What a movie indeed. Although Fouad El-Mohandes was an Egyptian theater superstar who made a lot of lousy movies, but with some of the best cinema directors, he managed to make fine ones like (Akhtar ragol fil alam or The Most Dangerous Man in The World).
Many reasons made this movie creative, ahead of its time, and original. One is the main idea of it. The 1960s was the James Bond mania era, where we had over a dozen of Bond's likes (Matt Helm, Our Man Flint, The Man from U. N. C. L. E, OSS 117.. etc; it's a very long list!). All of them got loyalty to these days of the modern human's boasting of himself, feeling super and grand, after the high tech development. Add to that, their cinematic glamour, entertaining factors, and workable formula. But the thing is nobody would have ever thought of an evil James Bond, as lethal international terrorist, who is working for the money, women, and destroying the entire world. So watch out Mike Myers, we here in Egypt did an exceptional character, which was a mix of serious Austin Powers and Dr. Evil together, and that was 30 years before your (International Man of Mystery). As a comedy, that's original enough to me (It even preceded El Mariachi (1992), which had a weapon concealed in the guitar case, with a weapon concealed in the guitar itself!).
The other reason is, for sure, that unique knack and absolute craziness of two magnificent Egyptians moviemakers: scriptwriter Abd El Hay Adib, and director Niazi Mostafa. They left a legacy which we're proud of. Whatever it is a comedy, action, thriller, musical.. you named it; they've done all, and with class. This round, they simply intended mocking at Hollywood (the westerns, the gangster movies, the spy thrillers,.. etc.) through a movie about an evil Bond, his naive look-alike, and the fantastic comedy of errors. It's still that hilarious till now, putting in mind the cinematic culture of its makers, and the talent of El-Mohandes to act such a genuine character by a genius performance; and I mean (Mr. X), because the other kind-hearted helpless guy was the familiar persona of El-Mohandes in most of his movies at the time.
Most of the special effects are well done. No director did slapstick in the Egyptian cinema as adept and delightful as Niazi Mostafa. And - believe it or not - the plagiarized John Barry's Goldfinger soundtrack, the real James Bond movie from 1964, served this comedy right. Actually, how many parody did you watch got to use the original soundtrack of the movie it parodied?! It's something I used to long for in many previous and subsequent parodies!
You'll have a lot of stars: Shouweikar the lively comedienne, plus the actual wife of El-Mohandes at the time and his co-star in nearly everything he had done. Adel Adham, the master of the vainglorious villains short time later, was surprisingly perfect as the Interpol's stupidest inspector; who looks like Tintin's detectives Thomson and Thompson mixed into one. Sure Niazi Mostafa was fond of that character, so he reused it, in another El-Mohandes movie entitled (Safah El Nesssa or The Ladies Serial Killer - 1970s), but with another actor, Salama Elias, who was an excellent comedian.
This out-of-the-box comedy ranked as number 1 at Egyptian box office in 1967, to the extent that it overcame the massively popular singer Abdel Halim Hafez's movie (Mabodet el Gamahir or The Crowd Favorite) at the same year, which had El-Mohandes in it also (so the man competing with himself!). That success pushed to make a sequel (Aowdit Akhtar ragol fil alam or The Return The Most Dangerous Man in The World - 1972) with the same star, but unfortunately with another scriptwriter, director, and cast. Although it didn't outclass the first, or reach to its level, but still worth watching because the peerless present of El-Mohandes as X.
As for the foibles, I didn't like that goof when the car chase takes place at night, then in the next shot it's daylight, and the same happens again while X's punch to Santa Maria! It was shameful compared to Niazi Mostafa very well-known professional mastery. X here isn't super spy, or super villain with aspirations of world domination, he's merely a smuggler, so I don't know how he commands violently that international, Specter-like, crime organization since he just works for them?! The sexual content, with a lot of kisses and male skin, was overabundant and obnoxious. The idea of the lead's fiancée, friend and the latter's wife being employees in the airport together, and living in the same building as well, is a bit far-fetched. There is a lost scene that concerns the appearance of the Interpol's inspector in the casino's basement as a corpse in drag! (or maybe I watched a roughly shortened copy). Shouweikar didn't have much of a role. Abdullah Najeeb, who's originally a producer, played the Egyptian chief of police so palely. And Kanan Wasfi played the gangster from Chicago, and the real opera singer too, for no apparent reason!
However, the memorable scenes are endless: the gang's members watching a film for Mr. X hitting some men in an American saloon, and kicking one out of the cinema screen (to them!), the press conference for the fake X, a school music band coming out of Hassan Mustafa cupboard, the strongest punch in history; that makes people travel from one continent to another, the climax at the opera house where Georges Bizet's Carmen was shown, and that matchless shot at the end; when the television newscaster was announcing the end of X, then X himself suddenly appeared to break into the screen, hit the poor announcer, look at us, declaring: "X never dies, and we will meet again, soon on that same screen!" then he fired his gun so many times at all the audience, though the camera wasn't destroyed, and nobody got hurt, because it's the magic of cinema, and it's a comedy.. A one that will never die.
