Death Is a Woman

Weird Z grade melodrama set in Malta. Patsy Ann Noble play a villain, but not weirdly, any song, what she was principally known for at the time.

Francesca murders the partner of a casino and then the other one ends up dead. An undercover policeman investigating a drug ring is suspected by local police as being the murderer. The plain solution is found near the end.

There is an odd bar room scene with Richard Hammond looking likes he's really let himself go, I haven't seen anyone depicted on screen before that looks so completely wasted. He appears to the the only real actor though, the others are completely wooden.

There is good incidental music throughout but the film appears to quite roughly made, even with noises from the camera crew in some scenes.

DEATH IS A WOMAN is a second-rate British spy drama filmed in Malta to give it an exotic Mediterranean flavour. The story sees espionage taking place when an agent is shipped in to uncover a drug smuggling ring involving the transport of heroin shipments, and our man's job is to find out who's doing it and stop them in their tracks.

What sounds like it should be a light and breezy affair is in fact plodding and unworkable, suffering from wooden male leads and a leaden pacing. There's a dearth of action to boot that makes this tough to watch at times, and it's only the Swinging Sixties trappings that saw me through it. That, and an exemplary female cast, all of whom parade around in their bikinis and look exquisite. Actresses featured include Wanda Ventham, Patsy Ann Noble, and the arresting Caron Gardner. Watch out for typecast heavyweight Michael Brennan's cameo as a murderous butcher.

Just a 1960's movie, with plenty of colour, action, cars, fashions (love the shirts guys), a soundtrack with bongos, killings, drug smuggling, secret agents, cheesy lines and girls in bikinis. What's not to like?

The 1960's was when they could now make cheap movies in colour, and the censorship laws were slowly being eroded, and this unashamedly cashes in on it, but not overdone.

Filmed in Malta (I understand) with much water involved. Patsy Ann Noble is looking good here as well as Wanda Ventham, who reveals all (the hussy). She also happens to be Benedict Cumberbatch's (born 10 years later) mother.

Other reviewers explain the plot adequately, and called it a second rate spy drama, and maybe that is why I like it. Frivolous fun, and if that's what you like, then watch it and enjoy. If you want a deep convoluted plot with tip top direction and acting then stay away. It's down to personal choice here.

Jazzy, beatnik themed 1965 time capsule from British Pathé with secret agent Mark Burns attempting to solve a murder in which he finds himself implicated. Joined by fellow agent Wanda Ventham posing as his fiancée, the pair must outsmart the seductive yet sinister Trisha Noble and her brawny bed partner Shaun Curry, before they pull-off a daring crime and disappear into the sunset. The frantic pace set to a frenetic bongo arrangement and colourful Mediterranean scenery, almost compensate for a relatively thin plot, in which enchantress Noble's bronzed and bikini-clad rig saunters from scotch on the rocks, to scuba-diving into underwater caves leaving a trail of destruction in her voluptuous wake. It's a visually attractive postcard light on sense, but somehow entertaining in spite of its plot weaknesses. Noble is better than you might think, and the set design and location work is all first-rate at depicting the mid-sixties Maltese tourist culture, its buzzing basement nightclubs, and azure blue sun-drenched coastline. A highly stylised cultural artefact worth preserving.

A lot of money must have been spent on this film, which was filmed on location in Malta in full glorious colour. The result, however, is an utter disaster. For a start, one wonders why the film makers hired Anita Harris to sing the film's one song, when they had an excellent girl singer playing the villain.

The acting is not good. Only one character, who plays a drifter, stands out. The rest of the cast are not good actors, and they struggle with an unexciting script.

Some of the underwater scenes look good, and are probably the best parts of the film. Patsy Ann (Trisha) Noble, who comes from Australia, looks as though she swam her underwater scenes herself, and did not use a double. Great frogwoman she may be; as a singer she is flawless, (whether she sings in English or in French) and has perfect vocal technique. But I don't think she is a good actress at all, and I am surprised that her acting career lasted so long - and in America, too. The only significant features of her character, Francesca, is that she is a dead shot with an harpoon gun, and that she sleeps in a bed with black bedsheets.

The plot is forgettable. So, if you have something better to do, you would be better doing that instead.