OSS 117: Terror en Tokio

The French answer to James Bond is back. And this time he travels to Tokyo and battles international terrorists. This film does have some things going for it: Frederick Stafford is a good enough spy lead (I'll take his OSS 117 over Timothy Dalton's 007 any day!), the cast includes a French mega-babe (Marina Vlady) and a Japanese super-cutie (Jitsuko Yoshimura), there are some enjoyable fight scenes, and the Oriental setting actually predates Connery's "You Only Live Twice" by one year! Despite all that, however, the film is a bit of a bore. It is VERY slow-moving and lacks a strong central villain. The filmmakers probably stretched the budget as far as it could go, but in comparison to the Bond pictures of the time, they still came up short. They just about beat "Diamonds Are Forever", though. (**)

Yes, Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath is based on novels by Jean De Bruce. However, he is so similar to Ian Fleming's very well known English spy James Bond who is, by the way, funnier and more advanced.

In this Bond-ish movie, the action is not so good, it's average. The direction is not that well done; you'll watch the camera more than once (in the glass of some bus, and in the bathroom's mirror of the submarine..), plus the stunt man's face was visible too, and so on. The music isn't any fine. Frederick Stafford is trying to be, or forced to be, another Connery, and that dubbed voice was unfunny, but I think with some other director and writer, he would've done much better work.

You won't have a lot of exciting spying devices; only a little microphone and sunglasses which had a camera in it. And although it's French-Italian production, but it's not BIG one by all means, especially when all of the events take place just in Tokyo. The writing was mediocre, or maybe the surprises of 1966 are corny in 2007. For instance, someone shot Hubert in his bed to discover that it wasn't him; it was a doll under the blanket. Then, chasing Hubert to discover later that he was a harmless policeman.. etc.

The positive points were 2. The cinematography by Marcel Grignon, which was the classic rich shooting of the era. And Marina Vlady who stole the show despite not being the lead.

All in all, this movie is poor when you compare it to Bond movies. But if you measure it by its own desire to be amusing, then you'll find that it's a nice humble espionage movie, not too boring, silly or bad.

However, most of the global taste or mood will innately compare that French spy to the original English one, hence he'll be some sort of the fool cousin from France who imitates desperately his uncle's famous clever son!

André Hunebelle was a good craftsman when it came to making popular swashbucklers whose hero was Jean Marais ("le Bossu" "le Miracle des loups" ).The spy thriller had the wind in its sails thanks to James Bond....

So Hunnebelle ditched his previous genre for the more lucrative spy stuff.It was his second OSS 117 effort(the first one featured Kervin -Simbad/Jack-Matthews ) and it's not really an improvement on the first one.There is a true actress here ,Marina Vlady (oddly,she plays on the boat almost the same part as Domino and her camera in "Thunderball" ).And Henri Serre,whose career ran into difficulties after "Jules et Jim".And Frederick Stafford future "Topaz " star. It's not much.

Frederick Stafford's second and last adventure as Hubert Bonniseur de la Bath a.k.a. OSS 117 is a well made but ultimately disappointing feature. The film starts out with a nifty car chase but unfortunately that level of excitement is never regained and the result is a rather dull film. The self-assured Stafford is never allowed to showcase the talents he displayed in OSS 117 Mission For a Killer and even the lovely Marina Vlady isn't enough to perk things up.

Director Michel Boisrond does what he can with the material but the lack of a good story dooms this from the start. Michel Magne's score is appropriately flavored with Asian spice but is otherwise forgettable. You can skip this one as an also ran that doesn't measure up.

US 24, an American Navy base in a small island in the Pacific, is annihilated. Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, a French aristocrat that is also a secret agent, OSS 117, is sent to Tokyo to investigate who did it.

Soon, he finds out that a cypher girl in the American embassy had passed vital information to a Japanese gang. Eva Davidson confesses to him that she did that under coercion, and is now ready to cooperate.

OSS 117 will pretend to be Eva's husband, to better cover the contacts between her and the gang that is pursuing more information about a second naval base. Each step is a battle for his life, and he suspects that Eva may have not tell the whole truth. ..

Frederick Stafford returns as OSS 117 for another action packed spy adventure that has the usual intrigue, duplicity, and danger - starts with a nifty car chase before winding down to build a rather engaging story and interspersed between the espionage there's some really impressive and inventive fight scenes; the fight with the samurai, the one in the finale and sumo guy comes to mind. The finale action sequence with the hero clinging on the yacht via a harpoon is truly impressive. Dare I say the action is more impressive here than in some '60's Bond films. Top notch stuff.

Japan is the location and a year later 'you will Only Live Twice" will be set in the Land of the Rising sun, however in this OSS 117 entry Japan comes across less grand and is captured in a down to earth manner. Stafford makes a likeable and engaging agent who only uses violence in the last resort. Interesting that his agent doesn't smoke or drink. And unlike Connery in You will only live Twice he looks like he's enjoying himself and comes across focused. The only negative points are that some things happening appear vague and some tension is lacking, but nevertheless this is a very good spy thriller.