OSS 117: Terror en Tokio

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.

The fourth entry in the official French movie series of "OSS 117" movies, while a notch better than the previous entry ("OSS 117: Mission for a Killer"), still fails to engage viewers as much as even a second rate James Bond movie. There are a few things along the way to catch the eyes or ears of viewers momentarily. The location shooting in Tokyo, combined with an adequate budget, do provide a lot of pleasant eye candy. The musical score is also pleasant, sounding very much like the music found in a James Bond movie of the same era. And the action sequences are pretty well done. That is, when there IS action. There simply isn't enough action to be found in the 100 minute running time, which will leave viewers impatient for the movie to get down to business like James Bond. I think the lack of action can be blamed for a very slow-moving script. Surprisingly, James Bond veteran Terence Young had a hand with this movie's story, but you wouldn't know it. The story unfolds at a snail's pace, and another unfortunate consequence of this is that there is no feeling of tension, no feeling that people's lives are on the line. It doesn't take long for the movie to become quite frankly dull. "James Bland" is more like it.

After an American navy base is completely annihilated and a ransom message is sent to the United States, OSS agent 117 "Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath" (Frederick Stafford) is sent to Tokyo to investigate. Upon his arrival there his first order of business is to interview an intelligence clerk by the name of "Eva Wilson" (Marina Vlady) who is being blackmailed into disclosing top secret military information. After finding out as much as he can he then comes up with the idea of posing as her husband so that she can perhaps lead him toward this clandestine group. What he doesn't know, however, is that there are other parties interested in his presence with intentions which have yet to be ascertained. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a decent EuroSpy film which contained a good mixture of action and intrigue. In addition to that it also had a couple of attractive ladies like Jitsuko Yoshimura (as "Tetsuko") along with the aforementioned Marina Vlady to brighten the scenery as well. One drawback, however, was the English dubbing-particularly in the case of Tetsuko-which could have used a bit of improvement. Be that as it may, while not a great film by any means it was sufficient to pass the time and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

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. (**)

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.