In the windup to the second Bond film to star Daniel Craig and shot in a presumably grimly serious and relatively realistic mode, I’m looking to revel in the utter cheesiness that is [I’m guessing primarily] '60’s and '70’s international knockoffs of the Bond franchise.
I actually saw the last half of one of these once, but didn’t make a note of what it was and have been kicking myself ever since. It was Italian, circa 1967-70, and aired on TV or cable in the mid-'90’s, but I don’t remember if it was on an NYC/Jersey indie channel, basic cable, or premium. Being basically a giallo version of Bond-style espionage, it featured set designs and wardrobe choices that puts to shame the “Austin Powers” series. [The Italian “Bond” was also more attractive than Mike Myers, but I digress.] I don’t remember anything about the plot or cast, except that the former didn’t make any sense, and the latter didn’t feature anyone I recognized then or remember now. However, it was obviously a Bond ripoff, featuring a debonair spy who survives various action-intensive exploits, seduces beautiful women, and saves the world – or at least, the Italian government coalition of the moment, heh heh.
But wait, there’s more! I’ve read or heard that the Soviet film industry capitulated to public demand at some point and produced a whole series of Russian Bond-style spy capers, featuring a Red Team equivalent to Bond, to great public (if not critical) acclaim. I think it’s a given that the production values on these babies weren’t quite up to the Broccoli/UA standard, but that would be part of their charm now. I must see these, but have no idea where to look. Any info would be helpful… just leave it in microfiche in a secret panel on a lightpost in a park in Istanbul, and I’ll deposit some money in your Swiss bank account…
Can’t help you too much other than to point out the works of Gérard de Villiers (my dad reads his SAS series.) It looks like two movies have been made based on his works:
S.A.S. à San Salvador (1983)
Eye of the Widow (1989)
I’ve seen neither nor read the books, so I can’t comment beyond that.
The “Kiss the Girls…” one was especially fruitful, since the same guy who posted that clip on YouTube also did the same for a bunch of other Italian '60’s spy thrillers, a few of which are available on Something Weird Video.
“Kiss the Girls…,” which was produced by Dino DiLaurentiis, starred Chuck Connors and featured what looks like some pretty good production values [considering], actually looks like it’s better than at least a couple of the worst Bonds! It’s also way too mainstream and proficient to be the particular psy[spy-?]chedelic Italian spy caper I caught a part of once, but I think that grouping on YouTube is a great place to start.
Now, if only somebody knew something about the Soviet Bond knock-offs, I could knock off this topic…
The OSS117 series is great. The series is French, and based on a series of novels (the novels are apparently a lot better than the films).
I’ve only seen the Tokyo adventure, Atout coeur à Tokyo pour O.S.S. 117 (1966), but that had a wonderful charm to it that I kind’ve feel was lacking even in the early Bond adventures. (for one thing, they actually shot the film in Japan, and seem to have shot all the other adventures on location - but I could be wrong on that count).
There was a recent parody film ‘OSS177: Cairo, Nest of Spies’, which was fun, but what I’ve seen of the original films, I think they’ve aged a lot better than the new entry will.
