Still, Dean Martin makes this picture work and it’s hard to deny his charm and his ability to command the screen and make his audience smile along with him.

Hey pallies, likes here we are with our third and last intriguin' installment of powerfully pure Dino-lovin' by the unnamed blogger who calls "Talking Pulp" his personal pad.  Likes this wise writer of Dino-prose is in accord that Helmer tres in his words "falls off a bit" and not up to the bright brilliance of the first two in the Dino-series.

That said, this Dino-phile still has more rad reflections on our Dino as Helm....

Still, Dean Martin makes this picture work and it’s hard to deny his charm and his ability to command the screen and make his audience smile along with him.

Sure, we get to see Dean Martin hamming it up and flirting with good looking ladies at the agency’s HQ in the first act...

This Dino-delighter's thoughts are fewer 'cause as he sez, "The Ambushers is certainly a step down."  We likes a guy who speaks the Dino-truth and indeed the third installment of the Helms is the weakest link in the Dino-chain of the Helmers.   Likes once 'gain Mr. Talking Pulp" is on the Dino-mark and we eagerly awake a review of the last of the Helmers, "The Wrecking Crew."

ilovedinomartin is greatly grateful to have fantastically found and sweetly shared this trio of Dino-grams showin' so so much Dino-insight on and Dino-devotion to our one, our only Dino as swingin' spyster Matt Helm.  Thanks yet 'gain Mr. Talking Pulp for spreadin' so so much Dino-love with your remarkable readership so we coulda pass it on to our ilovedinomartin readership as well.
To checks this out in it's original format, simply clicks on the tag of this Dino-gram.

We Remain,

Yours In Dino,

Dino Martin Peters

Film Review: The Ambushers (1967)

June 11, 2019 by Talking Pulp in Film Review, Reviews and tagged 1960s, 1967, action, adventure, comedy, crime, Dean Martin, drama, film, Matt Helm, review, sci-fi, spy, thriller, Tiki

Release Date: December 20th, 1967 (Chicago premiere)
Directed by: Henry Levin
Written by: Herbert Baker
Based on: The Ambushers by Donald Hamilton
Music by: Herbert Baker, Hugo Montenegro
Cast: Dean Martin, Senta Berger, Janice Rule, James Gregory, Albert Salmi, Kurt Kasznar, Beverly Adams, John Brascia

Columbia Pictures, 102 Minutes

Review:

[a new female recruit gets turned on by Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night” playing in the background] “You really like Perry Como that much?” – Matt Helm

The first two Matt Helm films were a lot of fun and really capture the magic and charisma of Dean Martin. I thought the first two were pretty consistent, overall. This one, however, falls off a bit and it looks as if the formula is running out of steam.

Still, Dean Martin makes this picture work and it’s hard to deny his charm and his ability to command the screen and make his audience smile along with him.

As far as the story goes, this one was weak. It features a government made UFO for some reason and a lot of wacky stuff that doesn’t work as well as the wacky stuff we saw in the installments before this chapter in the franchise.

Also, the intro to the film and the title are confusing, as we’re introduced to the idea of this all female assault team called “The Ambushers” but really, they don’t exist in the film in any sort of meaningful way to justify the title or the movie’s awesome opening credits sequence.

Sure, we get to see Dean Martin hamming it up and flirting with good looking ladies at the agency’s HQ in the first act but once he’s off to Mexico, that’s pretty much it for Dean Martin being a guy in a sea of hot women.

The film does have some strengths apart from Martin.

I thought that the Mexican brewery shootout and fisticuffs were well done and the environment was used superbly within the sequence.

Also, the big climax was well written, well structured, executed nicely and pretty energetic. It had a lot of good hilarious bits in it and it sort of makes up for the duller parts of the film.

Now there aren’t many dull moments but the film feels as if they blew most of the good jokes in the first two pictures and didn’t have a lot left to work into this one. But Martin did his best.

I thought the special effects came off well. There is a lot of cheese with it though, like the sparkler guns that levitate objects and the weirdly out of place UFO but some of the levitation gags worked. Well, except for the parts where you could clearly see wires lifting up people and objects. I was pretty impressed with how well the bar scene came out though. The sequence with the bottle pouring and the floating glasses moving across the room and into people’s hands looked perfect.

The Ambushers is certainly a step down. But it still entertains and keeps the party going.

Rating: 7/10
Pairs well with: The Silencers, Murderers’ Row or The Wrecking Crew: the other Matt Helm films.