Ombres sur le Liban

"Spy" Story Following in the Avalanche of Such Things, that Started in 1962 with the 1st James Bond Feature "Dr. No", Followed by "From Russia With Love" (1963).

Before Anyone could Say "007", the "Secret-Agent" Genre in its Modern-Incarnation was Born,

and soon Everyone was Saying "Bond...James Bond", and "007" Became a Numerical Icon.

In this "Off the Assembly Line" Effort, it Globe-Hopps from Italy, Spain, Turkey, Beirut, and England.

Starring a GQ Looking, Square-Jawed Man of Mannequin Stature, Lang Jeffries.

Throw in a Couple of "Bond-Like-Babes", some Fine Cinematography Highlighting the Scenery and the Architecture,

and a "Bond-Like-Villain" who's Out to "Control Men's Minds" and the World, and the Table is Set for Gadgets, Girls, Violence (in this case very bloody), and Twists.

It's All Rather Surface and Doesn't Cut Deep Like the Other Fellows Shenanigans in Terms of Intrigue, Secrets, and Govt. Vs Govt.

But it Makes for a Good Entry in the Fad that Lasted for About 10 Years before Things become Unreliable and Morphed Quickly into Self-Parody.

Although the "James Bond Franchise" Never Stopped and is Still Alive to this Day, Over 25 Films, Multiple Bond's, and is the Longest Running Uninterrupted Series in History.

This Film Looks Good, has a Snazzy-Jazzy Score, is Fast-Paced, and...

Worth a Watch.

Of course, there are better Spy movies out there, but this film was shot on location in Beirut, Lebanon in the 1960s, which seems surreal given the sad history of Lebanon in the decades thereafter. That is exactly why the film is a nostalgic piece of contemporary history.

Scientists are dying, so American agent Lang Jeffries is seconded to the British Secret Service in this Italian spy movie.

It's a fairly light-hearted mishmash of the usual tropes, with plenty of pretty girls, lasers that can control peoples' minds, and fighting in this noisy music with a nice jazzy score by Francesco De Masi. The story, within the usual context, actually makes some sense as it travel from Lebanon to Turkey, Spain, Britain and, of course, Italy. The scene-setting shots are effective if rather bleak.

This half-baked spy thriller starts out promisingly enough with a cool title sequence fueled by the sounds of Francesco De Masi. If only the rest of the film measured up to this auspicious beginning. Unfortunately we end up in tepid water rather quickly and never find our way out.

Lang Jeffries does his best as Mike Drum who's assigned to find out just what the heck is happening when several of world's great scientists are killed off. Well, we never figure exactly why either but it doesn't matter much. The villain is completely scatterbrained, changing his plans at the last minute by unveiling a second super weapon with which to rule the world!

There are some decent things about the film to mention however. Jeffries is a good fighter and gets plenty of chances to show it because there's a fight every ten minutes or so. That part's okay. And don't forget the excellent score by De Masi. It's the one asset to the film that never lets up as Lang jets from Beirut to London to Madrid to Beirut and back to London before returning to Beirut for the finale. Whew!

So unless you're a Lang Jeffries stalwart or just like to hear a good score stay away from this slapdash effort.

In europe, it's le spie uccidono in silenzio, which is something like the spy kills in silence. From italy, but theoretically filmed in beirut. A spy thrillah. Someone is knocking off family members of the people working on a cure for cancer. We see our lead getting a secret message to meet in the courtyard. And the action begins! We know the girl in the room next door had planted bugs and was listening in. Can they get any info out of her? Dubbed into english,but at about 51 minutes in, the sound track on Tubi is in german. Oops! Very much a james bond knockoff,almost line for line. Pretty lame script. Or maybe it was just a bad/low budget translation. A whole lot of trumpet and xylophone! It's okay. Most of the special effects are pretty cheesy. Directed by mario caiano. Lang jeffries died quite young at 56.