Berlin, opération 'Laser'

1965's "Spy in Your Eye" aka "Bang You're Dead" (Berlino = Appuntamento per le Spie) was theatrically issued by AIP on a double bill with Richard Harrison's "Secret Agent Fireball," an entertaining bit of fluff but little more. Brett Halsey's Bert Morris is on the trail of a formula for a powerful laser, his superior, Colonel Lancaster (Dana Andrews), unwittingly aiding the enemy after the surgical insertion of a glass eye that acts as a TV transmitter. Fast moving from one location to another, above average production values yet quite convoluted, the villains are an assorted lot of Russians, Chinese, East Germans, and Arabs, with varied twists and turns and a plethora of promising gadgets that often disappoint (an effigy of Napoleon boasts a fatal gift). The climax must be seen to be believed, an interrogation chamber transformed into an operating room in the blink of an eye before another breathless escape. Alas, once Lancaster learns of his traitorous orb he promptly vanishes for the remainder of the film, luscious Pier Angeli frequently absent for long stretches, though it's a bonus to see her kidnapped from a bubble bath!

Saw film at a double-feature second run house in the '60s. The spy-in-your-eye alternate title refers to an implanted micro television camera in a spy's eye. I can't remember if it was Dana Andrews. There's a tunnel under the Berlin Wall for the west to spy on the east that figures in the plot. Of course, the tunnel is discovered. There's a gimmick character who's hunchback deformity conceals a radio transmitter. Never understood why, if they could get the camera that small, why not the radio? I remember it fondly, but then I was 12 years old. Representative of '60's spy cycle, but at least they referenced real cold war players instead of made-up spy organizations. Don't know if its available.

American spies are try to locate and rescue the daughter of a dead nuclear scientist. It's believed she may have some of his secrets. The Russians also want to the woman and are somehow able to thwart the Americans at every turn. But how? How do the Russians know what the Americans are doing? Is there a double agent? Or is it something else?

I love Eurospy films from the 60s. So it really pains me to discover a new one that doesn't click for me. Spy in Your Eye includes a lot of the things I look for in a Eurospy film, so it should have worked. The movie features some fantastic European locations, a cool jazzy/loungey spy score, a nice cast (Brett Halsey, Pier Angell, and the incredible Gastone Moschine), a cool secret lair with lots of moving parts, and a fantastical plot device - the bionic eye. However, even though all the ingredients are here, it never really works as well as it should. The reason - I blame the mess of a plot. There are ideas and threads going in all different directions, but none of it ever feels like a coherent story. About half way through, I forgot all about the woman with the nuclear secrets. I couldn't remember what Halsey and Co were trying to do. I just seemed like everyone was doing the most random things. Like the Chinese spy shooting the parade float with the camera-gun. Why? And the ending felt awfully rushed. The movie just ends without much in the way of a resolution. What happened to Dana Andrew's eye? How did Halsey and Angell suddenly end up together? What happened to the rest of the Russian operatives? Where did the Chinese spies go? What happened to the crazy Napoleon statue? There are too many unanswered questions.

Another thing that bothered me about Spy in Your Eye was how underutilized the titular eye was. I would have thought the screenplay would have included a more elaborate use of the spy-eye to trick or set a trap for the baddies. The eye is just sort of forgotten about.

"Colonel Lancaster" (Dana Andrews) is the director for a team of American spies during the Cold War who just happens to be scheduled to receive an eye implant so that he can regain his sight in one eye. What he doesn't know is that the Russians have invented an ingenious device which will not only give eyesight back to Colonel Lancaster--but will also transmit everything he says or does back to them which gives them invaluable information. One specific case involves a scientist who has invented a new weapon which the Russians, Americans and Chinese all want to get their hands on. Unfortunately, the scientist is killed trying to escape to the West and as a result his daughter, "Paula Krauss" (Pier Angeli) now becomes their main target because they think she has the vital information they all want. Now, rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it I will just say that this was a decent spy movie for the most part. One noticeable flaw, however, was the lack of character development which caused some confusion here and there. But other than that I suppose it was okay for the time spent and I rate it as about average.

And very ingenious for 1965, a real competition for the original James Bond series, although made on a low budget. Original gadget the radio and knife hidden in a human hump, obviously fake. Some Chinese spies, dressed in black suits, black hats, tie, not even blinking, American spies, Russian spies (Comrade Kommissar), transplanted camera-eye, dehydrating pills, pistol-camera, smart lines, a cool babe (Tania Béryl), action in Berlin, Paris, Amman, Portofino, and a secret formula that everyone wants, tattooed on the scalp of the heroine played by Pier Angeli (it would have been much more interesting if it was tattooed in the groin area). Dana Andrews is cool and credible as the head of American spies, Gastone Moschin is funny as the villainous boss Boris, and Luciano Pigozzi, the Italian equivalent of Peter Lorre, present in many films of the same genre in the '60s, is credible as an assistant villain. Nice music by Riz Ortolani. Worth 8 stars!