Licensed to Love and Kill

UNDERCOVER LOVER (aka: THE MAN FROM S. E. X.) is the mostly unfunny sequel to the first, silly James Bond parody featuring Agent Charles Bind (Gareth Hunt). It's also an excuse to show a little -very little in fact- female nudity.

This time, suave, superspy Bind must defeat the super-villainous Lucifer Orchid (Gary Hope). Of course, there's also a beautiful woman in need of Bind's assistance. Her name: "Lotta Muff".

The karate fights are terrible, The dialogue matches the inane plot, and the "humor" lacks any actual mirth. Still, this is interesting due to its pointing toward the future AUSTIN POWERS films. It's also fun to see Deep Roy in an early role, dressed in black and wielding a bullwhip!

To be honest, there were a few decent characters and I caught myself almost laughing a couple of times. Overall however, this is a rather dull affair. It's the sort of movie that our forefathers used to sneak off to see in those grungy theaters of old, in hopes of seeing something "naughty"...

My review was written in September 1983 after watching the movie on a Catalina video cassette.

"The Man from S. E. X." is a failed British imitation of the James Bond films, lensed in 1978 and marginally released in America before its current video cassette availability. Pic, a sequel to the 1976 "No. One of the Secret Service", was originally titled "Licensed to Love and Kill" and circulated under the alternate moniker "Undercover Lover".

Indie filmmaker Lindsay Shonteff, best known Stateside for his 1964 classic "Devil Doll", is actually lampooning his own work here, particularly the 1965 Bond imitation "The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World", which starred Tom Adams as agent Charles Vine.

In "S. E. X.", Gareth Hunt portrays Charle Bind, a well-tailored British agen sent out by his boss, Stockwell (Geoffrey Keen, who coincidentally has had similar roles in recent Bond pics) to fetch Lord Dangerfield (Noel Johnson) from the U. S., presumed missing.

The enemy is Sen. Lucifer Orchid (a naturalized U. S. citizen born in England, played by Gary Hope), bent on taking power in America by substituting doubles for the U. S. veep, agent Bind and others. Working from an Atlantic island base, he hires a mercenary Jensen Fury (Nick Tate) to carry out his dirty work.

Shonteff errs in stretching the Bond formula tongue-in-cheek sex and violence beyond the breaking point, adopting a live-action comic strip style familiar from his more successful 1973 picture, "Big Zapper". People blow up in a puff of smoke at will, fight scenes are likely to have fists crashing through solid walls, and the requisite special effects gimmicks are similarly hokey. Shot in England, the half of the film set in America is unconvincing, as are several lame attempts at American accents.

As Jensen nicknames him in the film, Gareth Hunt as Bind is indeed "Stiff", whether playing this role or the interchangeable double. Rest of the cast is routine, with various pretty girls (including Ingmar Bergman's daughter Anna) delivering occasional nude shots but falling wide of the mark expected in an R-rated (and thereby more liberated) Bonder.

Though there are some outlandish scenes, Shonteff doesn't deliver the sci-fi overtones of his similarly plotted "Second Best..." 1965 picture. Tech credits reflect a low budget.

This film is a humorless followup/sequel to Lindsay Shonteff's previous Charles Bind adventure, Number One of The Secret Service starring the very funny & charismatic Nicky Henson as Bind. In this adventure, it's Gareth Hunt(Mike Gambit of The New Avengers) who takes over from Henson as agent Bind and he lacks both a sense of humor and fun as well as panache and style that Nicky Henson brought to the role.Hunt's portrayal of Bind is similar or even worse than Timothy Dalton's portrayal of 007 in the 1980's. He plays the role like he is still Mike Gambit and his delivery of one-liners fall flat. It doesn't help either that this film has even less or no production values than the previous film and the action/fight scenes are more shoddily done than the first film. The film's only saving grace is Nick Tate of Space 1999 fame as Jenson Fury, Agent Ultraone who is Bind's opponent & opposite number in the film, who provides the right fun and humor in the role. Incredibly enough, Shonteff directed a third Charles Bind film in 1990 called Number One Gun starring Michael Howe as Bind that was never theatrically released!