Gli assassini del karatè

I watched this not knowing anything about it. TCM showed it as part of their Joan Crawford marathon so I went into it blind, hoping to see a Joan movie I hadn't seen before. Well, I did. Sort of. This is apparently a "movie" that is spliced together from episodes of The Man From UNCLE TV show. While I have heard of the show before, I have never watched it. After viewing this, I doubt I ever will. I know the show has its fans and I'm sure the show has its merits that this film does nothing to showcase. But this left such a bitter taste in my mouth I can't imagine I will watch anything related to that show anytime soon...if ever. The thing that's most surprising to me is that this has a fairly big-name cast. Curd Jurgens, Herbert Lom, Kim Darby, Telly Savalas, Terry-Thomas, Leo G. Carroll, Jill Ireland -- not chump change. As for Joan, her part in this is minuscule and an easy contender for the most embarrassing performance of her career. If this is the kind of work she was being offered, no wonder she did Trog. I can't recommend this to anybody. It was not funny or thrilling or anything else that the supposed genre(s) of it would suggest. It was just bad.

This is another in a series of two-part "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." TV episodes edited into theatrical movies. It originally aired, in the spring, as "The Five Daughters Affair" – two weekly episodes of NBC's popular TV series. The movie version was released for the summer (traditionally, a television re-run season). By now, the multi-part episodes and feature film versions were completed concurrently. This was the first "U.N.C.L.E." movie without some form of the word "Spy" in the title; the episodic word "Affair" was also absent, as usual. The movie version seems mildly sexier. The most obvious difference, however, is the moving up of the "Every Mothers' Son" top ten hit "Come on Down to My Boat" to also play during the title/credit sequence. "Every Mother's Son" (the soon-to-be psychedelic pop group) and "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." were both, not coincidently, produced by MGM...

In this story, secret agents Robert Vaughn (as Napoleon Solo) and David McCallum (as Illya Kuryakin) are off to find a secret formula which turns seawater into gold. When you consider the relative worth of seawater and gold, it's no surprise the dastardly organization "T.H.R.U.S.H" is also interested in obtaining the formula...

Our heroic pair travels around the world, seeking four sexy step-daughters. They end up karate-chopping in Japan. Vaughn and McCallum often appear to be sleepwalking – or running through their roles. Probably, they're just super-cool. The best sequence from director Barry Shear and the crew occurs near the end, when our heroes escape from a cell. The fifth daughter, cute Kim Darby (as Sandy True), is the main guest star and the main villain is steely-eyed Herbert Lom (as Randolph). The well-proportioned Jill Ireland makes her last "U.N.C.L.E." appearance on her TV star husband's show; not coincidently, she and Mr. McCallum were freshly divorced. Amid the crowd of guest stars is a cameo by Joan Crawford. The parade of stars and general pace resemble the "Batman" movie, based on the "Batman" TV series, which was now clearly influencing "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.".

**** The Karate Killers (8/3/67) Barry Shear ~ Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Kim Darby, Herbert Lom

The Karate Killers (1967)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A secret formula is stolen and broke off into four different parts so Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) must travel around the world and try to catch the evil man trying to get it. THE KARATE KILLERS is a feature-length version of a two-episode entry in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. series. I should probably admit right from the start that I had never seen an episode of this show so I really can't say how well this movie is or how good the two episodes are and how they compare to other episodes in the series. For the most part I found myself having a pretty good time. I will admit that I found a lot of this to be rather campy and I'm not sure if this is just how it's aged or perhaps the series was always meant to be campy. Either way, there were a lot of fun moments scattered throughout the picture with some of the highlights including the opening sequence and another very good one where McCallum finds himself heading towards an ice breaker, which will certainly kill him. There are several sequences here that manage to capture that cliffhanger feeling that people saw in serials back in the day. Another thing that kept this film moving were the countless celebrity appearances including Joan Crawford, Herbert Lom, Leo G. Carroll, Telly Savalas and Kim Darby. Seeing all these stars pop up in small roles was nice. The two leads were also extremely good and fun. THE KARATE KILLERS, I don't think, was meant to be taken too serious so as long as you turn your brain off there's some fun to be had.

The Karate Killers is geared mostly for those baby boomers who watched the Man from UNCLE. Robert Vaughn and David McCallum were my heroes as a little girl when I watched the Man from UNCLE. Watching the movie now, I find it: nostalgic, a typical 60s spy movie, and a wee bit over dramatic. Of course, more than 40 years of movie watching has passed by. I am glad that the main characters and type of plot did not change and neither did the secret of the success of the Man from UNCLE still remains in the film. However, I miss the sophistication today's spy movies contain. The acting is decent and they interplay well. I am rating this movie against today's spy movies. It is still a decent movie. The movie is basically a matinée or a late night show. Bring popcorn for this one and enjoy a 60s spy movie.

THE KARATE KILLERS was the sixth big-screen enlargement of the hugely popular Man From UNCLE series. It was compiled from a two-part episode called THE FIVE DAUGHTERS AFFAIR (part one: 31 March 1967) and (part two: 7 April 1967). However, in common with it's predecessors, the TV version wasn't aired in the countries where the theatrical version was released for example Great Britain where the films were steady earners at the box office.

Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuriyakin are assigned to prevent evil THRUSH agent Randolph (HERBERT LOM) and his seemingly unstoppable karate chopping henchmen from stealing a secret formula for extracting gold from seawater. The formula has been divided up into four parts and hidden amongst the possessions of four of the five murdered inventor's daughters. Solo and Kuriyakin find themselves traveling around various parts of the globe in a race to stop THRUSH from gaining control of the world.

THE KARATE KILLERS is probably one of the weakest of the Man From UNCLE pictures because despite the caliber of the guest stars such as Terry Thomas, Curt Jurgens and Telly Savalas (who would be far more effective as Blofeld in the Bond movie ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE two years later) are not given enough to do in order to make the film live up to their talents. Having said that, Herbert Lom is good as the villain and there is an amusing send up of the MGM melodramas of the forties between him and Joan Crawford (who plays the inventor's wife) early on where Crawford throws a tantrum in front of him because she has just discovered that he has murdered her husband for his formula and Lom replies "There's no need to be melodramatic is there my dear." Another disappointing aspect of the film is that our heroes Solo and Kuriyakin get knocked out by the enemy far to many times in this one. All this doesn't mean that the movie is unwatchable, far from it, because it moves at a fast pace and there are some amusing moments here and there and don't forget - this is the sixties man so it's all good clean fun!

Followed by THE HELICOPTER SPIES (also 1967).