Der Mann mit den tausend Masken

I am finding that for a number of the 1960's Euro-spy films, the quality rating given out by IMDB users is, in my humble opinion, much too low--way low! This is an excellent spy movie! Paul Hubschmid, the star, is tall, handsome and debonair. Karin Dor, who plays a CIA agent, is an actress I knew of by name, but this is the first time I have seen her in a film. She is beautiful and she has a very likeable, appealing quality: I would describe it as a warmth. You just like her. Now, what makes this movie stand out, among the dozens of its 1960's Euro-spy rivals?

First, it is loaded with action scenes. Big scenes with lots of bad guys, and mano-a-mano scenes between Upper Seven (Paul) and various villains. It is not slow and too talky, like some of these movies. Next, Paul has a ton of European charm, as does Karin. Vivi Bach and Rosalba Neri are also in the movie. The Euro-spy movies did have small budgets compared to the Bond films, that they are too often judged against; but all the Euro-spy movies that I have seen always had beautiful actresses, and this one does too. And speaking of budget, this film does not look cheap in any way! We get scenes in Rome, in London, in South Africa, and in what purports to be Copenhagen, and maybe it was, but I couldn't tell about that.

It is true, this movie does have one of the best-known "tells" of a Euro-spy picture, namely that the characters usually drive around in pretty humble automobiles! But on the plus side in that regard, the hero and heroine also drive around in a gorgeous dark blue Mercedes convertible with red leather interior. I wish I knew the year of that car, it was a total sweetheart.

Another positive feature of the movie, it has really good music. There is a fun, bouncy theme tune that we hear often, and I enjoyed hearing it. It suited the spirit of the movie. I had the feeling that Paul Hubschmid and Karin Dor enjoyed making this movie. I think you will enjoy watching it. Highly recommended.

Upperseven has some very good element which should have made it a great one. Unfortunately, there is a little too much chatter by our hero Paul Finney, the Upperseven, played well by Paul Hubschmid. It's not Paul's fault that the writers over scripted his part, and other than the Chatty Kathy stuff he does a fine job jumping around as the elite secret agent especially for a 49 year old man. The other stand out's are the three gorgeous lady's Karin Dor, Rosalba Neri, and a smocking hot Vivi Bach who are all great in there collective rolls. Other then a couple of long scenes including one where Neri sings an interminable and terrible song, which made me believe she deserved her fate, and watching Upperseven taking on and off his stupid masks, the movie is really quite good. The other blot is bad guy Kobras (Nando Gazzolo) who was not up to par as the evildoer as let's say Adolfo Celi would have surely been. All in all this one is a good EuroSpy that could have been a great one if a third of the dialog was cut resulting in a 1:20 film instead of a1:43 film. All in all I recommend Upperseven.

Paul Hubschmid was Swiss, like James Bond's mother, and he headlined 4 Eurospy films, but the undoubted pinnacle of his espionage career was co-starring alongside Michael Caine in "Funeral In Berlin"

His did "Mission To Hell, "Tell Me Who To Kill", "In Enemy Country" and this one..."Upperseven, The Man To Kill" aka "The Spy With Ten Faces"

Finally we encounter a Eurospy who is the alpha-male equal of Connery-Bond and Moore-Bond in sexual prowess. Upperseven manages to bed the required 3 women during the course of his mission, the first to attain that level of "bedroom black belt" that I have come across. Not only that, but on the way he also passes "James Bond bedroom etiquette 101", when romancing old acquaintance Rosalba Neri. While she is in the bathroom freshening up, he discovers a surveillance camera in her wardrobe, but rather than immediately confronting her with the evidence of her treachery, he plays along and beds her, before slapping her around and destroying the film and camera. Not satisfied with that, he then he throws a raincoat on her, drags her out into the lobby of the apartment building and pushes her out the front door into the darkness, where she is shot down by a waiting assassin. The muzzle flash gives away the assassin's position and Upperseven is able to shoot him. Now that is as cold as Connery-Bond at his most callous!

Paul is a suitably imposing figure, although prone to looking around in every direction in a theatrical way, the kind of suspicious behaviour which would tend to give him a way as being a spy. He specialises in disguises, several of which are worked into the story, with mixed results in terms of effectiveness. In particular his adoption of British Naval whites while in Cape town proves to be a singularly ineffective disguise for the purposes of tailing one of the opposition without being spotted. On the other hand it's under similar such false pretences that he is able to bed villainess Vivi Bach, who mistakes him for her beloved. Paul makes sure to turn out the light, so it's nice and dark, before peeling off his mask and getting down to business.

He claims the disguises help keep his true appearance a secret from the enemy, but, as he spends much of his time undisguised, I doubt the effectiveness of this. Evil Rosalba seems to have no problem identifying him and main villain Nando Gazzolo and co are more interested in being able to penetrate his disguises in order to recognise him during a mission, rather than when he is off duty.

