Rod Taylor is always a likable actor, with his curled-up ears, big rolling eyes, and cocky demeanor. Like Cary Grant or Sean Connery, he's a little hard to take seriously. And there's a good supporting cast in this spy spoof as well -- Wilfred Hyde-White, Trevor Howard, David Tomlinson, the succulent Jill St. John.
Taylor is recruited as a temporary James Bond figure, so outside the usual frame of spyhood that he must be trained from the start. Certainly no one would suspect him of anything except hustling young ladies.
There's an amusing scene at the climax with a terrified Taylor all alone at the controls of a British bomber, knowing nothing of flying, and being talked down by a droll Richard Wattis. It was all directed by Jack Cardiff too.
Yet it fails. Maybe it seemed still fresh in 1964. But there have been so MANY send ups of James Bond since the early 60s, and after all, with Sean Connery as the central figure, the series was bound to be a spoof of itself. Some of the imitations were relatively earnest and were entertaining in themselves, like Charles Vine in "The Second Best Secret Agent In The Whole Wide World." But then there was an argosy of others like "Our Man Flint." By 1967, the genre seemed to have run its course and the green-lighters gave up and came out with the frankly absurd and sometimes hilarious "Casino Royale," with a dozen different Bonds. The original franchise continues to gasp and lurch unsteadily forward, a marathon runner out of steam, refreshed by the occasional draught of viewers too young and too incurious to know they're watching the spectacle of a living corpse.
I like Rod Taylor, but this just isn't worth it.
Taylor is recruited as a temporary James Bond figure, so outside the usual frame of spyhood that he must be trained from the start. Certainly no one would suspect him of anything except hustling young ladies.
There's an amusing scene at the climax with a terrified Taylor all alone at the controls of a British bomber, knowing nothing of flying, and being talked down by a droll Richard Wattis. It was all directed by Jack Cardiff too.
Yet it fails. Maybe it seemed still fresh in 1964. But there have been so MANY send ups of James Bond since the early 60s, and after all, with Sean Connery as the central figure, the series was bound to be a spoof of itself. Some of the imitations were relatively earnest and were entertaining in themselves, like Charles Vine in "The Second Best Secret Agent In The Whole Wide World." But then there was an argosy of others like "Our Man Flint." By 1967, the genre seemed to have run its course and the green-lighters gave up and came out with the frankly absurd and sometimes hilarious "Casino Royale," with a dozen different Bonds. The original franchise continues to gasp and lurch unsteadily forward, a marathon runner out of steam, refreshed by the occasional draught of viewers too young and too incurious to know they're watching the spectacle of a living corpse.
I like Rod Taylor, but this just isn't worth it.