Ombres sur le Liban

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.

A young blonde called Jane Freeman has been murdered at the pool in Beyrouth , Lebanon . She turns out to be a daughter of Professor Freeman who has been told his daughter will die unless he gives up his research. Along the way , other international scientists have been found dead . Then , secret agent Michael Drum (Lang Jeffries) is assigned a dangerous mission to protect the important scientists , being helped by Inspector Craig (José Bódalo) against a megalomaniac mastermind . Posing as a scrounger Drum allows himself to be captured by the opposition, in order to thwart their schemes , and given a drug that changes his free will and makes him a robot ready to follow orders . After many chases and intrigue, he arranges to get away with "the secret plans". Our valiant , easy-going playboy/agent , takes on a powerful criminal organization commanded by Rashid (Andrea Bosic) and his hoodlums (Erika Blanc , José Marco) whose aim is to rule the world .

Ordinary Euro-spy movie with usual components : pursuits , crashes , struggles , chases , fantastic gadgets , strange artifacts , simple helicopters , international conspiracy , and explosive women . It borrows heavily from the OO7 series that at the time starred Sean Connery , such as : Dr No, From Russia with love , Thunderball, and Goldfinger . It has some flaws and gaps , as it does tend to get a bit old , including repetitive nature of some fight scenes , but it has big fun , so it cares . Lang Jeffries gives a passable acting as a brave playboy/secret agent who takes on an criminal organization that especializes in relevant assassinations . Lang has an easy going air about him that makes him great to see . He plays a two-fisted spy who even allows to be injected a poison, though himself takes an antidote . Co-stars two Eurotrash starletts as Erika Blanc and Emma Danieli . Along with a plethora of Spanish secondaries , usual in Spaghetti and Peplum , such as José Bodalo, José Marco and Jesús Tordesillas .

It packs a cololorful cinematography in Panavision and Eastmancolor by cameraman Julio Ortas in terrific locations from Beyrouth, Lebanon , Madrid, Spain , Rome, Lazio, Italy , Turkey . And an atmospheric and thrilling musical score in the seventies style by Francesco De Masi . The motion picture was professionally directed by Mario Caiano , and it definitively worth checking out if you are a fan of Euro spy genre . At his beginning , Caiano worked as a director assistant for known Italian filmmakers as Sergio Grieco, Fernando Cerchio , Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia , Vittorio Sala , Riccardo Freda, Edgar G. Ulmer and Camillo Mastrocinque . In 1962 Caiano made his film debut as a director with Ulises versus Hercules (1962). From then on he made films in virtually every genre. He directed the very first Italian western, ¨The sign of the Coyote¨ (1963), he made an acceptable western , genre in which he would not only excel but one where he would spent much of the rest of his career , as he directed several Spaghetti : ¨Brandy¨, ¨Avenger of California¨ , ¨Ringo, face of revenge¨, ¨My name is Shanghai Joe¨, ¨Bullets don't argue¨, ¨Lone and angry man¨, ¨A train to Durango¨. Caiano is a craftsman who has directed all kind of genres as Peplum as ¨Ulisse vs Ercole¨, ¨I due Gladiatori¨, ¨Maciste Gadiatori di Sparta¨ and Terror : the gothic horror flick¨Nightmare castle¨(1965), which starred Barbara Steele, ¨Eye in the labyrinth¨ with Adolfo Celi , Psychological thriller and Poliziesco as the detective thriller ¨A tutte le auto della polizia...¨ (1975) and even Pornonazi as ¨Nazi love camp 27¨. Although Caiano couldn't be deemed an "A"-list director, his movies had a professionalism and a verve that many of those made by his fellow B directors lacked .

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.

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.

Scientists are dying, so American agent Lang Jeffries is seconded to the British Secret Service in this Italian spy movie.

It's a fairly light-hearted mishmash of the usual tropes, with plenty of pretty girls, lasers that can control peoples' minds, and fighting in this noisy music with a nice jazzy score by Francesco De Masi. The story, within the usual context, actually makes some sense as it travel from Lebanon to Turkey, Spain, Britain and, of course, Italy. The scene-setting shots are effective if rather bleak.