Hey pallies, likes we warmly welcome all youse Dino-philes back for yet 'nother hot hot hot helpin' of the deepest of deep Dino-devotion...Dino-as-Helmer style by one of the grandest of grand, swankest of swank scribers of Dino-appreciato, none other then Mr. Brian Hannan at his beau-ti-ful blogger personal pad, "The Magnificent 60s."
Likes this most recent incredible installment of Dino-action has Bri puttin' the awesome accent on Helmer numero tres, "The Ambushers. Hannan gives 'nother stellar summation of our Dino havin' fun with the lovely ladies while incredibly immersin' himself in the liquid libation commonly known as beer.
Likes pallies, Bri once 'gain speaketh Dino-truths of the purest of pures pleasures of our most beloved Dino as the swingin'est of swingin' spysters, Matt Helm. ilovedinomartin gives keen kudos to Mr. Brian Hannan for puttin' such an awesome accent on our King of Cool, our Master of Hip, our Ruler of Randy...our one, our only Dino. To checks this out in it's original source at Bri's powerful pad, "The Magnificant 60s," simply clicks on the tag of this here Dino-report.
We remain,
Yours in Dino,
Dino Martin Peters
The Magnificent 60s by Brian Hannan
The Ambushers (1967) ***
Don’t get too hung up on the supposed rampant sexism in this third iteration the Matt Helm series. These women – bikini-clad or not – are weaponized to the hilt rather than our hero Matt Helm (Dean Martin) who has to make do with a gun disguised as a camera. In fact, he makes pretty good use of the gadget created for the females – the one that melts metal, designed to get rid of the clasp on men’s belts, forcing their trousers to fall down, which, as any student of farce knows, is the easiest way to disable the male.
There’s also a weapon triggered from a bra and a sedative concealed inside lipstick so that males seduced into intimacy will soon be snookered. And it’s also a woman, secret agent Sheila (Janice Rule), who’s impervious to the electromagnetic waves which kill off the opposite gender. Of course, to be fair, it’s not Matt Helm we see sinuously dancing around a playboy mansion in Acapulco the way the women do, although for Francesca (Senta Berger) that appears a clever method of entering the enemy’s lair. Who’s going to question another sexy dancing queen? And the bad guy has one of those devices that make the zips on female attire unzip. (James Bond purloined that one.) But it’s Matt who has the ideal rescue weapon, the levitation gun.
If you’re looking for a more male-oriented theme, how about beer? At various points Matt Helm is literally swimming in the stuff. I wouldn’t have been at all surprised had the plot concerned beer manufacturer Ortega (Albert Salmi) planning world domination through poisoning the global supply of beer or arming his beer gals with bullet-spraying bras. Even though this is largely a spoof, more so than the first in the series, it’s not that much of a spoof and Ortega has more serious intent. Using lasers, he’s hijacked the U.S. Government’s secret flying saucer and plans to sell it to the highest bidder.
Sheila, the pilot, also hijacked, has gone off piste after her experience, and is thrown together with Matt Helm as husband-and-wife, a role they previously played on another mission, to hunt down the villain and recover the missing spaceship. Francesca is also after same, and happy to seduce, trick or sedate Matt in order to achieve that end. Despite believing (from the previous encounter) that she is still Matt’s wife, Stella, despite an instant blow-up tent being laid on, takes a while to understand her duties include getting hot’n’heavy even if she’s less comfortable in the bikini department. Eventually, Matt and Sheila team up with Francesca. Turns out she works for supervillain Big O but is first to find the flying saucer.
More than the earlier entries in the series, this one relies on a series of unlikely events. The switcheroos when the lights in the train go out. But the firing squad sequence is hilarious. The in-jokes about Dean Martin’s recording rivals continue, but the bevy of bikini girls disappear from view pretty much after the opening section.
Janice Rule (Alvarez Kelly, 1966) is generally seen as a class above the previous female leads in the series but that would only be if you ignored Ann-Margret’s performance in Once a Thief (1965), the Stella Stevens of Rage (1966), the Senta Berger of The Quiller Memorandum (1966) and especially the stunning playing of Daliah Lavi in The Demon (1964). Dean Martin was on the cusp of much finer work in Rough Night in Jericho (1967) and Firecreek (1968) so this might just have been a warm-up.
Directed by Henry Levin (Genghis Khan) from a screenplay by Herbert Baker based on the Donald Hamilton novel.
Doesn’t take it itself seriously, which is just as well.
