La petroliera fantasma

After portraying Diabolik ,a villain from a comic strip in the sixties,John Philip Law has a change of heart:here he is cast as Docteur Justice,another hero from a French comic strip,but on the right side of the law,no pun intended .This comic strip was very average,and is virtually forgotten today.So is the movie.

This is veteran Christian-Jaque's penultimate movie,but the director was artistically dead for years,to be precise after his underrated "le repas des fauves" (1963).All his subsequent works are often sub -Janes Bond ,the likes of "Le Saint prend l'affût" (1966,long before Val Kilmer)or "deux billets pour Mexico" (1968),or dismal Brigitte Bardot's vehicle "les pétroleuses" (1971)or a remake of "that lady Hamilton" (1968).

"Docteur Justice" is actually given some kind of a poor man's James Bond treatment:Gert "Goldfinger" Froebe ,-whose acting verges on tongue-in-cheek -,putting to sleep the whole crew of a tanker to grab the black gold is some kind of "attack of Fort Knox" in miniature.The plot is banal,the pictures nice and the whole thing harmless.

A handsome, Carnaby Street dapper, prodigiously athletic, fleet-fisted philanthropic doctor (John Phillip Law) courageously fights injustice with his stethoscope and enviable martial arts prowess! The fab cast does much to elevate this high voltaged, boisterously fight-packed globe-trotting Euro-actioner! Director Christian-Jaque's keeps these kinetic, enjoyably camp, Fumetti-style high jinks moving at an agreeably brisk pace, boasting a daring, smartly orchestrated heist of 6 million dollars worth of oil, making this a must-see for Euro-crime addicts. One of the things I especially appreciate about 70s action films is that in many instances, the burly-looking tough guys frequently have wispy comb overs!!! This is, sadly, no longer the case, and action cinema is all the worse for it! John Phillip law's witty, suave, sleek-limbed Hippocratic hero is great fun, and he frequently proves more than a match for his duplicitously double-crossing foe! This flavoursome Gallic thriller finds Gert Frobe on charismatically avuncular form as cruel criminal mastermind Mr. Max, sparky Nathalie Delon provides some distractingly sensual eye candy, there's plentiful action, humorous interludes, and the picturesque travelogue locations are certainly no less charming than the good doctor's beaming smile! (Paul Naschy fans might care to note that he makes an all-too brief appearance as one of Mr. Max's rent-a-thugs)

Christian-Jaque had great success with the tulips, his two most successful films being "Fan-Fan the Tulip" with Gérard Philipe and "The Black Tulip" with Alain Delon, both in the same genre, swashbuckling adventures. Here, he's trying another kind of adventure, James Bond style, but the story is totally flat, uninteresting. In vain there is a real Bond actor, Gert Fröbe, in a double role and even very good. All the other actors, including the protagonists John Phillip Law and Nathalie Delon, they fail to make the film captivating.

The music would fit right in with any contemporary, highfalutin action-adventure flicks out of Hollywood, or the most tongue-in-cheek of blaxploitation; the cinematography and editing often reflect an excitability of someone trained on like fare, or perhaps the sensibilities of martial arts flicks out of Hong Kong. These aspects, it must be said, don't hold a candle to the writing, direction, or acting: fabulously, delightfully blunt, ridiculous, over the top, unbelievable, and possibly downright nonsensical and cartoonish. But then, what else would one possibly expect from a comic book character? Just from reading the premise, let alone starting the movie, it's obvious that this is all about having fun, with little care for the liberties it takes with "storytelling" or "reality," and everyone involved gleefully leans into that slant. Even with this in mind I'm not saying that it's necessarily an utter exemplar of the genre, but sometimes you just want to kick back and relax with a little slice of tomfoolery, and by that measure 'Docteur Justice' is terrific. This is a blast!

