarre chases and an air to ground encounter between Jorge in his Alpine and a bad guy in a high-wing Cessna (watch for the slow bullets impacting the ground around Jorge's car). Jorge shoots the plane out of the sky with a Whamo Sonic Blaster, the kid's toy introduced in the US in 1967, a year before this film was released. Cheap way to get a prop gun. There's also the usual silliness like when the bad guy runs out of ammo and throws the gun at Jorge in frustration. The first thing they should teach at bad guy school is that when you run out of ammo, you should reload. Don't toss your empty gun at your opponent. The Santo body of work is an acquired taste. Once you've acquired it, you always walk away wanting more.
Review of Operation 67
