Guet-apens à Tanger

An Italo-Espagnola production that follows the style of the Euro-spy sub-genre in spite of this one was born a few years later by imitating the European cinema to the James Bond films . It displays ordinary ingredients : thrills , noisy action , plot twists , several villain roles , bare fists fights , international locations with luxurious hotels , shootouts with high body-count and being middlingly entertaining from start to finish . It deals with an American police detective's investigation into a series of killings leads him to drug smugglers in Tanger , Morocco , North Africa . Along the way , John Milwood (Edmund Purdom) falls in love for a beautiful girl , Mary Bolevasco (Geneviève Page) , daughter of the wealthy Professor Bolevasco (Gino Cervi) . John investigates and little by little discovers a heinous web of criminals whose boss results to be the most unexpected person.

An early Euro-spy movie with thrills , action , car crashes , persecutions , twists , turns and amazing final. The story is a mess of spying and an undercover agent carrying out a complex investigation , resulting in confrontations with a lot of fights and crossfire . Routine and so-so rendition about European spy subgenre , a prolific genre during the sixties , not taking any situation seriously . A fashion and run-of-the-mill spy film at the time, meaning it stuck to a lot of what was currently popular , but here including some embarrassing and nonsense scenes . Stars Edmund Purdom who is still at his most agile and deft style and performs his own stunts . He plays in his usual lazy style a FBI agent who poses as a crook while investigating a drug smuggling network in Tanger, North Africa . Purdom was 35 when he made this movie and previously , Edmund made his best adventures and swashbucklers and played successes in Hollywood as ¨The student Prince¨, ¨The Egyptian¨, ¨Athena¨, ¨The prodigal¨ , ¨The king's thief¨. It was all downhill for Purdom after this , as he emigrated Italy where starred ¨B¨ films , Sword and Sandals , Spaghettis and minor epics as ¨Herod the Great¨, ¨Nefertiti , queen of Nile¨ , and followed successive flops as ¨Mr Scarface¨, ¨Big Boss¨, ¨Dr. Frankestein castle of freaks¨ . Highlights a large plethora of Spanish secondary actors who played a lot in regular 60s sub-genres , such as : José Guardiola , Amparo Rivelles , Félix Dafauce, Luis Peña , Mario Moreno , Alfonso Rojas and Antonio Molino Rojo.

The motion picture was professional but uneven directed by Riccardo Freda with some flaws and gaps . Riccardo Freda used to sign his works with a number of aliases during his career, including Robert Hampton or George Lincoln and as screenwriter Riccardo Freda . His artistic spirit led him to a strong belief in the importance of visual composition in filmmaking . Freda worked in many popular genres, including viking films, Peplum, spaghetti westerns, action, and even Softcore, but it is his horror films and Giallo mystery films which stand out and for which he is best remembered . Freda along with Vittorio Cottafavi continued to realize films in the historical-spectacular style , at which he developed a considerable skill and mastery . From the mid-50s Freda's liking make for atmospheric and colorful scenes of shock began to itself apparent , especially in such Musclemen epics as ¨Teodora¨ , ¨Spartacus¨ , ¨Giants of Thessaly¨ , ¨The seventh sword¨ , ¨Maciste all's inferno ¨, the latter a gripping/horror Peplum and , of course, ¨Maciste in the court of the Great Khan¨, one of his best films . In the early 60s , he was a pioneer in Italy of horror-fantasy films frightening audiences the world over , especially with ¨I Vampiri¨ and ¨L'Orrible Segreto del Doctor Hitchcock¨ as he combined with that wide-staring of actress , the British-born Barbara Steele . He also made adventures as ¨Black Eagle¨ , ¨The son of Black Eagle¨ , ¨White devil¨ , ¨Son of D'Artagnan¨ , and uncredited ¨Daughter of D'Artagnan¨ ¨. From there he went to melodrama and spy films as ¨¨Mexican Slayride¨and ¨Coplan FX18¨ and even made some westerns as ¨No killing without dollars¨ with Mark Damon and signed under pseudonym as George Lincoln . Freda's movies had popular appeal , and were usually commercial hits . Several were French/Spanish/Italian or other European co-productions . He has been called a filmmaker "who brings some style to exploitation pictures", and has something of a cult following . Co-directed , uncredited, by Jorge Grau who was a fine writer and director, known for Noche de verano (1963), El espontáneo (1964) and especially two good terror movies : The Legend of Blood Castle (1973) and No profanar el sueño de los muertos or Don't Open the Window (1974) Rating : 5.5/10.

I have only ever seen this in Italian but the action and intrigue is obvious. Hard hitting drama about Edmund Purdom uncovering a drug smuggling network in North Africa. In one scene Purdom opens a case of booze in a warehouse and cracks it open only to find it full of white powder drugs. All the ingredients are there. Car Chases, swank luxury hotels, glamorous babes, SCUBA divers in a secret hidden cave (accessible only from a trap door), tape recorders in books, torture scenes and the usual suave hero. Not a very lively pace but still worth watching

This film is a very well-done tale from director Riccardo Freda. It bears many earmarks of the visual style Freda would later use in his "Coplan" films. Everything is sleekly modern, from the fashionable nightclubs of Tangiers, to the streamlined airport at the film's close. This one also shows signs of the fading neo-realistic wave, and approaches levels of film-noir at times. The story-line is also quite superb, as Purdom explores deeper and deeper the web of criminal activity he was sent to uncover. Here is one of the few films I've seen in which Purdom doesn't over-act. He keeps everything at a cool, equable level, which shows that he may not be such a bad actor as some have suggested. Gino Cervi, as usual, plays his part to perfection, and does everything naturally, while Genevieve Page highlights the film as the main beauty. Although I don't care much for the slow jazz score played throughout the film, it fits the movie nicely, and lends definite atmosphere to the overall effect. Low on the action but high on the drama, Freda keeps us keyed up at all times, as we anxiously await Purdom to escape danger, save the girl, and bust the illegal operation.