Where the Bullets Fly

Tom Adams is Agent Vine (not Bond) in this film that is so unfunny that it runs way too serious and makes the film look like a poorman's James Bond clone. The opening scene involving agent dressed in drags, cool opening credit, and the Sidney James scene is the only highlight in this film. Either than that, the film is just plain boring. Adams played the character well, but the script didn't leave him to do much spoof or comedy that he's character runs flat. Very disjointed script. Not recommended.

MASTER PLAN: steal a prototype airplane. It's a rather basic, nuts-'n'-bolts take on the superspy genre - think the James Bond films of the sixties with only a quarter of the budget and no star quality - there was nothing special to justify further films. In this follow-up to "Licensed to Kill" of the previous year, Tom Adams reprises the role of Charles Vine, the 2nd Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World (2nd to Bond, of course). Adams actually warmed to the part here and the tone is slightly more satirical, but the plot is quite dull, even inconsequential. The actor Arnatt is also back as Rockwell, this film's version of M, the supervisor. Besides the slow pace, one scene is even baffling: during a meeting in Rockwell's office between Rockwell, Vine and a double agent, a cat is seated on Rockwell's desk; much of the scene is from the cat's perspective and we also see the faces of the 3 men superimposed over the eyes of the cat. I thought the meaning would be made clear later, but no such luck.

Vine is not very impressive in this story. At one point, he's captured by enemy agents, kept in an odd electrified room which mocks the usual Bond torture scenes and is also drugged, revealing a secret location. His escape is facilitated through the sacrifice of a female; enemy agents proceed to the location Vine gave up and kill the people on-site; Vine follows, punches out a guard - one of the good guys - and, after a long chase, fails to capture the villain. By this point, I was thinking Vine may be the 3rd or 4th best secret agent - maybe even the 5th. In fact, any success Vine enjoys in his struggles, right to very conclusion, stems from the ineptitude of the bad guys. Though much of this is lame, including the strained humor and weird giggling by the main villain, it does retain a bit of the charm of its predecessor. Towards the last half-hour, the focus seems to switch to how many ladies Vine can seduce rather than foiling the plots of the dastards. Dawn Addams, top-billed with Tom Adams, appears late and too briefly. There followed a 3rd film, "OK Y-"something, filmed in Spain, which almost no one has seen or heard of. Hero:6 Villains:5 Femme Fatales:6 Henchmen:4 Fights:5 Stunts/Chases:5 Gadgets:4 Auto:5 Locations:5 Pace:4 overall:5

Having developed an alloy called "spurium", Britain is the only country able to make nuclear-powered aircraft; Two prototypes exist and the USSR send their top spy - Angel - to steal one of them. Angel almost succeeds by taking over an aircraft on a test flight, but it is shot down by the RAF.

He then decides to steal a sample of spurium and Britain calls upon Charles Vine - "The world's second best secret agent" - to safeguard the top secret Spurium Apparatus from the evil clutches of The Angels Organisation.

Death comes swiftly to the villainous mobsters as Vine, ably supported by the curvaceous and seductive woman Agent Corruthers

The second spy adventure to feature Charles Vine, the 2nd best secret service agent the whole wide world, is, dare I say, much better than its predecessor- firstly, it has a better theme song sung by Susan Maugham, the pace is brisker, the plot flows better, there's a better energy, and most importantly it's much funnier - it's more comedic and I found some scenes hilarious such as the Squadron leader who chats endless toddle and the chief, Vine and even the cat were bored, and later Squadron leader, who is a bad guy, is stealing the spurium along with an extremely effete safe breaker; their interaction was pure comedy.

Vine has some really good jokes like the "Waterloo" one- Tom Adams is really good as the second best agent; he's so English, so laidback with his upper crust accent. Definitely has a presence about him. Wonder if he was ever considered for Bond ... there's some good support from Dawn Addams, the ravishing Susan Farmer and guest spots from Sid James as a mortician and Wilfred Bramble. Exciting action finale.

Adams played the Charles Vine character in a series of these films - I'm guessing they did OK business in Europe, because there's no way their UK business would have brought production back after the first one. "Where the Bullets Fly" is pretty bad. Tom Adams early in his career demonstrated that he was a capable actor in the Sturges actioner The Great Escape. It's sad then that he didn't have the opportunity to play in something better than this - when this film was made British cinema was in terminal decline.

Adams mentioned in a newspaper article in the 1980's that when this movie would occasionally play on TV, he'd receive abusive mail - not hard to see why.

Budget-wise, location-wise and production value-wise, this bargain basement spoof of the Bond films pretty much scrapes the barrel. Actually, though, John Gilling (better known for Hammer horror) directed it niftily enough and in patches even makes it quite witty.

Tom Adams carries off the hero part with nice deadpan aplomb and gets good support from Michael Ripper as main baddie Mr Angel, Joe Baker as an oafish Labour minister, and a Sid James cameo as a mortuary attendant ("Business is perking up here," he says over the phone while ducking from a frenzied shoot-out). Cheesy organ music and locations that include a gasworks and sewer add to the threadbare fun.