Most of the spy action films of the 1960's really have very little plot, and this one has just a shell of one, dealing with a veteran spy Rod Taylor who has been hired to liquidate dangerous agents but can't bear to kill so he has hired someone else to do it. This leads to various other sinister activities going on, lots of beautiful women, exotic locations, car chases on very high European mountain tops on curvy roads and eventually, an assassination plotted for the Duke of Edinburgh. There's a montage at the very beginning of some of these assassinations, with one woman pushed onto a platform with a train arrive in, a man tossed out of the window, among others. Trevor Howard is Taylor's boss, and others involved in this very complicated shell of a plot include David Tomlinson, not very much like his "Mary Poppins" character, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Akim Tamiriff and Jill St. John.
I enjoyed the colorful photography, the lavish settings, some creepy looking sinister characters, the outrageous fashions on the women and a delightfully bad theme song sung by Shirley Bassey. They also do some new things with the credits, having them run in and out of each other in varying angles. You know that the opening is supposed to be set during World War II because it's in black and white where the rest of the film, set in the 1960's, is in Technicolor. Everybody is having a real good time, not even really caring that what there is of the plot is absurd, and obviously enjoying a free trip to these gorgeous ports. A typically fun distraction of 60's excesses, the loosening up of code rules, and a handsome leading man who's a lot of fun to watch.
I enjoyed the colorful photography, the lavish settings, some creepy looking sinister characters, the outrageous fashions on the women and a delightfully bad theme song sung by Shirley Bassey. They also do some new things with the credits, having them run in and out of each other in varying angles. You know that the opening is supposed to be set during World War II because it's in black and white where the rest of the film, set in the 1960's, is in Technicolor. Everybody is having a real good time, not even really caring that what there is of the plot is absurd, and obviously enjoying a free trip to these gorgeous ports. A typically fun distraction of 60's excesses, the loosening up of code rules, and a handsome leading man who's a lot of fun to watch.