Banco à Bangkok pour OSS 117

Despite the bad rap this OSS 117 adventure has taken over the years, a recent reevaluation suggests that kinder words be spoken about it. The U.S. re-titling, Shadow of Evil, turns out to be quite appropriate for a low-key adventure that relies more on atmosphere than action. This is not to say that the film is a resounding success but neither is it one of the genre entries that should be passed by entirely.

Director Andre Hunebelle, credited on this print as Cyril Grize, made four OSS 117 movies in the sixties of which this is the second. One might argue that Hunebelle's familiarity with the character of Hubert Bonnisseur de la Bath aka OSS 117, lead to his experimenting with different approaches in filming his adventures.

Hunebelle takes a noir approach, at least visually, to large sections of the film. Much of the action takes place at night with plenty of shadows in which our characters can hover about. Contrary to what the film's detractors say, this is a good looking film even if experienced as a bad VHS dupe. The score by Michel Magne, credited here as Garry Sherman, uses eastern influences to good effect in creating soundscapes rather than themes, an unusual approach for the genre.

Shadow of Evil is not a failure but neither will it land at the top of most people's list. Make up your own mind.

Based on Jean Bruce 's "Lila De Calcutta" ,which ,as the title reads ,took place in India ,the action was transposed to Thailand whilst keeping the subject :plague bacillus injected by "the chosen ones " to eliminate the shameful human race who destroys the world with their atomic bomb.

After exploiting the swashbucklers,in the wake of James Bond ,Hunebelle made his first (black and white) OSS 117 in 1963 ("OSS 117 Se Déchaine ",also starring Matthews as the lead).For his second effort in the field ,Prodis productions granted color , composer Michel Magne - less inspired than in the Angelique saga- and filming on location.In fact ,only 25% of the film was filmed in Thailand.Kerwin Matthews and Pier Angeli were able to combine business with pleasure ,but Robert Hossein and Dominique Wilms never left Paris where they did all their scenes in Boulogne-Billancourt studios.

This is the kind of movie in which the scenery ,at a time when people would not travel much, is the real star.Robert Hossein (who would also play a doctor in Hunebelle ' s last attempt "Pas De Roses Pour OSS 117"(1968)) gives a restrained performance as the villain doctor Sinn (sic),the best thing to do when a clever actor has to work with ,say, very average material.Kerwin Matthews lacks Connery's charisma and humor and Pier Angeli is pretty but bland .

Having said that,the best OSS 117 Hunebelle made was certainly his third one "Furia A Bahia Pour OSS 117",(1965)starring Frederick Stafford and Mylene Demongeot.

Jean Bruce's Hubert Bonnisseur le Bath was France's answer to James Bond. Like Ian Fleming, Jean Bruce became rich thanks to his best-selling novels featuring OSS 117, i.e., Hubert Bath. Despite the French name inherited from his Gallic ancestors, Hubert Bath is an American who is a secret agent for the OSS, the predecessor of the CIA. Jean Bruce's books were turned into movies. Apparently popular in France at that time, they never found an international audience. Watching "Banco a Bangkok pour OSS 117" (English title: Panic in Bangkok), one understands why. The production values are quite bad. OSS 117 seems to be a carbon copy of James Bond. He is irresistible to women; he is good at fisticuffs, etc, etc. Kerwin Mathews who plays the lead role tries to be suave. Of course, he does not have Sean Connery's charisma or presence. The story is formulaic though it anticipates Moonraker, the James Bond flick. An evil Indian doctor, Dr.Guna Sinn (the name does not sound Indian) working in Thailand has developed a biological weapon that will reduce the world's population in accordance with his eugenicist beliefs. OSS 117 has to stop him with the help of a Thai sidekick and seduce the Indian doctor's sister Lila while he is at it.

I watched this movie as a boy many years ago. At that time, it seemed that the acting was adequate. I am sure that I won't think so now. Jean Bruce's books which have been translated into English were far superior to the OSS 117 flicks. Quite the opposite of Ian Fleming, whose books can't hold a candle to the films they engendered. Indeed Jean Bruce was a better writer than Ian Fleming. Read the OSS 117 books. Avoid the movies.

(Reviewed by Sundar Narayan)

This movie was released in India as 'Panic in Bangkok' around the same time that Goldfinger became a raging hit. Panic in Bangkok was a big hit too and it launched a huge following for the OSS 117 franchise, which went on to star Fredrick Stafford. This movie was so popular that it was remade in Tamil as 'Vallavan Oruvan' which made actor Jaishankar a star. I loved this movie and although I was hooked to Sean Connery's Bond franchise, I found the OSS 117 series equally credible and most of them were good. Panic in Bangkok was the best and Kerwin Mathews was one of the popular stars of the time with his other movies like 'Viscount' also doing great business. I have been trying to get hold of DVD's of the OSS 117 films, which unfortunately are never played on TV in the US.

1964's French-Italian "Shadow of Evil" (Banco a Bangkok pour OSS 117 or Panic in Bangkok for OSS 117) was the second OSS (Office of Strategic Services) title for director Andre Hunebelle (first in color, following "OSS 117 is Unleashed") in the long running series of films that kicked off in 1957 (five years before "Dr. No"). Hollywood leading man Kerwin Mathews returns for the second and last time in the title role of Hubert Barton, the subject of 88 published stories by French author Jean Bruce dating back to 1949, four years before Bond's 1953 debut in Ian Fleming's "Casino Royale." Barton is dispatched to Thailand to replace an assassinated operative on the trail of an organization called 'The People Elect,' elitists out to use a new plague virus in place of vaccines to orchestrate a vast takeover of the entire world, killing huge numbers of animals as well as 'inferior people.' The obsessed villain is established early on as Hindu seer Doctor Sinn (Robert Hossein), whose lovely sister Lila (Pier Angeli) is quick to switch sides when Barton is endangered. Structurally, it truly plays out like a Bond film with OSS 117 briefed by a supervisor before his assignment, then filming on location to ensure authenticity, but even on his second go round in the part one wishes for greater charisma out of Kerwin Mathews, already a Hammer veteran with Christopher Lee's "The Pirates of Blood River" and Jimmy Sangster's "Maniac" on his resume (one more reunion with Pier Angeli for her final movie role, 1971's hideously cheap "Octaman"). Alas, these henchmen prove a bit too easy to defeat, from an intruder who leaps to his death rather than be interrogated, to a scientist falling victim to his own truth serum, revealing all to Barton at roughly the halfway mark; it's still diverting enough and certainly benefits from a rat infested climax, Robert Hossein returning as a different villain in 1968's "OSS 117 Double Agent."