Dick Smart 2.007

Dick Smart is a womanizing secret agent who is so effective at his job, he gets 1 million dollars per mission as a reward. This time he is after a criminal organization, led by Lady Lister, that has found a way to turn carbon into diamonds - but only during the process of a controlled atomic bomb explosion. His investigation takes him to Rio, along with his nerdy (but still delicious) female assistant. This film pales in comparison to the James Bond outings of its era, but compared to some other 60's Euro-Spy flicks, it fares better. For one thing, it seems to have been made with a considerable budget behind it, allowing for some stunts and explosions completely missing from, say, "New York Calling Superdragon". Richard Wyler is OK in the title role: obviously he doesn't have the screen charisma of Sean Connery, but he is convincing enough in action (though some fight scenes are unnecessarily sped-up, possibly for comic effect). Margaret Lee is at her sexiest in this movie, and plays a pleasingly strong character. The script is kind of sloppy and sometimes the film jumps from scene to scene without much logic, but in this sub-genre, you could do much worse. (**)

Well, Frano Prosperi has always been one of those directors whose films fall somewhere between the laudable and the laughable; and, unfortunately, this one must be classified into the latter category. Lady Lorraine Lister, a financer of expensive experiments, has discovered a way to obtain pure diamonds by the means of a radiation device. She hires five renowned scientists to participate in additional experiments regarding this new contrivance. However, it soon happens that the device is stolen, and the scientists mysteriously disappear! Agent Dick Smart is called in by the CIA to track down the scientists and recover the device. With the help of incredible gadgets and lots of bravado, he manages to locate the source of an underground operation in Rio De Janeiro: an operation headed by a mysterious man with a speaking device fastened to his throat. This film does not contain any elements which would make it anything but a routine film. Although it contains a few sparkles, this film is no diamond.