Allens first film as writer and director. He took a serious Japanese spy film, threw out all the dialogue, wrote his own and had the lines dubbed in.
I saw this on TV when I was a teenager, back in the late 1970s, and found it hysterical. Seeing it now I can't figure out WHY I found this funny. There are some good lines and some of the voices are actually pretty funny, but it wears quite thin after about 30 minutes. And some of the lines that don't work or are unfunny are just unbelievably bad. The humor is pretty childish and the non-stop sex jokes (all about women of course) got on my nerves. I do realize Allen likes Asian women but did we really need the strip tease at the end? (It's tame but really not needed). And the musical interludes with the Lovin' Spoonful were pointless--but, in all fairness, they were added without Woody Allen's knowledge and he was furious. It is of interest to note that one of the voices is from Louise Lasser who was briefly married to Allen.
Unfunny, boring, sexist---a real disappointment. I'm giving it a 5 for some of the jokes--and I'm being VERY generous!
I saw this on TV when I was a teenager, back in the late 1970s, and found it hysterical. Seeing it now I can't figure out WHY I found this funny. There are some good lines and some of the voices are actually pretty funny, but it wears quite thin after about 30 minutes. And some of the lines that don't work or are unfunny are just unbelievably bad. The humor is pretty childish and the non-stop sex jokes (all about women of course) got on my nerves. I do realize Allen likes Asian women but did we really need the strip tease at the end? (It's tame but really not needed). And the musical interludes with the Lovin' Spoonful were pointless--but, in all fairness, they were added without Woody Allen's knowledge and he was furious. It is of interest to note that one of the voices is from Louise Lasser who was briefly married to Allen.
Unfunny, boring, sexist---a real disappointment. I'm giving it a 5 for some of the jokes--and I'm being VERY generous!