Many reasons made this movie creative, ahead of its time, and original. One is the main idea of it. The 1960s was the James Bond mania era, where we had over a dozen of Bond's likes (Matt Helm, Our Man Flint, The Man from U. N. C. L. E, OSS 117.. etc; it's a very long list!). All of them got loyalty to these days of the modern human's boasting of himself, feeling super and grand, after the high tech development. Add to that, their cinematic glamour, entertaining factors, and workable formula. But the thing is nobody would have ever thought of an evil James Bond, as lethal international terrorist, who is working for the money, women, and destroying the entire world. So watch out Mike Myers, we here in Egypt did an exceptional character, which was a mix of serious Austin Powers and Dr. Evil together, and that was 30 years before your (International Man of Mystery). As a comedy, that's original enough to me (It even preceded El Mariachi (1992), which had a weapon concealed in the guitar case, with a weapon concealed in the guitar itself!).
The other reason is, for sure, that unique knack and absolute craziness of two magnificent Egyptians moviemakers: scriptwriter Abd El Hay Adib, and director Niazi Mostafa. They left a legacy which we're proud of. Whatever it is a comedy, action, thriller, musical.. you named it; they've done all, and with class. This round, they simply intended mocking at Hollywood (the westerns, the gangster movies, the spy thrillers,.. etc.) through a movie about an evil Bond, his naive look-alike, and the fantastic comedy of errors. It's still that hilarious till now, putting in mind the cinematic culture of its makers, and the talent of El-Mohandes to act such a genuine character by a genius performance; and I mean (Mr. X), because the other kind-hearted helpless guy was the familiar persona of El-Mohandes in most of his movies at the time.
Most of the special effects are well done. No director did slapstick in the Egyptian cinema as adept and delightful as Niazi Mostafa. And - believe it or not - the plagiarized John Barry's Goldfinger soundtrack, the real James Bond movie from 1964, served this comedy right. Actually, how many parody did you watch got to use the original soundtrack of the movie it parodied?! It's something I used to long for in many previous and subsequent parodies!
You'll have a lot of stars: Shouweikar the lively comedienne, plus the actual wife of El-Mohandes at the time and his co-star in nearly everything he had done. Adel Adham, the master of the vainglorious villains short time later, was surprisingly perfect as the Interpol's stupidest inspector; who looks like Tintin's detectives Thomson and Thompson mixed into one. Sure Niazi Mostafa was fond of that character, so he reused it, in another El-Mohandes movie entitled (Safah El Nesssa or The Ladies Serial Killer - 1970s), but with another actor, Salama Elias, who was an excellent comedian.
This out-of-the-box comedy ranked as number 1 at Egyptian box office in 1967, to the extent that it overcame the massively popular singer Abdel Halim Hafez's movie (Mabodet el Gamahir or The Crowd Favorite) at the same year, which had El-Mohandes in it also (so the man competing with himself!). That success pushed to make a sequel (Aowdit Akhtar ragol fil alam or The Return The Most Dangerous Man in The World - 1972) with the same star, but unfortunately with another scriptwriter, director, and cast. Although it didn't outclass the first, or reach to its level, but still worth watching because the peerless present of El-Mohandes as X.
As for the foibles, I didn't like that goof when the car chase takes place at night, then in the next shot it's daylight, and the same happens again while X's punch to Santa Maria! It was shameful compared to Niazi Mostafa very well-known professional mastery. X here isn't super spy, or super villain with aspirations of world domination, he's merely a smuggler, so I don't know how he commands violently that international, Specter-like, crime organization since he just works for them?! The sexual content, with a lot of kisses and male skin, was overabundant and obnoxious. The idea of the lead's fiancée, friend and the latter's wife being employees in the airport together, and living in the same building as well, is a bit far-fetched. There is a lost scene that concerns the appearance of the Interpol's inspector in the casino's basement as a corpse in drag! (or maybe I watched a roughly shortened copy). Shouweikar didn't have much of a role. Abdullah Najeeb, who's originally a producer, played the Egyptian chief of police so palely. And Kanan Wasfi played the gangster from Chicago, and the real opera singer too, for no apparent reason!
However, the memorable scenes are endless: the gang's members watching a film for Mr. X hitting some men in an American saloon, and kicking one out of the cinema screen (to them!), the press conference for the fake X, a school music band coming out of Hassan Mustafa cupboard, the strongest punch in history; that makes people travel from one continent to another, the climax at the opera house where Georges Bizet's Carmen was shown, and that matchless shot at the end; when the television newscaster was announcing the end of X, then X himself suddenly appeared to break into the screen, hit the poor announcer, look at us, declaring: "X never dies, and we will meet again, soon on that same screen!" then he fired his gun so many times at all the audience, though the camera wasn't destroyed, and nobody got hurt, because it's the magic of cinema, and it's a comedy.. A one that will never die.
