Missione compiuta stop. Bacioni Matt Helm

Someone once said that Dean Martin was so laid-back he made Perry Como look like a nervous wreck. It was said if a nuclear bomb went off behind him he wouldn't even drop his martini glass. Martin and his fellow Rat-packer Frank Sinatra were among our few recording giants who achieved in films as well. Although not as good an actor as Sinatra, Martin had a charming presence on the screen and was always entertaining to watch, even when you knew he wasn't taking it too seriously. The Matt Helm films came out at the same time as Sean Connery was playing Bond and have been largely forgotten today. Martin played the reluctant spy with tongue firmly in cheek. The Wrecking Crew was the last of the four Helm films and I feel it was the best. A gold train has been hijacked by a criminal mastermind. The one billion dollar theft will cause world wide financial panic and its up to Matt Helm to save the day. Of course in any spy film of this nature, you have to have beautiful women and there are plenty here. Elke Sommer and Tina Louise light up the screen, but it is Sharon Tate who steals the show as bumbling MI5 agent Freya Carlson. I thought it was so funny how she kept getting Helm into deeper and deeper trouble, even getting him arrested at one point. She tells him "I wont desert you Mister Helm". He says "Do me a favor PLEASE DESERT ME!". However, she comes through in the end and there is a good fight scene between her and Nancy Kwan. (For trivia lovers, Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee helped to set up the fight scenes for this film). People have commented the fight scenes involving Helm are fakey, what do you expect? Dean Martin was 52 when this film was made. Sharon really stole the show in this one, in fact they later based one of the characters in the Austin Powers films on her character here. This was her last film before she was murdered by the Charles Manson family. Its chilling when you watch it and think of how horribly her life ended.

Well, at least compared to the two Matt Helm flicks immediately preceding it. After a couple of pretty big missteps, the series returns to the fine form of the first film, The Silencers. This is in no doubt very much due to the return of that film's director, Phil Karlson of Walking Tall fame.

While the budget was obviously reduced for this one, it may have helped the pacing, which is not bogged down by cumbersome set pieces and elaborate gadgets. From the time Helm first arrives at Contini's château, the movie races breezily along helped by well choreographed (by Bruce Lee!)fight scenes in place of the earlier movies' overblown hovercraft chases, runaway spaceships and the like. Additionally, this is the only one of the 4 Helm movies where the main villain's death doesn't seem anti-climatic. The soundtrack is great and absolutely helps to keep things moving along as well.

This cast is most enjoyable, with Nigel Green stealing the show while stealing the gold. He delivers many of the best lines in the movie, nay the series. Nancy Kwan and Elke Sommer are excellent as a couple of deadly femme fatales and Tina Louise is rescued from Gilligan's island just in time to give Helm his first lead. Sharon Tate showed a proclivity for comedy that was so deft and popular with movie goers that she was supposed to reprise her role in the never to be made The Ravagers. Also notable was the film debut of a little known martial arts expert named Chuck Norris. Dino himself seems to be enjoying the proceedings this time around and is a little more energetic. MacDonald, Helm's boss, is now being played by John Larch and actually takes part in some of the action.

In conclusion, this is one tight, exciting and truly funny (without being silly) little movie, at least by Dean Martin Matt Helm standards. It's too bad this was the last in line, because it could have served as the action comedy template going forward.

Dino was 51 and smooching ridiculously hot actresses half his age when he did The Wrecking Crew, one of the all-time cringeworthy films but still fun. A fifth Helm was planned but Martin bowed out. The entire total-escapist series was written, produced and directed by a team that owed its sensibilities and point of view to the men's magazines of the late 50s and 60s and took very little from Hamilton's novels. It made fantasy logic that his cover was a glamour magazine photographer pursued at first sight by gorgeous models. I saw them all at the movies and dreaded the moments when Dean would croon a tune. The supporting players were always great pros and the actresses were all fantasy women. In this final entry, James Gregory (Matt's boss McDonald) is replaced by John Larch and while Larch was a fine actor, Gregory's rich baritone is missed. Someone must have watched Deadlier Than The Male, a much better film than any of the Helm movies, because Elke Sommer and Nigel Green, the lethal duo from Deadlier, essentially reprise their roles. The opening theme song ("Ah So, Ah So") was embarrassing 50 years ago. Otherwise, Montenegro's music was memorable at times. The production values are top-notch, for the most part. The hand-to-hand fight scenes were poorly choreographed, performed, shot and edited even though the great Bruce Lee was involved. The only sad note about this film is the fate of lovely Sharon Tate who has a substantial role, exploited this year by Tarantino in his uber-fantasy Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

Count Massimo Contini (Nigel Green) is the mastermind behind a billion dollar gold robbery. His plan is to send the world markets into chaos. He may get away with it unless Matt Helm (Dean Martin) can track down the missing gold. But along the way, Helm will meet up the Count's hired muscle, a gorgeous female killer, and a ditsy woman who insists on helping him.

I suppose the best way to describe a Matt Helm film would be a light and breezy spoof of the James Bond movies. Nothing is very serious and you're sure that everything will work out in the end. Dean Martin plays Matt Helm about as laid back as could be imagined. Instead of a gun, you're more likely to see him with a drink in one hand, a cigarette in the other, a beautiful woman to ogle, and a quick quip. His fights scenes may leave a lot to be desired, but there's no denying his "cool".

The Wrecking Crew is actually one of the better Matt Helm films. The hiding place of the gold is ingenious, the spy gadgets are plentiful, and the women are everywhere. The cast is one of the better assembled for any of these films. Nigel Green and Elke Sommer make a wonderful pair as the distinguished master criminal and the sexy killer (roles very similar to the ones they played in 1966's Deadlier Than the Male). But Sharon Tate really shines as the ditsy Freya Carlson. It's incredibly sad to think that this would be Tate's last role before her brutal murder. She's a joy and a real pleasure to watch.

I have not seen any of the other Matt Helm films, first off. My main reason for getting this film was that Sharon Tate was in it. I think it's safe to say that, out of her very brief acting career, her role in "The Wrecking Crew" is her best out of all her films. In all her other roles she played the blonde sex kitten with little to do but smile pretty for the camera. In this film, however, she gets the chance to shine as a tough yet sexy, red-haired secret agent who assists Dean Martin's Matt Helm in apprehending a group of gold thieves. The plot is ridiculous, Dean Martin looks more than a little out of it, and the sets and music are bursting with such an infectious '60s vibe that you just have to love it in all of its corniness. That title song is stuck in my head for weeks after I watch the movie - and I love it! Don't miss the catfight between Sharon and Nancy Kwan, as well as Sharon's jaw-dropping booty-shake dance sequence. Oh man, what a babe.