Opération Goldman

1965's Italian-Spanish "Lightning Bolt" (Operazione Goldman) was picked up by Woolner Brothers for a double bill with Stewart Granger's "Red Dragon," TV veteran Anthony Eisley popping up mostly in low budget features like "The Wasp Woman," "The Navy vs. The Night Monsters," "The Mighty Gorga," and Al Adamson's "Dracula vs. Frankenstein." FSIC (Federal Security Investigation Commission) is assigned the case of American rockets drawn off course by radiation on their way to the moon, an obvious echo of the debut James Bond feature of 1962, "Dr. No" (the original title and Florida settings also recall "Goldfinger"), Eisley's Lt. Harry Sennett posing as a frivolous American playboy with checkbook always ready, his smarmy narration of every little detail quickly wearing out its welcome. Folco Lulli plays the villain Mr. Rehte, whose likeness adorns his own brand of beer, safely hidden near Cape Kennedy in a subterranean stronghold, one that the Bond series would adopt a decade later for "The Spy Who Loved Me." A science fiction element is added with hibernation chambers keeping his enemies in a state of suspended animation, all reduced to skeletons during the explosive climax, an impressive display of set design and special effects for director Antonio Margheriti. An unlikely chase scene at the halfway mark finds our hero trying to prevent the latest launch by driving headfirst toward the site, reminding one of Robert Loggia in 1957's "The Lost Missile." Eisley just doesn't look the part of suave secret agent, and for once the girls aren't much help, though brunette captain Diana Lorys scored a 1961 triumph with Jesus Franco's "The Awful Dr. Orlof," later appearing in Amando de Ossorio's "Fangs of the Living Dead," Christopher Lee's "The Bloody Judge," and Paul Naschy's "The Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll."

Anthony Eisley is cast as Harry Sennet, a top secret agent who goes into action to foil a bad guy who keeps interfering with rocket launches, using a weapon that he somehow managed to put on the moon. Sometimes Harry gets help from his boss, Captain Flanagan (stunning brunette Diana Lorys), but mostly he goes it alone.

There certainly were plenty of these "James Bond" imitations and spoofs to come out of the 1960s, and "Lightning Bolt" a.k.a. "Operazione Goldman" provides quite a bit of enjoyment. Granted, a fair amount of the entertainment value is derived from the various absurdities on display:

Sennet attempts to stop a rocket launch by driving right into the tower. Needless to say, this does not go well.

He actually attacks the bad guy when his nemesis has plenty of time to see him coming, and the henchmen have enough time to get there first and beat him up.

Plus, he actually tries to bribe some of the bad guys with cheques! (He's usually allowed to spare no expense during his missions.)

Our dastardly villainous mastermind is Mr. Rehte, played with brio by corpulent Italian Folco Lulli. You have to love this guy: not only does he have big plans for domination of the Earth, he also has a side business as a beer manufacturer!

In addition to the lovely Ms. Lorys, other eye candy is provided by Wandisa Guida and Luisa Rivelli. Another big laugh occurs early on when Ms. Lorys pops a cigarette in her mouth and all the guys present offer her a light.

Eisley is a studly, engaging hero, although modern viewers will either chuckle or wince at his casual sexism. In order to carry out the mission, Sennet must pose as a rich playboy, and you can tell he likes this kind of gig. At one point, he actually smacks the ass of this lady who's supposed to be his *boss*!

You add to that ninja-style costumes for the henchmen, amusing narration by Sennet, a fairly colourful visual approach for a movie done on the cheap & cheesy side, a decent forward pace, and a good amount of explosions, and you do have the ingredients for an agreeable Euro-spy schlock flick, all brought to life by the prolific director Antonio Margheriti.

Seven out of 10.

Someone is destroying U. S. missiles as they are launched. An intelligence team, headed by agent Harry Sennett (Anthony Eisley), is sent to the Hotel Florida to investigate. The area, Sennett discovers, is a nest of spies, and another important missile launch is sabotaged, despite Sennett's effort to warn authorities.

He tracks the saboteurs to a brewery that fronts a criminal mastermind. His lugubrious adventures also take him to a secret installation located in pressure domes beneath the Atlantic Ocean. He finds super-criminal Rhett (Folco Lulli), who tells him the missiles are test targets for an experimental laser weapon. Rhett intends to take the laser to the moon, where he can blackmail Earth's governments. Unless there was any doubt, Sennett halts this routine world-domination plot.

LIGHTNING BOLT is a slightly dog-eared and low budget spy-sci-fi, Italian- and Spanish-produced mixture. It is nonetheless enormously entertaining due to the tongue-in-cheek attitude of Eisley's agent-hero, who rattles off an seemingly endless series of quips as he goes about saving the world.

Eisley, who is the unsung hero of countless low budget movies, has a stiff male model look that doesn't translate well to these super-agent shenanigans. But that fact only adds to the fun. LIGHTNING BOLT fits somewhere behind those boozy Dean Martin-Matt Helm spy parodies of the 1960s. Abundant newsreel footage of crashing missiles and a lot of miniature model shots are also laughably entertaining.

This is one cheesy movie and a lot has been written about it (mostly bad) since it is widely available on the gray market but there are things (mostly bad, again) worth mentioning.

Lightning Bolt features smart-ass hard-boiled narration by Eisley and many moments of unintentionally laughable dialog, the kind that would make Ed Wood proud. Nonsensical situations and actions abound in this movie and the special effects are as to be expected; not very special, like the old yarn-for-the-laser-beam trick made famous in Italy.

Though the movie has a few charms they are outweighed by too much silliness, a weak villain and the sense that one's time is worth more than the budget spent in making it.

The Plot. A U.S. agent goes undercover as a rich playboy to stop a madman from destroying a NASA moon project. I saw this under the title of Lightning Bolt.

Made in Italy and Spain, this 1966 movie takes it's plot from the James Bond / spy craze of the 60s, with a bit of NASA space work thrown in to make it interesting.

It is by no means a great movie, however I can see how this could be fun as a midnite grind-house screening. It's wide screen and technicolor and there are relatively decent special effects. There's also some fun 60's misogyny.

What brings the experience down a notch is that it seems like the whole movie is dubbed even though they are speaking English. It gives the film a cheaper feeling.

A lot of the sets look very Bond-ish. The acting and directing is a few notches above most cheap-o Italian movies. Although it's a bit slow paced.