Superseven - Agente para Matar

Another of the numerous Bond like spy films of the sixties, Italian made I think so it's dubbed in English. I know a lot of people don't like this but in this case it's done pretty well.

Roger Browne plays Martin Stevens, aka Superseven is sent to Cairo to recover sensitive equipment before the Soviets get their hands on it. There's not many people he can trust, especially the many beautiful ladies that frequently turn up. Whilst the storyline and characters are pretty formulaic the location work is not. It's fantastic to see Paris, Rome and Cairo in the mid sixties before mass tourism arrived, for that alone this is worth a watch.

A first installment in the "Superseven " (sic) adventures .And not the best of the two.The action takes place in London ,Superseven (stronger than 007!)is irresistible and all the girls fall for him even if they are evil.

Roger Browne was essentially known for his sword and sandals flicks but he also starred in spy thrillers and -you have to live!- photo novels for the Italian "Edital" group .He was one of the rare actors working in Italy who had an American name AND was actually American .

The screenplay is a nonentity: a radioactive new metal which all the spies covet ,and ,as the title reads ,action takes place in Egypt,but the director does not take advantage of the landscapes:even the pyramids are badly filmed .One of the villains worked in a Nazi concentration camp and it shows.

Lenzi would do a little better next time.

Roger Browne as in the other movies with him, the same gestures, same looks, same movements, boring, boring, boring. And, that's what I say, a big fan and consumer of the Eurospy genre, I grew up with Eurospy movies, they influenced my whole existence and now, at the age of wisdom (I hope...), I realize how stupid I was, or still am, watching them. They all seem to be shot at xerox, the same template, airport, pursuit, hotel, microfilm hidden in an object, pursuit again, a few fights, a few shots, a torture scene, one or two beautiful girls, the good one remains with the hero at the end, the evil girl must die.

I saw this recently, and it was the first time I have ever seen the actor Roger Browne. He's very striking-looking: six feet tall, and very strong and fit. No one would be eager to tangle with this guy! He makes a good secret agent.

You can tell from the first scene that the filmmakers are trying to follow the format of a Bond movie, and they manage that sometimes. One of the fun things watching 1960's Euro-spy movies is to enjoy what makes them of their time, and especially the European touches. That mostly means Italian, as here, though there were French and German Euro-spy movies, too.

For example, there is an interesting scene of a full-figured belly dancer in a Cairo club. She's a wonderful dancer, but a U. S. film of the time, I think, would never have featured a dancer who wasn't slender.

The movie has some great scenery of Cairo and Egypt. There's an amazing shot of a huge hotel swimming pool and you can see minarets in the background. I wondered if this hotel had been a palace; I've never seen such an enormous pool.

Rosalba Neri is in the movie and has a good role. I wish her part had been even bigger. She brings beauty, energy and star quality to every scene she's in. When she's on screen, it's just more interesting.

There are a fair number of action scenes. I think some should have been longer. The music is very European, a bit tongue-in-cheek! I liked it. On the whole, this is one of the better Euro-spy movies.

One of the better and more serious James Bond rip offs. The film has low budget but takes itself seriously and avoids camp. Superseven needs to track down a rare radioactive material hidden in a camera. This sends him off to Cario where most of the film takes place. Meanwhile, the bed guys want get the material first, or at least let Superseven lead them to it. There he meets Rosalba Neri's Faddja, who is forced to help the bad guys to pay off her debt to them. Rosalba gets decent screen time here and looks great. Her role is a bit more involved in the plot than many of her films. It's hard to tell if she's with the hero or against him, which is an plus given the majority of the characters she played. A huge surprise for me here was the female lead, Fabienne Dali. She played the old woman Ruth in KILL BABY KILL under a load of make up. She's a femme fatale here and 180 degrees from Ruth. I watched a dreadful looking full screen English dubbed print. There is a widescreen German DVD I would love to see sometime, a good looking copy would improve the film's pleasure tenfold.