05/25/08:
THE SILENCERS (Phil Karlson, 1966) 
I’d always wanted to check out Dean Martin’s Matt Helm series of comedy-thrillers spoofing the hugely successful James Bond films; I’d seen a few imitations of the latter already (including James Coburn’s two Derek Flint movies) and one good lampoon in CARRY ON SPYING (1964) – but this first of the Helms is generally considered as the most successful of the lot.
And great fun it is, too – with Martin gleefully sending up not just the secret agent formula (pardon the pun) but his own image as a singer, boozer and womanizer! Starting off with the amusingly lewd credit sequence (those for the Bond films themselves were known to be quite risqué) which is highlighted by Cyd Charisse dancing and miming the title tune (vocals provided by Vicki Carr), we’re then introduced to the comfortable lifestyle of a retired secret agent. Matt Helm’s house, in fact, is equipped with any number of appliances such as a multi-purpose bed and shower parts strategically placed to appease the censor(!) and a gorgeous personal secretary with the suggestive name of Lovey Kravezit!! Incidentally, like Bond, he comes armed with a plethora of unlikely gadgets-cum-deadly weapons such as knives darting out of a camera (Helm is an amateur photographer), a jacket fitted with micro-bombs and, best of all, a gun that can shoot in reverse!
Helm operates in the service of I.C.E. (Intelligence Counter Espionage), whose nemesis is The Big O; their current leader is an underused Victor Buono as an improbable Asian and his nefarious plan involves a wide-spread infestation of radioactivity which would eventually spark a war between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. Helm’s superior is played by James Gregory and his luscious aide is Daliah Lavi; they’re supposed to pick up a compromising tape from the leading performer (Charisse) at a swank club. However, she’s murdered in mid-routine and in full view of the audience (shades of Hitchcock’s THE 39 STEPS [1935] perhaps?)…but, before she expires, Charisse confides the tape and a cryptic message to Stella Stevens (who happens to be standing nearest to her). The latter constitutes a delightful presence as an accident-prone red-headed beauty whom Helm even dubs a “disaster area”; having been involved with Robert Webber (who’s revealed as an operative of The Big O), Helm suspects that Stevens is too and tries to get her to reveal their intentions…but it eventually transpires that the double agent resides within his own ranks! Martin and Stevens are caught and taken to the enemy underground base but, naturally, manage to escape, outwit Buono, defeat his henchmen, and thwart the operation in the nick of time.
The film provides stylish and witty entertainment spiced with in-jokes (including a friendly jibe at Martin’s fellow Rat Packer Frank Sinatra) and the occasional verse sung by Martin himself commenting on the action(!); incidentally, Elmer Bernstein’s score is quite good. If one had to nitpick, the plot isn’t all that interesting or even very suspenseful – though a car chase early on and the final outburst of action is competently handled by director Karlson. Still, the film’s mainstay are undoubtedly the two leading performances – one laid-back but, at the same time, shrewdly self-deprecating and the other at once sexy and charmingly maladroit.
One final nod to the James Bond extravaganzas is the film’s epilogue announcing the next adventure of the secret agent; by the way, I’ll be following this myself with another Martin/Helm outing – though it happens to be the very last one in the series, THE WRECKING CREW (1969; mind you, all three sequels are reportedly much inferior!), which I acquired concurrently with THE SILENCERS…
05/25/08: TONY ROME (Gordon Douglas, 1967)
I’d watched this one before in a pan-and-scan version on Cable TV, but had lost the sequel – LADY IN CEMENT (1968) – a number of times on Italian TV; recently, I acquired both in anticipation of the 10th anniversary from the death of their leading man – Frank Sinatra. TONY ROME was one of a number of films which, during the late 1960s, attempted to revive the private eye subgenre which was a staple of the
Noir style prevalent from the early 1940s through the late 1950s. Others in this vein included HARPER (1966) and MARLOWE (1969); this kept on steadily till the late 1970s and, in fact, the whole movement acquired new resonance with the Watergate political scandal (reaching an apotheosis with CHINATOWN [1974]).
Anyway, to get back to the film proper: with its serpentine plot and roster of suspects spread equally between the idle rich and small-time losers, TONY ROME plays almost like an updated version of THE BIG SLEEP (1946); the fact that it works at all is due to the coming together of various elements. While the mystery as it evolves isn’t particularly compelling, it’s ultimately justified – or, if you like, redeemed – by the climactic revelation; besides, it features reasonably good dialogue, evocative Miami locales that are a heady brew of glamor and sleaze, several fashionably violent set-pieces, and ideal casting all around.