From a mere glance one can surely discern what type of film this is; one is either on board with the style or not, so there's no use raising a fuss about it. Stunts, effects, hand to hand combat, gunfights, and chases galore; a protagonist whose chipper attitude, confidence, and optimism come off as arrogance that's a funhouse mirror's answer to James Bond's egregious machismo; a chief antagonist who also happens to be a master chef, and a henchman plainly modeled after Bruce Lee; "Just So" plot development and scene writing that is characterized by cheek and ham-handedness as much as by customary genre thrills, and which regularly elicit reactions of "you've GOT to be kidding me!" - this feature has it all. Why, there's even a beautiful woman as a supporting character, and she's not just Eye Candy as we so often see in similar pieces! Well before even half the runtime has elapsed one has either totally checked out, or is having the time of their life. Count me among the latter! I expected 'Docteur Justice' would be a silly romp, but truth be told, I'm so pleased that it's even more absurd, and gratifying in that absurdity, than I could have hoped.

Yes, this feature is preposterous. But none of it is sloppy or accidental. From filmmaker Christian-Jaque to writers Raphael Marcello, Jean Ollivier, Jacques Robert, and Andrés Velasco; from the whole cast, including above all John Phillip Law, Gert Fröbe, and Nathalie Delon, to all the contributions of those behind the scenes, everyone involved did a fantastic job. This is crafted first and foremost with lighthearted mirth, yet no less skill or intelligence for the fact of it. All the stunts, effects, and action sequences are as sharp as we would assume of any like-minded titles; the direction is as dexterous and fleet-footed as it is ham-fisted. For as outwardly ludicrous as so much of the screenplay is, if we're being honest it doesn't wink at us any more than the works of Eon Productions, AIP, the Shaw Brothers, Golden Harvest, and so on; the story is complete and compelling at the same time that it unreservedly adopts the excesses of comic book colorfulness. I've never seen Fröbe enjoying himself as much as he does here, and that same spirit extends to Law, Delon, and their co-stars, having a ball at the same time that they're making the best action flick that they could. It sure seems to me like the project had the benefit of a considerable budget, with splendid filming locations, excellent production design, fine costume design, hair, and makeup, and so on.

Truly, I'm just overjoyed with how entertaining 'Docteur Justice' is, and frankly I'm taken aback at broad reception that seems to hover between "lukewarm" and "poor." To think, that folks could watch this and altogether balk, but keep a straight face while watching the latest Marvel monstrosity. This 1975 flick is pretty much as smartly made as any of its brethren, but never loses sight of the foremost objective of ensuring its audience has a good time. For as much as the cast and all others on hand are indisputably embracing the frivolity, I don't think there was ever any risk of we spectators failing to share in the reverie. This is a movie that knows exactly what it is, and through to the very, very end it just forgoes any restraints as it lets loose with whatever wild idea comes next to tell the story of a crusading WHO physician, a champion swimmer, a karate expert, and a philosopher - all the same person - investigating modern-day piracy. I blithely assumed I'd like this, though my expectations were incorrectly tempered somewhat by observing what others have seemingly thought of it. When all is said and done I simply couldn't be happier with how cheerful, lively, and outright refreshing an experience it is. I, for one, absolutely love 'Docteur Justice,' and as far as I'm concerned this earns a very high, enthusiastic recommendation for one and all!

John Philip Law is Doctor Justice, a karate-chopping research doctor who is a champion swimmer, a researcher and a Doctor Without Border for the World Health Organization. When the entire load of an oil tanker disappears, its crew gets arrested, all but ten men, including cook Gert Frobe. Convinced the police are on the wrong track, Law investigates on his own and discovers, with the help of Nathalie Delon, a criminal organization that is.... well, it's not clear why, except that Frobe shows up at a WHO conference in Bruges as a doctor arguing that the world is about to suffer a Malthusian catastrophe.

It's based on a comic strip created by Jean Ollivier and artist Carlo Marcello for Pif Gadget, a weekly kids' comic book magazine in France. It's a thoroughly pulpish story, with Law being frequently captured and escaping, eventually bringing everyone to, well, justice. It's co-written and directed by Christian-Jaque, a durable director of low-brow entertainment from 1932 through ten years before his death at the age of 89 in 1994.