La muerte viaja en baul

That's all I could take before I tapped out! When Odd Job started speaking Spanish that was it for me.

Run-of-the-mil caper movie with usual ingredients : wonderful girls with mini-skirts , pursuits , fights , fantastic gadgets and a complete mess . It deals with various groups of would-be international robbers and spies attempt to rob a valuable scepter from the Ibiza Museum . Then the scepters were changing hands every few minutes through one touristic scenario after another.

This virtually failed film can stand as one of the low-water marks for 1960s comedy with a lot of robbers who want to steal the valuable artifact from the local museum . It has lots of flaws and gaps , as it does tend to get a bit old , but it has big fun , so it cares . More than a parody to Euro-spy rip-off genre , it results to be a caper spoof . In spite of the strange combination of talents of this star-studded cast ensemble , the movie resulted to be a total flop , being the black sheep of the 60's ¨ European Caper¨ family of movies , though displays some diverting sketches . And yet there are some attractive bits within , scenes of bizarre hilarity . A plotless spoof of Caper or hold-up movies with a mismatched cast of thousands and bizarre amusement. In this heist movie there are lots of bonafide scenes , comedy , action , gimmicks , tongue-in-cheek and silly intrigue . What probably reads like a perfectly normal crime movie has in fact turned into an unspectacular but nonetheless funny caper movie, here with an improbable plan with several twists and turns . From the beginning until ending the good mood and humor is continued . The plot is amusing enough and the final has some disconcerting scenes with a really silly confrontation between an old car and a big box or trunk that seem to have a life of its own , and in which Forqué seemed to lose total control of the action. La muerte viaja en baul (Spain) or Baleari operazione Oro (Italy) or Barbouze chérie (France) or Balearic Caper (United States) or Operation Gold belongs to 60's European heist movie whose main representation was ¨Topkapi¨ that created during the 60s and forward an authentic genre . As ¨Topkapi¨ by Jules Dassin , one of the best intrigue/caper movies ever made and perhaps was the initial spark of the so-called Caper Movie and whose robbing has been imitated thousand times in European films as well as American movies . Adding other films as ¨Rififi¨ by Mario Monicelli , ¨Seven Golden Men¨ by Marco Vicario and its sequel ¨Seven Golden Men Strike Again" and of course ¨Grand Slam¨ (1967) by Giuliano Montalvo and ¨Uno scacco tutto matto¨(1968) starred by Edward G. Robinson and George Rigaud . And gorgeous girls in bikinis parading here and there while flirting with the protagonists . Still , the all-star-cast is fun and standing out Mireille Darc and a minor intervention of Daniela Bianchi . As the main enjoyment is to guess who's the beautiful girl appearing here and there , including the following ones : Mireille Darc , Marilù Tolo and Daniela Bianchi , the latter along with Harold Sakata of ¨Goldfinger¨participated in James Bond movies. And a lot of familar Spanish faces , such as osé Luis López Vázquez , Guillermo Marín , Adriano Dominguez , Mercedes Muñoz Sampedro, Rafael Hernández , José Orjas, among others

Adding a catching and agreeable musical leitmotif by composer Benedetto Ghiglia , as well as as colorful cinematography by Cecilio Paniagua . The film was regularly directed by José Maria Forqué with full of nonsense action scenes . Jose Maria Forqué was a craftsman who directed all kinds of genres as Comedy : Un Millon en la Basura, La vil seduccion, Bring a Little loving, Vacaciones para Ivette . Softcore : Beyond Erotica, La Mujer de la Tierra Caliente . Giallo and thrillers : Tarot , In the Eye of the Hurricane, La Legion del Silencio, A devil under the pillow. His greatest succeses were : Embajadores en el Infierno, Amanecer de la Puerta Oscura and the classic comedy : Atraco a las 3. And he also made important TV series as Miguel Servet and Ramon y Cajal. This La muerte viaja en baul (1966) is without hesitation , definitely one of the most underrated ¨Heist¨or ¨Eurospy¨movies that unfortunately has not yet been able to make a triumphant breakthrough , being a mediocre but sympathetic entry in this popular genre developed in the Sixties and Seventies . Rating : 4.5/10 . So-so film , specially appointed for unrule comedy enthusiasts.

When a jewel encrusted gold scepter is found off the coast of Ibiza, it attracts a lot of attention from some unsavory characters. There are several groups of would-be thieves who want to steal the valuable artifact from the local museum. As luck would have it, all of the people vying to steal the scepter just happen to plan their robberies for the same night. Before sunrise, there will be multiple fake scepters in play, only adding to the confusion.

