New York chiama Superdrago

Firstly, after seeing Secret Agent Super Dragon, I now pronounce Danger Death Ray! king of all B spy movies. This one hurts so much that I can remember one character in this film named the Joker and I don't even know who that was!! Although our secret agent spy is suave with the ladies, that's most of the action you will see. I can only recall that there are less than 10 gunshots fired – TOTAL! Man, that's what I call a really lame spy thriller. Instead, our spy and his Q wannabe trade witty banter and drop lots of corny one liners. Oh, and the super drug that cannot be traced or detected? The DEA's worse nightmare. And the drug's results in people laughing hysterically, acting crazy and chaotic and violence? Yes, we as a society have all heard of alcohol. Add a secret villain society and a weird ‘W' membership ritual and "super" is the LAST word you'd use to describe this. As exciting as counting needles in a field of haystacks.

Although it is executed with a certain degree of professionalism, and has some interesting touches here and there (like a bulletproof vest that reflects the bullet and sends it back to the sender!), "New York Calling Superdragon" is defeated by its sheer dullness. Not much happens throughout the film: there are no major set-pieces and little excitement. Nearly all of the action is limited to fistfights, unless you count the explosion of an obvious miniature building at the end. Ray Danton is an agreeable cut-rate Bond (and although others here have found him unlikable, I thought he was more respectful to the ladies than the real Bond); Margaret Lee and Marisa Mell are both sexy, but largely used for decorative purposes only; the villains are as forgettable as the rest of the film. (*1/2)

As a young James Bond fan, if I had seen this one in the theater it likely would have rated a 5 just for the goofy gadgets! 53 years later, it's almost as difficult to watch as today's main stream, self-absorbed fluff and high tech digital cartoons. Like so many other films, this one is best served with a generous helping of MST3K.

Well it is not. Anything but, as this is another in a long line of Bond knock offs where they get a smug spy and think that is enough. Saw this one on Mystery Science Theater 3000 as they did a number of these James Bond Wannabe films during their run on the air. The agent in his one at least goes to Holland whereas the agent in Agent From H.A.R.M virtually stayed at the same beach house for most of his flick, but he did more in the way of action than Secret Agent Super Dragon did! A few clunky fight scenes and a tepid shoot out or two is all we get. Both pale in comparison to that film where they got Sean Connery's brother to play the agent as that film went to multiple locations and had better action which is sad, because in that film he was not even a true agent, but a plastic surgeon! Then there was the agent from Danger, Death Ray and that too had more action, but used ridiculous miniatures which looked pretty much like a kid's toys! This one did manage a couple of humorous scenes and the setting of Holland was different, they just needed their super agent to do a bit more than rummage through hotel rooms and such.

The story has people in a small town in America going berserk and no one knows why. So in comes, Secret Agent Super Dragon...though he is not really all that motivated to take the case. Seems he is retired, but the death of a fellow agent sends him on the trail. He partners up with a guy who is apparently some sort of mob boss and they soon make their way to Holland after discovering that the means of distributing a drug that causes bizarre behavior is hidden in chewing gum. Soon Dragon makes his way to a posh party after a few run ins with some thugs and learns the terrible secret the villain of the piece has in store for the world!

This made for a funny episode of MST3K, as did all the spy films they riffed on. None of them were too terribly horrible, but they all had flaws that stopped them from being anything that was remotely a good film. The Holland setting made for some good jokes as did the fact that the agent of the piece really did not do all that much in the way of action. They were also dead on when they would say that the villain of the piece did not make much of an impression at all. I did love the joke where the villain takes the poison and they riffed Secret Agent Super Dragon kind of smugly getting the last word in right before he died.

So, this one had some good in it despite not being all that great. The Holland setting was interesting, a few good jokes here and there and at least it wrapped up nicely. They just needed to have a few more action pieces in this one, they did not have a single chase scene in the film that I could tell. What spy film does not have a super cool chase sequence? Even the Agent From H.A.R.M managed to get on a motorcycle and try to stop a plane and the guy in Danger, Death Ray had a chase, albeit slow and involving toy cars. The fights they did manage here looked poorly choreographed too, not anything that really gets the excitement up, and just what was the deal with Super Dragon rolling the guy up in the carpet? Seriously, he couldn't find a better way to hide the unconscious body than that?

Secret Agent Super Dragon has become a touchstone of Bondian spoofs thanks to wide availability on the gray market and the misguided shenanigans of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Those who actually watch this movie will find, much to their surprise, that it is a competent and fairly serious exercise compared to many of its genre kindred. Admittedly there is enough cheapness and silliness to keep the viewer from thinking too highly of it but it won't disappoint entirely.