He's got some useful gadgets, a lighter that can emit knockout gas as well as a flame, and a cane that can emit intense flashes of light from its end, in order to momentarily blind an armed opponent, as well as be wielded as an effective weapon for striking and despatching henchmen in the usual way. Later he is provided with a belt that can be set to explode with sufficient force to completely destroy a villain's lair.

The plot must surely have seemed rather politically incorrect to audiences at the time, in the 1960s, even more bizarre by the 1970s, and yet would be perfectly reasonable in today's political climate. Apparently Apartheid South Africa wants to finance a Pan African alliance, among nations newly independent after colonialism, in order to prevent growing Chinese influence in the region. The USA has agreed to act as a front / middleman, so an exchange of South African diamonds for US dollars has been arranged. Due to the high degree of tension between USA and Russia at the time, it was customary for movie makers to substitute China for Russia in such stories, but why South Africa would care either way remains a mystery.

In any case Paul is charged with ensuring the safety of the gold while Karin Dor (who would later appear in "You Only Live Twice") keeps an eye on the cash for the CIA. On the other side main villain Nando, girlfriend Vivi and henchman Guido Lollobrigida are working for the Chinese and plan to steal both the cash and the gold to help finance the building of a secret Chinese missile base.

There are an unusually high number of exotic locations crammed in, all but one of which are actually visited. Copenhagen, London, Basel, Johannesburg, Cape town, and Rome, but probably not Ghana, where the villain's lair / secret missile base is purported to be.

The exterior of villain's lair is suitably space age in appearance, with silver domes and stairwells leading underground. It looks cheaply made, but I appreciate the effort. Below ground it's a satisfactory combination of concrete tunnels, sliding silver doors and the usual converted industrial site, filled with extensive pipework, along with control panels covered in dials, gauges and switches.

The fight scenes are plentiful and well-choreographed and the budget is sufficient for numerous fiery explosions, but the car chases are disappointing. It's one of those where they clearly couldn't afford to destroy any vehicles, so they drive slowly and bump into each other gently, side to side, otherwise relying on quick cutting and editing to give the impression of action. However there are some very nice cars on show, including several of those American cars with extravagant fins, an MG roadster and the ever popular Citroen DS, while Upperseven himself drives a Mercedes 300 SL (but sadly it's not the "gull wing" model).

The music is superior to most Eurospy, being the work of Bruno Nicolai, who is considered by many to be second only to Ennio Morricone among Italian movie score composers of the 1960s. There is one strange interlude though, where, after making love to Paul, Rosalba strums a guitar and sings a love song to him, while the audience also get to see an assassin taking up position in the bushes outside the apartment to ambush Paul. As mentioned earlier, her reward for this romantic gesture is a sadistic slapping followed by a violent death.

There are a number of events which seemed to me to be un-necessary, over-elaborate or disproportionate, relative to their significance to the plot. For example the scenes involving the preparation and smuggling of counterfeit money inside stuffed toy dogs. Or poisoning the Basel water supply, causing a city wide emergency quarantine, in order to help facilitate a bank robbery. Or the explosive helicopter rescue of the old diamond cutter from a rock breaking prison gang, who then turns up trying to lead Paul into an offshore island ambush (presumably Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela had only recently taken up residence?). These seem to have been included purely to provide some additional interludes of action and spectacle. However that is not a major drawback in a Europsy, where style always trumps substance.

When all the smoke finally clears, following a token debrief, Paul and Karin drive off together in the Merc into a rom-com encounter with a traffic cop... fine.

This German/Italian spinoff of the 60ie's James Bond-wave shows another trial to find another smart agent as Connery performed it. Paul Hubschmid does his job as "Super Seven" quite smartly, a bit too smart sometimes, but as an secret agent man quite acceptable. In the movies from that time you'll never miss the masks made of some "special" or "secret" material, and you'll find them here as well - we encounter only 5 or 6 of them although the title promises a 1000 masks. The trick of changing someones identity is done ...hm... as usual (Mission Impossible-like). The problem was the quite typical face and profile of Hubschmid, which makes the identity changes a bit implausible (like Jean Marais as Fantomas, where all Marais-parts look quite the same).

Apart, there are some other things you never miss at that time: first, a song - here with some childish lyrics and catastrophal dubbing; second, a villain who works for an asiatic enimy; third, some explosions in the final showdown; fourth, some fist fighting; fifth, some well known or exotic cities; sixth: Karin Dor. This movie is quite consumable (apart of some "atomic center" scenes which indeed were shot in some engineering hall). The part I most enjoyed was the chase in the area of Rome, where Hubschmid's motorbike gets off the road; he comments that with a brief "Scheiss!" (which is in the German version). I never heard such a convinced "Scheiss!" again!