Sinatra – who, on paper, might seem as unlikely in this mould as John Wayne would prove to be in the following decade – brings his undeniable presence and vast experience to the role of the tough and cynical ex-cop/investigator/skipper. In his line of work, he comes into contact with all sorts of people: from classy dames (such as Jill St. John, Gena Rowlands and Sue Lyon – all with their individual ticks, and either disenchanted with their lifestyle or fleeing from a shady past) to two-bit strippers, a wealthy businessman (Simon Oakland), a long-suffering cop friend (Richard Conte), as well as assorted low-life individuals (including Rome’s corrupt ex-partner Robert J. Wilke, proscribed doctor Jeffrey Lynn and drug-dealer Lloyd Bochner) and brutish thugs; even real-life boxing champ Rocky Graziano – portrayed by Paul Newman in SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME (1956) – puts in an appearance as a dockside peddler.
We even get a nice title tune sung by the star’s own daughter, Nancy Sinatra – though it seems odd to listen to her praising the amoral nature of his character! Incidentally, director Douglas would helm three consecutive thrillers with Sinatra in the lead (twice appearing in the role of Tony Rome) – even if the best among them remains the other (more serious) effort, THE DETECTIVE (1968). Later still, Sinatra went down these same dark streets again in the made-for-TV movie CONTRACT ON CHERRY STREET (1977) and, in his very last starring vehicle, THE FIRST DEADLY SIN (1980).
05/25/08:
SPINOUT (Norman Taurog, 1966)
This wasn’t shown in time for the 30th anniversary from Elvis Presley’s passing, but it did turn up on TCM UK some time later; still, it took me this long to watch and, as a matter of fact, only opted to check the film out alongside two contemporary vehicles by fellow singers Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin – that said, it can’t really compare with them!
It’s the second of three Presley titles with a racing
milieu, though this element isn’t as much to the fore here as in the others; conveniently, he doubles as a swooning singer/guitarist with a band – and most of the running-time sees him dodging a couple of marriage proposals from eminent figures in the community! It transpires that even the tomboyish female drummer in his outfit secretly pines for him…but, given the film’s
jejeune nature, everything is neatly sorted out by the end – as a writer researching The Perfect Male eventually hitches up with Presley’s proposed racing employer (played by a U.S. TV stalwart who was compleetly unknown to me but is a real dead ringer for Darren McGavin!), the latter’s young daughter (Shelley Fabares, from the star’s earlier vehicle GIRL HAPPY [1965]) realizes she loves her father’s goofy secretary after all, and the drummer (who’s something of a gourmet) finds a like-minded soulmate in, of all things, a highway policeman!
The songs aren’t exactly memorable either and, while the film’s certainly harmless in itself, it’s also not engaging enough to warrant more than a cursory viewing (I, for one, was greatly surprised to learn that it was co-scripted by Theodore J. Flicker – who, soon after, would write and direct the cult political satire THE PRESIDENT’S ANALYST [1967] with James Coburn)…
05/26/08:
LADY IN CEMENT (Gordon Douglas, 1968) 
To begin with, though it didn’t do well at the box-office and is clearly inferior to its predecessor, this isn’t that a bad sequel to TONY ROME (1967). The mystery this time around is more clear-cut because it starts off with a body (the titular figure); eventually, the hero (once again played by Frank Sinatra) himself is incriminated – leading to him falling out with his cop friend Richard Conte!
The female roles aren’t as effective, however: Lainie Kazan makes a good impression as a go-go dancer but, despite her high billing, is restricted to just one sequence!; as for leading lady Raquel Welch, she’s okay but no match for Jill St. John from the original (the script relies a bit too much on Welch’s glamorous presence alone to carry the role) – and there isn’t even that much chemistry between her and Sinatra! With this in mind, the star strikes up an unlikely alliance throughout with beefy and imposing Dan Blocker (from the Western TV series “Bonanza”) – which gives a humorous vein to the generally hard-boiled proceedings and immediately reminds one of the Philip Marlowe/Moose Malloy partnership in MURDER, MY SWEET aka FAREWELL, MY LOVELY (1944).
