Ombres sur le Liban

"Spy" Story Following in the Avalanche of Such Things, that Started in 1962 with the 1st James Bond Feature "Dr. No", Followed by "From Russia With Love" (1963).

Before Anyone could Say "007", the "Secret-Agent" Genre in its Modern-Incarnation was Born,

and soon Everyone was Saying "Bond...James Bond", and "007" Became a Numerical Icon.

In this "Off the Assembly Line" Effort, it Globe-Hopps from Italy, Spain, Turkey, Beirut, and England.

Starring a GQ Looking, Square-Jawed Man of Mannequin Stature, Lang Jeffries.

Throw in a Couple of "Bond-Like-Babes", some Fine Cinematography Highlighting the Scenery and the Architecture,

and a "Bond-Like-Villain" who's Out to "Control Men's Minds" and the World, and the Table is Set for Gadgets, Girls, Violence (in this case very bloody), and Twists.

It's All Rather Surface and Doesn't Cut Deep Like the Other Fellows Shenanigans in Terms of Intrigue, Secrets, and Govt. Vs Govt.

But it Makes for a Good Entry in the Fad that Lasted for About 10 Years before Things become Unreliable and Morphed Quickly into Self-Parody.

Although the "James Bond Franchise" Never Stopped and is Still Alive to this Day, Over 25 Films, Multiple Bond's, and is the Longest Running Uninterrupted Series in History.

This Film Looks Good, has a Snazzy-Jazzy Score, is Fast-Paced, and...

Worth a Watch.

The film begins as other tens or hundreds of Eurospy, as the secret agent hero land at the airport, Beirut this time, a car takes him in an unknown direction where someone is trying to kill him, as usual. Then, every 2 minutes, we have a dead man, every time being involved or at least present, who else than our hero... Then the secret agent is called to London, but he will return to Beirut sooner than he or we expected. I do not want to tell you the whole movie, as others do, watch it yourself, it's free on You-tube! It's not bad, I've seen a lot of Eurospy much below its value.

This half-baked spy thriller starts out promisingly enough with a cool title sequence fueled by the sounds of Francesco De Masi. If only the rest of the film measured up to this auspicious beginning. Unfortunately we end up in tepid water rather quickly and never find our way out.

Lang Jeffries does his best as Mike Drum who's assigned to find out just what the heck is happening when several of world's great scientists are killed off. Well, we never figure exactly why either but it doesn't matter much. The villain is completely scatterbrained, changing his plans at the last minute by unveiling a second super weapon with which to rule the world!

There are some decent things about the film to mention however. Jeffries is a good fighter and gets plenty of chances to show it because there's a fight every ten minutes or so. That part's okay. And don't forget the excellent score by De Masi. It's the one asset to the film that never lets up as Lang jets from Beirut to London to Madrid to Beirut and back to London before returning to Beirut for the finale. Whew!

So unless you're a Lang Jeffries stalwart or just like to hear a good score stay away from this slapdash effort.

This is a polished Eurospy production played very straight and serious, in fact it could do with a bit more wit and humour.

The screenplay and direction are both decent, there is always plenty of going on and the body count is unusually high, which helps distract from possible plot holes. In that way it reminded me a bit of "Goldfinger" or "You Only Live Twice", in that there were a number of events which didn't seem to make much sense, however some of them were adequately explained later, while others remained a mystery, and I was left wondering if that was just because I overlooked something.

The soundtrack is top notch, understanding which scenes need to be punched up with tense or dramatic music and which will benefit from a shot of cool jazz or breezy travelogue style music

The action zips back and forward across the Med, from Beirut to London to Madrid and back to Beirut, giving TWA plenty of product placement plugs along the way.

Lang Jeffries looks the part, but rarely cracks a smile. Even with the beautiful women he is all business, no time for flirting until the very last villain has been dispatched. Only then, in the final scene, does he loosen up and reveal a lighter side (and a romantic interest in the girl he has saved). Admittedly, in this regard, he's not given much to work with, as the script is very dry, dialogue wise.

Andrea Bosic gives a convincing performance as the villain, although he's easily identified as such from the beginning. He delivers his lines with suitable arrogance and authority, although, as with Lang, the script doesn't provide much in the way of memorable byplay between him and the hero during the several scenes where he expounds on his master plan and what he's going to do to Lang and the girl. He has an impressive classical mansion with a mod "Ken Adam-esque" underground lair below.

His master plan is to rule the World using a mind control drug he has developed, and later to project his commands into people's minds over long distances using a "special ray" (which appears to be no more than an ordinary movie spotlight). However exactly why he has been drawing attention to himself by using his mind controlled assassins to threaten and murder leading scientists, who are working on projects which might benefit humanity, remains a mystery, because, at the moment Lang asked him that question, the copy of the movie I have switched from English to German and by the time it reverted to English he was talking about the mind control drug. (Perhaps a German speaking person out there who has seen the movie can enlighten me?)

Female characters get little to do, although one does take the pivotal action which eventually saves the day.

Possibly the closest attempt to a "From Russia With Love" style Bond movie I have seen in a Eurospy.

Of course, there are better Spy movies out there, but this film was shot on location in Beirut, Lebanon in the 1960s, which seems surreal given the sad history of Lebanon in the decades thereafter. That is exactly why the film is a nostalgic piece of contemporary history.