Com Licença para Matar

If you've ever seen Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and wondered, where on earth that song the cast starts singing at the party comes from, the answer is this. Despite the US edit of this movie boasting a brilliant title song by Sammy Davis Jr, something the UK version desperately lacks, it doesn't stop Licensed to Kill from being a rather lacklustre 007 homage from unconventional Canadian genius Linsday Shonteff. Even with the dubious connections to Bond, he's name dropped many times throughout with clear references made to past adventures, it's extremely by the numbers in terms of its plot and characters despite the best efforts of Tom Adams as leading man Charles Vine and the rest of the cast. The film just gets lost in its own plot, about some device that can reverse the effects of gravity all the while it tries to add Cold War politics, counter-espionage and many many kidnappings into the mix. Licensed to Kill is on the lower tier of Shonteff productions but is still worth a watch to see how low-budget UK cinema can still deliver a fun time.

Let's be frank. This is one damp spoof. I'll go into the details of this deadly dull affair if, for some reason, you're interested. Tom Adams is Charles Vine, an inexperienced agent whose assignment is to keep an eye on a scientist (Karel Stepanek) as he prepares his formula for Regrav, a process that reverses gravitational waves. Vine is `a double 0 number, licensed to kill' and he certainly does make use of that particular privilege. During the course of the film Vine kills more than a dozen people. It's not the number that gives one pause, it's the callous and somehow nonchalant way he goes about it that is perturbing. Vine is, by his own confession, in it for the money but one suspects he gets a certain pleasure out of taking lives as well.

Stepanek (Our Man in Havana), as the Swedish scientist, gives the best performance of the movie but that's not saying much. The entire production is so lifeless that the actors seem to just want to get it over with, and one can hardly blame them. The film starts off with a bad taste killing when a nanny pulls a machine gun out of her baby buggy and slaughters a man in front of her two infant charges. Then we are treated to a lame theme song by Sammy Davis Jr. and it's all downhill from here, folks. The film suffers from poor pacing, badly choreographed gun battles and worse fight scenes and the whole thing feels much longer than its 95 minute running time.

Dauntless British agent Charles Vine (Tom Adams) is called upon to escort to London the famed Swedish scientist Henrik Jacobs to negotiate the sale of a secret formula. However, sinister forces gambling for enormous stakes are already at work.

With the aid of his gun, Vine manages to extricate his charges from the most diabolical traps until the final battle in a mile-a-second showdown fought along the Thames dockside and culminating to a wild and unexpected climax.

I cast my mind back to 1987 when I was at school and I saw Licensed to Kill (2nd best Secret Service Agent in the whole wide world!) in the Radio Times film guide. A Bond Style spy thriller! Yippee! It was going to be on LWT ( UK TV) I called in sick from school just to see the film and I was sort of disappointed by the lack of excitement and grandeur ... however, I did like the shootout at the dockyards, the camera framing the alleyways - quite a tense shootout ...

Fast forward to now, I still think that it's the most exciting scene in what is a spy spoof film, which can be at times meandering, talky, confusing, absurd (a woman turning out to be a man), however it's redeemed by an adequate plot, some witty dialogue and Tom Adams, who has a cool air about him, even if he's a little stiff in his acting.

Any actor who carries....and can PROPERLY LOAD ...a Mauser Broomhandle has GOTTA worth an hour or two of my time. And Tom Adams as Charles Vine can sure do THAT. He's suave, sophisticated, very-British, and carries an odd-ball handgun. Wow!

I first saw this movie, via Turner's Chanel 17, when I was in college. It seemed to me to be head and shoulders above the average James Bond-wannabies. It stuck with me well enough I watched the second film, called WHERE THE BULLETS FLY, when it was offered.

My only regret is, since TIME-WARNER took over Turner Television, many of these 'small' films are lost...never re-shown....by these out-of-touch cost-accountants that run TW.

Take my advice...if offered a chance to see LICENSED TO KILL or WHERE THE BULLETS FLY, give it a chance. It MIGHT just grow on you.

I viewed this film when it opened in the US in 1965 (right in the middle of the James Bond craze), and I never forgot it. The American title was " The Second Best Secret Agent In The Whole Wide World". And the tag line for it was, " He's only number two, but he's just as good as the higher priced agent".

The lead British actor, Tom Adams, plays the main character as though he was born to the role. In an easy laid back fashion that exudes a sincere confidence, his 'tongue in cheek' performance is just right for this film. He's believable, satirical and funny where it counts. In essence, he was perfectly cast for this well done, if not the best, of the James Bond Spoof's.

The plot is, at times, a bit confusing. But what the film lacked in story-line is made up for by the well paced action sequences. Just when you think you might become bored, something happens and you're caught up in the whole affair once again. And the black and white photography well captures the mood of the time.

For many who are devotees of the 1950's - 1960's espionage drama era, this film is a must see. If for no other reason, simply the pure fun of it.