Atout coeur à Tokyo pour OSS 117

After an American navy base is completely annihilated and a ransom message is sent to the United States, OSS agent 117 "Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath" (Frederick Stafford) is sent to Tokyo to investigate. Upon his arrival there his first order of business is to interview an intelligence clerk by the name of "Eva Wilson" (Marina Vlady) who is being blackmailed into disclosing top secret military information. After finding out as much as he can he then comes up with the idea of posing as her husband so that she can perhaps lead him toward this clandestine group. What he doesn't know, however, is that there are other parties interested in his presence with intentions which have yet to be ascertained. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a decent EuroSpy film which contained a good mixture of action and intrigue. In addition to that it also had a couple of attractive ladies like Jitsuko Yoshimura (as "Tetsuko") along with the aforementioned Marina Vlady to brighten the scenery as well. One drawback, however, was the English dubbing-particularly in the case of Tetsuko-which could have used a bit of improvement. Be that as it may, while not a great film by any means it was sufficient to pass the time and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

The fourth entry in the official French movie series of "OSS 117" movies, while a notch better than the previous entry ("OSS 117: Mission for a Killer"), still fails to engage viewers as much as even a second rate James Bond movie. There are a few things along the way to catch the eyes or ears of viewers momentarily. The location shooting in Tokyo, combined with an adequate budget, do provide a lot of pleasant eye candy. The musical score is also pleasant, sounding very much like the music found in a James Bond movie of the same era. And the action sequences are pretty well done. That is, when there IS action. There simply isn't enough action to be found in the 100 minute running time, which will leave viewers impatient for the movie to get down to business like James Bond. I think the lack of action can be blamed for a very slow-moving script. Surprisingly, James Bond veteran Terence Young had a hand with this movie's story, but you wouldn't know it. The story unfolds at a snail's pace, and another unfortunate consequence of this is that there is no feeling of tension, no feeling that people's lives are on the line. It doesn't take long for the movie to become quite frankly dull. "James Bland" is more like it.

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. (**)

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.

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!