Again, most of the suspects in the case are unsavory characters – from former mobsters (now ostensibly leading a respectable life) to homosexuals (remnants perhaps from Sinatra’s previous collaboration with director Douglas, THE DETECTIVE [1968]). Incidentally, while the mystery in the original led to an unexpected revelation, the clues here point to either Welch or Blocker but – predictably – the identity of the real culprit is much more obvious; for what it’s worth, the script was co-written by Marvin H. Albert, who created the Tony Rome character in the first place on the written page!
Miami – in all its aspects – still acts as an alluring yet dangerous backdrop to the sex and violence going on; however, Rome even gets to fight the inhabitants of the ocean as a number of sharks are attracted to the ‘lady in cement’ in the opening sequence! Similarly, the bouncy score supplied by Hugo Montenegro emerges to be a definite plus. One final thing: apparently, Joe E. Lewis – the singer-turned-comedian played by none other than Sinatra in THE JOKER IS WILD (1957) – puts in an appearance here as himself!
05/26/08:
THE WRECKING CREW (Phil Karlson, 1969)
This certainly isn’t up to THE SILENCERS (1966), being too derivative in nature and uneven in tone, but hardly the terrible film most critics would have one believe (though I still give them the benefit of the doubt with respect to the remaining two entries in the Matt Helm series – which I couldn’t get my hands on and, consequently, haven’t watched).
As I said, many of the elements found in the original film (with which it shares director Karlson) are repeated here – from Dean Martin’s tuneful (and humorous) interjections to the gadgets provided by I.C.E. (which seem to have become progressively sillier!) and even the love/hate relationship between Helm and his stunning but ‘klutzy’ partner (played by the ill-fated Sharon Tate: this was her penultimate film). As a matter of fact, the glamorous nature of her character is kept under wraps during the film’s first half – allowing the triumvirate of
femme fatales (Elke Sommer, Nancy Kwan and Tina Louise) to take center-stage – but Tate’s subsequent unforeseen blossoming is all the more effective because of this reason!
The villain is also ideally cast: Nigel Green, who wisely opts to play it straight; the character of Helm’s superior, then, is now played by John Larch (who even gets in on the action towards the end!). While there’s the usual array of car chases and gun-toting action, this entry provides some novelty with its burst of karate fighting (featuring a debuting Chuck Norris and choreographed by none other than Bruce Lee, though he seems to have been caught on an off-day as these mostly come off as lackluster here – including a duel between Tate and Kwan, which was a good idea in itself!). As expected, the film generates considerable steam (notably the bedroom scenes Martin shares with gypsy Louise – whom Green has dropped in favor of chic Sommer and who has now decided to spill the beans about his involvement in a bullion robbery from a moving train – and, later, the scheming Sommer herself); however, the fact that Tate would be brutally murdered within months makes her presence arresting – even when indulging in slapstick situations (down to imitating Oliver Hardy from WAY OUT WEST [1937] by unwittingly walking through deceptively shallow waters!).
The fourth entry in the “Matt Helm” series does seem to have managed a more elaborate climax than THE SILENCERS, as the action starts in Kwan’s club “The House Of Seven Joys” (at one point, intended as the film’s title – the current credits are even accompanied by a song about it!) – which includes a secret revolving panel leading straight to Green’s chateau (this location is then destroyed largely through Tate’s clumsiness!), continues with a helicopter chase (built on the spot by Martin, whose parts he conveniently keeps in the booth of his car!) and finally relocates to a speeding train (armed with a trapdoor!) being driven by the fleeing Green. Another solid element here, indeed the best thing about the entire film, is Hugo Montenegro’s catchy score (it was pure coincidence that I watched two thrillers scored by him and featuring members of the Rat Pack in quick succession!). Still, there are a number of surefire gags involving Kwan’s name (Yu-rang – “No, I didn’t”, replies Helm at her formal introduction to him!), Martin reversing Tate’s victory sign in exasperation when she interrupts his dalliance with Sommer, and Tate borrowing one of Martin’s exploding hankies (which she then throws away in panic in the direction of his car, naturally wrecking it completely in the process!).
Again, the ending promotes an upcoming Matt Helm adventure to be entitled THE RAVAGERS – but which was never made given increasingly diminishing returns at the box-office (though Helm did return in the form of a TV series starring Anthony Franciosa)! Tying this up with the Frank Sinatra/Tony Rome vehicle LADY IN CEMENT (1968), which preceded my viewing of THE WRECKING CREW, there was talk at the time of bringing together the two Rat Packers once again in the guise of Helm and Rome – but the idea was subsequently dropped and, in any case, the mood of each individual series is so different that it’s hard to see how they could have coalesced convincingly…
