Search This Blog

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

The Ambushers (1967)

After a U.S. spaceship is hijacked in mid-flighta secret agent (Dean Martin) is sent to Mexico on a mission to locate the missing flying saucer. His partner on the mission is the pilot (Janice Rule) of the spaceshipwho has no memory of the hijacking or how she escaped from her captors. Very loosely based on two novels by Donald HamiltonTHE AMBUSHERS and THE MENACERS and directed by Henry Levin (JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH). Hamilton's Matt Helm books were as serious as Ian Fleming's Bond books but for some reasonthe film versions of these books (there were 4 of them) were constructed as spy comedies. The Matt Helm films (all starring Martin) are relics of a bygone sexist era. Martin plays him as a total lech and the women are objectified and unlike the Bond filmsthey have very little personality outside of lusting after Martin's Helm. The humor is pretty lame. For exampleMartin: "Now? It's broad daylight?" Rule "What's wrong with a broad in daylight?" or Senta Berger (as a foreign agent): "Skol!" Martin: "Of courseit's cold. It's got ice in it". With Albert SalmiJames GregoryKurt KasznarAlexandra Hay and Beverly Adams. 

No comments:

Post a Comment