While I would never call Operation Gold (or Baleric Caper) a great movie, I had a pretty good time with it. It's the kind of movie that can be fun if you don't take things overly serious. It's basically a Euro-heist film with a comedic twist. I enjoy most heist films, but generally don't care for 60s Euro-comedies. I find many of these films too broad and slapstick for my taste. You need look no further than Secret Agent Black Forest (I think that was his name) in Operation Gold for an example of what I'm talking about. But I'm happy to say that a lot of the comedy here actually worked on me. I laughed out loud a time or two when the scepters were changing hands every few minutes in the final act. Fortunately, when the comedy doesn't work, there's enough action to keep things moving along. The pacing is good with very few moments that I would call dull. There are also plenty of spy-type gadgets to keep things interesting. The self-driving smart car and the levitating crate were a bit much, but I did get a kick out of the magnetic boots. The Ibiza scenery is another plus. Mediterranean locations always work on me. Finally, the cast was better than I expected. Bond alum Daniela Bianchi may be the name, but she's not in the movie long enough to be the real star. Venantino Venantini, Mirelle Darc, and Marilu Tolo stand out and make the film for me.

This film begins with two scuba divers searching through the wreck of a submerged airplane if the coast of Spain and coming up with a jewel-encrusted ornament known as the Lyttleton-Barry Scepter worth over a million dollars. Treachery immediately unfolds with those possessing the scepter being killed one after another until it is finally seized by the local law enforcement officials and subsequently put on display at the local museum on the island of Ibiza. Not long after the discovery of the scepter is announced, several thieves flock to Ibiza with the intent to obtain this item at all costs. To counter that, government agents are dispatched there as well--but the question soon becomes about whether they are capable of matching wits with these very clever thieves. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film clearly had some potential, but the director (Jose Maria Forque) seemed to lose total control of the narrative which then disintegrated into one bumbling scenario after another--with little humor and nothing of any real consequence being achieved. Not only was Daniela Bianchi's role (as "Mercedes") severely mishandled but the overall character development was terribly inadequate as well. It was a complete mess. That being said, I wasn't at all impressed with this movie and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

I know nothing about Spanish-born Drector Jose Maria Forque and may it remain so on the strength of this offering.

ZARABANDA BING BING, aka BALEARIC CAPER (shot in Ibiza, Balearic Islands) sends up such James Bond films as DR NO, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (lovely Daniella Bianchi puts in a short appearance), GOLDFINGER (Harold Sakata, the famous Oddjob), and THUNDERBALL (sharks, scuba diving, harpooning competition under water).

The best part, though, goes to deliciously elegant Mireille Darc, who has designs on a painter who has already fathered 13 children, and to whose collection she adds by movie's end, leaving him to look after all the children while she, like the other mothers, goes off gallavanting around the globe.

Marilu Tolo, yet another dish of the highest order who in 1966 appeared in eight films (!) gets bored when she is not stealing a watch, a purse, a cigarette lighter or the like.

Eusebia, the self-driving antique car, is a hoot: cleverer than any human, she tracks down the submarine/aircraft/shooting crate cum contraption that kills seekers of the Lyttelton-Barry scepter.

Uneven cinematography despite stunning settings: you can barely see anything in darker footage or day for night shots.

Well, at least there are some comic touches, notably while luscious Darc is having a shower while thieves and cops attempt to grab the Lyttelton-Barry scepter, setting off a grand chase.

Muscle-bound Harold Sakata beats the pulp out of puny pugnacious Jacques Sernas, who keeps coming back for more. My brother and I took turns imitating Sakata and pretending no pain when hit with a stick. Beefy Sakata has a long, sustained final laugh before the inevitable explosion...

I first watched ZARABANDA BING BING in Mozambique when I was 11 and then, incredibly, some four or five times, be it at the local movie house, the drive-in, or on TV before I turned 20 - not because I loved it but because... no choice back then!

Then, I did not see it for over 40 years, did not know its title, remembering it only because I had watched it with my dad once, another time with my grandad, and they laughed their heads off at the unrelenting rubbish on screen, so mesmerizingly idiotic that we all continued watching, waiting to see how much worse it could get...

It does not say much about our IQ, hey? Oh well, now I have found it on Youtube and watched it in Italian with English subtitles... to the end. Pure nostalgia for non-CGI camp. 6/10.