Atout coeur à Tokyo pour OSS 117

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.

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. (**)

US 24, an American Navy base in a small island in the Pacific, is annihilated. Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, a French aristocrat that is also a secret agent, OSS 117, is sent to Tokyo to investigate who did it.

Soon, he finds out that a cypher girl in the American embassy had passed vital information to a Japanese gang. Eva Davidson confesses to him that she did that under coercion, and is now ready to cooperate.

OSS 117 will pretend to be Eva's husband, to better cover the contacts between her and the gang that is pursuing more information about a second naval base. Each step is a battle for his life, and he suspects that Eva may have not tell the whole truth. ..

Frederick Stafford returns as OSS 117 for another action packed spy adventure that has the usual intrigue, duplicity, and danger - starts with a nifty car chase before winding down to build a rather engaging story and interspersed between the espionage there's some really impressive and inventive fight scenes; the fight with the samurai, the one in the finale and sumo guy comes to mind. The finale action sequence with the hero clinging on the yacht via a harpoon is truly impressive. Dare I say the action is more impressive here than in some '60's Bond films. Top notch stuff.

Japan is the location and a year later 'you will Only Live Twice" will be set in the Land of the Rising sun, however in this OSS 117 entry Japan comes across less grand and is captured in a down to earth manner. Stafford makes a likeable and engaging agent who only uses violence in the last resort. Interesting that his agent doesn't smoke or drink. And unlike Connery in You will only live Twice he looks like he's enjoying himself and comes across focused. The only negative points are that some things happening appear vague and some tension is lacking, but nevertheless this is a very good spy thriller.

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.

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.