Super 7 appelle le sphinx

Another of the numerous Bond like spy films of the sixties, Italian made I think so it's dubbed in English. I know a lot of people don't like this but in this case it's done pretty well.

Roger Browne plays Martin Stevens, aka Superseven is sent to Cairo to recover sensitive equipment before the Soviets get their hands on it. There's not many people he can trust, especially the many beautiful ladies that frequently turn up. Whilst the storyline and characters are pretty formulaic the location work is not. It's fantastic to see Paris, Rome and Cairo in the mid sixties before mass tourism arrived, for that alone this is worth a watch.

Although the film was directed by the Italian veteran director Umberto LENZI, it is only a very weak representative of the EuroSPY wave of the 1960s, which began after the great success of the first James Bond films DR. NO, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, GOLDFINGER and THUNDERBALL.

A highly radioactive material is stolen and hidden in a camera lens. Agent SuperSEVEN (Roger BROWNE) chases the whole thing from London to Cairo, Locarno and Rome. Fabienne DALI and Massimo SERATO complete the all too colorless cast.

Only 281,000 tickets were purchased in West German cinemas (source: InsideKino). Not surprising!

One of the better and more serious James Bond rip offs. The film has low budget but takes itself seriously and avoids camp. Superseven needs to track down a rare radioactive material hidden in a camera. This sends him off to Cario where most of the film takes place. Meanwhile, the bed guys want get the material first, or at least let Superseven lead them to it. There he meets Rosalba Neri's Faddja, who is forced to help the bad guys to pay off her debt to them. Rosalba gets decent screen time here and looks great. Her role is a bit more involved in the plot than many of her films. It's hard to tell if she's with the hero or against him, which is an plus given the majority of the characters she played. A huge surprise for me here was the female lead, Fabienne Dali. She played the old woman Ruth in KILL BABY KILL under a load of make up. She's a femme fatale here and 180 degrees from Ruth. I watched a dreadful looking full screen English dubbed print. There is a widescreen German DVD I would love to see sometime, a good looking copy would improve the film's pleasure tenfold.

Roger Browne as in the other movies with him, the same gestures, same looks, same movements, boring, boring, boring. And, that's what I say, a big fan and consumer of the Eurospy genre, I grew up with Eurospy movies, they influenced my whole existence and now, at the age of wisdom (I hope...), I realize how stupid I was, or still am, watching them. They all seem to be shot at xerox, the same template, airport, pursuit, hotel, microfilm hidden in an object, pursuit again, a few fights, a few shots, a torture scene, one or two beautiful girls, the good one remains with the hero at the end, the evil girl must die.

The most remarkable thing about this Italian James Bond knockoff is how astoundingly bad it truly is. If it is a spoof, someone forgot to tell the filmmakers that a spoof is supposed to be funny. If it was intended to be serious, they failed in epic proportions. Filled with cliches and tired tropes, it is devoid of witty dialogue what stands out most is its utter lack of originality or creativity. The characters lack motivation, most of the actors appear to be performing under duress, as if their loved ones are being held hostage to force them to participate in this slop. Fight scenes have choreography stiff as the Lee Harvey Oswald prison transfer. This film leaves the viewer not only feeling cheated, but literally being dumber for having watched it. On the positive side, some of the cinematography is good, notably the police chase scene, and highlights the exotic locales used in the film well.