Código 117 - Sabotagem Atômica

André Hunebelle was a good craftsman when it came to making popular swashbucklers whose hero was Jean Marais ("le Bossu" "le Miracle des loups" ).The spy thriller had the wind in its sails thanks to James Bond....

So Hunnebelle ditched his previous genre for the more lucrative spy stuff.It was his second OSS 117 effort(the first one featured Kervin -Simbad/Jack-Matthews ) and it's not really an improvement on the first one.There is a true actress here ,Marina Vlady (oddly,she plays on the boat almost the same part as Domino and her camera in "Thunderball" ).And Henri Serre,whose career ran into difficulties after "Jules et Jim".And Frederick Stafford future "Topaz " star. It's not much.

Yes, Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath is based on novels by Jean De Bruce. However, he is so similar to Ian Fleming's very well known English spy James Bond who is, by the way, funnier and more advanced.

In this Bond-ish movie, the action is not so good, it's average. The direction is not that well done; you'll watch the camera more than once (in the glass of some bus, and in the bathroom's mirror of the submarine..), plus the stunt man's face was visible too, and so on. The music isn't any fine. Frederick Stafford is trying to be, or forced to be, another Connery, and that dubbed voice was unfunny, but I think with some other director and writer, he would've done much better work.

You won't have a lot of exciting spying devices; only a little microphone and sunglasses which had a camera in it. And although it's French-Italian production, but it's not BIG one by all means, especially when all of the events take place just in Tokyo. The writing was mediocre, or maybe the surprises of 1966 are corny in 2007. For instance, someone shot Hubert in his bed to discover that it wasn't him; it was a doll under the blanket. Then, chasing Hubert to discover later that he was a harmless policeman.. etc.

The positive points were 2. The cinematography by Marcel Grignon, which was the classic rich shooting of the era. And Marina Vlady who stole the show despite not being the lead.

All in all, this movie is poor when you compare it to Bond movies. But if you measure it by its own desire to be amusing, then you'll find that it's a nice humble espionage movie, not too boring, silly or bad.

However, most of the global taste or mood will innately compare that French spy to the original English one, hence he'll be some sort of the fool cousin from France who imitates desperately his uncle's famous clever son!

The French answer to James Bond is back. And this time he travels to Tokyo and battles international terrorists. This film does have some things going for it: Frederick Stafford is a good enough spy lead (I'll take his OSS 117 over Timothy Dalton's 007 any day!), the cast includes a French mega-babe (Marina Vlady) and a Japanese super-cutie (Jitsuko Yoshimura), there are some enjoyable fight scenes, and the Oriental setting actually predates Connery's "You Only Live Twice" by one year! Despite all that, however, the film is a bit of a bore. It is VERY slow-moving and lacks a strong central villain. The filmmakers probably stretched the budget as far as it could go, but in comparison to the Bond pictures of the time, they still came up short. They just about beat "Diamonds Are Forever", though. (**)

The O.S.S. 117 series of films are based on popular spy novels by author Jean De Bruce about an international spy named Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, the French version of James Bond. Hubert Bonisseur was portrayed by a number of actors (including John Gavin, who was later named Ambassador to Mexico by Ronald Reagan!) which is one of the reasons the series never caught on outside of Europe. Austrian actor took over the role Frederick Stafford took over the role pf O.S.S 117 for the third and fourth films, the latter which was set in Japan and retitled "Terror in Tokyo". In this film, Bonnisseur has to stop a group of industrialists from launching missiles laced with atomic bombs unless the United States government gives into to their ransom demands. Gorgeous actress Marina Vlady plays a woman in the US embassy suspected of leaking secrets to the enemy, and Yoshimura Jitsuko is a Japanese secret agent posing as a nightclub hostess. Bonisseur romances both women and while attempting to save the world from destruction. Not as exciting as the superior 007 films of the era but entertaining in its own way. Look for a great fight scene in which Agent O.S.S. 117 goes up against a humongous sumo wrestler.

Frederick Stafford's second and last adventure as Hubert Bonniseur de la Bath a.k.a. OSS 117 is a well made but ultimately disappointing feature. The film starts out with a nifty car chase but unfortunately that level of excitement is never regained and the result is a rather dull film. The self-assured Stafford is never allowed to showcase the talents he displayed in OSS 117 Mission For a Killer and even the lovely Marina Vlady isn't enough to perk things up.

Director Michel Boisrond does what he can with the material but the lack of a good story dooms this from the start. Michel Magne's score is appropriately flavored with Asian spice but is otherwise forgettable. You can skip this one as an also ran that doesn't measure up.