5/10
Routine Italian/Spanish/French coproduction Euro-spy movie stars Dick Malloy nicely performed by Ken Clark
24 November 2022
Ordinary Euro spy movie coproduced by Spain/Italy with usual trappings : thrills , chases , shootouts and sightseeing . Eurospy movies unite more countries than a World War . The first Euro-spy of 3 that Ken Clark as Agent 077 starred in the 60's , here he's on a search and destroy mission to take back Bloody Maryc, a portable nuclear weaponc, from the Black Lily crime syndicate. As he's assigned by CIA Chief Heston (Philippe Hersent) to carry out the ¨Mission Bloody Mary¨ .

This is a Spain-Italy-France financing , made in 1965 resulting to be a typical Euro spy movie with ordinary ingredients : thriller , noisy action , crossfirec, cool gadgets , gorgeous women, exotic locations, fights , twists and turns . Although in 1965 the Eurospy craze was already running a bit thin , but this is a passable stuff , with its ups and downs and plot holes . A fashion and run-of-the-mill spy film at the time , meaning it stuck to a lot of what was currently popular , but here displaying some embarrassing and non-sense scenes . Stars Ken Clark who is still at his most agile and deft style , in fact he performs his own stunts . He acts in his usual style as a hard-boiled US agent .This charming leading role was played by Ken Clark as American secret agent Dick Malloy who had three cinematic adaptations , as Ken starred some Euro-spy movies such as Agente 077 missione Bloody Mary , Fury in the Bosphorus , Agent Secret FX 18 (1964) , among others . Ken Clark was one of many American hunk men as Steve Reeves , Gordon Scott , Reg Park, Mark Forest , Reg Lewis, Dan Vadis , Rock Stevens , Lou Ferrigno, emigrated to Italy to play a Sword and Sandals or Peplum movies , though none of them topped in popularity to Steve Reeves . As Ken Clark getting a certain success in Peplum , Spaghetti Western and Euro-spy genre .

It has attractive outdoors with Greek scenery handsomely shot , explosive women and including some top-notch fights . Action-packed and violent film in which our seductive agent Dick Malloy travels throughout various European countries in pursuit the nasty murderous, including an exciting final with a surprising twist . Formula thriller deemed to be an ordinary copy to James Bond films at the time such as ¨Dr. No¨ , ¨Thunderball¨ and especially ¨From Russia with love¨in which copies the train fight. The European answer to the Bond films in the 60s makes this title a must watch for spy afficionados . Stars Ken Clark as the two-fisted agent Dick Malloy , as he is the search and destroy mission to retrieve a Nuclear Bomb from a radical crime syndicate called the Black Lily commanded by a smart criminal mastermind . This is the first of three Eurospy films that Ken Clark starred in as Dick Malloy, Agent 077 . Being well accompanied by a charming Spanish actress who's in this as well , the beautiful Helga Line (Horror Express, So Sweet...So Perverse) , Maryse Guy Mitsouko (who would later be in Thunderball), Mirko Ellis (A Bullet for Rommel), Umberto Raho (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage), Andrea Scotti (The Fifth Cord) and Erika Blanc (The Night Evelyn Came Out of Her Grave), adding some notorious Spanish secondaries such as Alfredo Mayo , Félix Fernández and Tomás Blanco.

It contains an atmospheric cinematography by Juan Julio Baena shot on location in Paris , Athens , Barcelona , Monaco and other European cities . However, being extremely necessary a perfect remastering because of the film copy is washed-oot. The soundtrack is also heard very loudly and adequate by composer Angelo Francesco Lavagnino , adding catching songs . This run-of-the-mill Euro-spy movie co-produced by Italy/Spain/Italy was regular but professionally directed by Sergio Grieco . He was a good Italian artisan who made a lot of adventures, action and thrillers movies such as ¨Sergeant Klems¨, ¨SOS agent 017¨, ¨The mysterious swordsman¨ , ¨Lucrezia Borgia¨, ¨La regina dei Tartaro¨, ¨Il Capitano di Ferro¨, ¨Pirates of the Black Hawk¨ and he would also make the Eurospy films ¨Agent 077: From the Orient¨, ¨Password: Kill Agent Gordon¨, ¨Special Mission Lady Chaplin¨, ¨Argoman the Fantastic Superman¨ and ¨The Tiffany Memorandum¨and several other genres . Rating : 5/10 . Acceptable and passable Euro-thriller , but mediocre.
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