Lucky, el intrépido

This is a very silly movie. It's an Airplane-style, comic book-type secret agent adventure with Ray Danton (Code Name Jaguar (65), Secret Agent Super Dragon (66)) as Lucky the Inscrutable, a master of disguise, among his many other amazing qualities. He's not only prepared for every situation, he's an expert in every situation. The gags fly fast and furious and with so many jokes thrown our way, some are sure to stick. And some do.

I'll admit that I'm not a big Jess Franco fan and I had serious misgivings about this flick but after half an hour it won me over. It has a terrific Bruno Nicolai score and boundless enthusiasm for the material. Danton turns out to be a good comedian in his last spy flick.

There's plenty to laugh at and also to groan at during this chase-heavy comedy that should ultimately tickle your funny bone. If you're feeling Lucky, it's not a bad way to waste ninety minutes.

This is an early film from the indefatigable Jess Franco (you just can't defatigue the guy). Franco is interesting in that he has had the exact opposite career trajectory of most low-budget filmmakers. Most filmmakers, especially these days, start out doing amateur shot-on-video stuff, then perhaps dabble pseudononymously in the hardcore porn industry, before eventually making a career in fairly decent low-budget films. Franco, however, made his decent low-budget films from the mid 60's to early 70's, then dove (apparently quite willingly) head-first into the porn industry, and nowadays he does amateurish SOV fan-boy type stuff. His stuff after 1975 is usually to be avoided (often with extreme prejudice), but some of his stuff before 1975 is pretty good.

This is one of the countless spy-spoofs made in the 1960's. It was obviously made on a fraction of a fraction of the budget of a James Bond spy flick or even a Matt Helm spy-spoof. Still, Franco always gets the most out of his very low budgets. This is movie also has elements of the then-popular "Batman" TV series with its kind of campy, pop-art sensibility (although it was probably much more inspired by European serials and "fumetti" comic strips than the American TV show). The hero "Lucky" (Ray Danton, then an actor but later the director of the 70's cult film "Psychic Killer") often wears a Batman-type costume as he becomes involved in some ridiculous spy caper to blow up a counterfeiting factory for some reason. (The plot actually makes little sense, but it doesn't really matter).

This is a very energetic film apparently filmed all over the world (Rio, Europe, America). The music is good and it is occasionally funny. It is sexy, but in a whole different way then his graphic post-1975 work (which too often seemed to involve VERY long scenes of Franco basically giving his actress-wife Lina Romay a gynecological exam/colonoscopy with his beloved zoom lens). Here though he has collected a whole bevy of voluptuous Euro-beauties like Teresa Gimpera, Barbara Bold, Beba Loncar, and my perennial favorite, Rosalba Neri. He puts them in sexy, scanty costumes and gives them all fast-paced flirtation and/or seduction scenes with the hero. I'm not sure about the title though. Somehow they went from a Spanish title that translates to "Lucky, the Fearless" to an English-language title "Lucky,the Inscrutable" (an adjective usually applied to the Chinese). By any title though, this movie is surprisingly entertaining.

The opening of Lucky The Inscrutable starts in comic book-style as Ray Danton attends a packed Venetian masquerade ball in full super-hero super-spy regalia. This promising short scene has flair to spare and is very colorful with an element of surrealism and is filmed very nicely, Thought and word balloons over the characters' heads would not have been out of place. As soon as Lucky gets to Albania, the film completely falls apart and goes nowhere. For better-made, entertaining Danton spy films produced during his European phase, try to find decent prints of Secret Agent Super Dragon and Code Name Jaguar.

This very campy picture contains thrills , action , phantasmagoria , tongue-in-cheek , absurd situations , but being middlingly developed . Typical Italian/Spanish spy film dealing with an American secret agent , a master of disguise called Lucky (Ray Danton) who is assigned a dangerous mission . As he is sent to Europe to track down a ring of counterfeiters . His investigation takes him from Rome to Albania, where he gets involved with a sexy Albanian police commissioner (Rosalba Neri) who's usually whipping people. Along the way, Lucky being helped by Michele (Dante Posani) against a megalomaniac mastermind , Gafas de Oro (Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui) . After many chases and intrigue, he arranges to get away with "the secret plans". Our valiant , easy-going playboy/agent , takes on a powerful criminal organization commanded by a fabulous counterfeiter and his hoodlums whose aim is to rule the world .

Colorful but mediocre rendition about European spy subgenre , an usual genre during the sixties , not taking any situation seriously . This spy sub-genre borrows heavily from the OO7 series that at the time starred Sean Connery , such as : Dr No, From Russia with love , Thunderball, and Goldfinger . Ordinary Euro-spy movie with usual components : pursuits , crashes , struggles , fantastic gadgets , strange artifacts , international conspiracy , and explosive women .The picture was made by the time in which Franco directed nice movies such as : The sadistic Baron Klaus , Rififi En La Ciudad , Miss Muerte or Diabolic Doctor Z , Necronomicon and Gritos en la Noche , developing a consolidated professionalism , as his career got more and more impoverished in the following years, but his endless creativity enabled him to tackle films in all genres, from "B" horror , erotic films to ¨Z¨movies . The main and support cast -with everyone having fun- are passable , but they are really wasted It has some flaws and gaps , as it does tend to get a bit old , including repetitive nature of some fight scenes , and excessive sillines , but it has big fun , so it cares . Ray Danton gives a sympathetic acting as a brave playboy/secret agent who takes on an criminal organization that especializes in relevant assassinations . Lang has an easy going air about him that makes him great to see . Co-stars various Eurotrash starletts , such as Rosalba Neri , Beba Loncar , Barbara Bold and Teresa Gimpera . Along with a plethora of Spanish secondaries , usual in the 60s and 70s , such as : Maria Luisa Ponte , Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui Cándida Losada , Josep Maria Angelat, and brief appearance by Patty Shepard . Of course, usual Jess Franc cameos , this time three short acting as blind vendor / Zoltan / Guitarist.

It packs atmospheric cinematography in Panavision and Eastmancolor by cameraman Fulvio Testi in terrific locations from Madrid, Canary Islands , Levante Coast , Spain , Albania , Rome, Lazio, Italy . And moving and lively musical score in the seventies style by Bruno Nicolai , including catching sons . The motion picture was ordinarily directed by Jesus Franco , and it definitively worth checking out if you are a hardcore fan of Euro spy genre . In the Sixties Jesús Franco made various Euro-spy movies , some of them starred by beautiful women , as he directed ¨Two Undercover Angels¨, ¨Besame Monstruo¨ , ¨The Seven Secrets of Sumuru¨and ¨Golden Horn¨. Jesus Franco was a Stajanovist filmmaker who realized 203 movies . He often used his trademarks , as he pulls off a botcher narration , lots of zooms and lousy pace . As the picture belongs to Franco's first period in which he made passable flicks . Jesus uses to sign under pseudonym , among the aliases he used, apart from the names Jess Franco or Franco Manera, were Jess Frank, Robert Zimmerman, Frank Hollman, Clifford Brown, David Khune , Toni Falt, James P. Johnson, Charlie Christian, David Tough , among others . Franco used to utilize usual marks such as zooms , nudism , foreground on objects , filmmaking in ¨do-it-yourself effort¨ style or DIY and managing to work extraordinarily quickly , realizing some fun diversions, and a lot of absolute crap .