Runtime: 106 minutes
Directed by: Alberto De Martino
Starring: Neil Connery (yes, Sean's brother), Daniela Bianchi, Adolfo Celi, and several other people who have appeared in 007 films either once or are regulars
From: Produzione D.S.
I see why Sean Connery's brother Neil did not become a star.
As it is on Amazon Prime and this seemed like the right time to finally check out a movie I've known of for years but never saw (not even when it was an early episode of MST3K), that was last night's activity. For a movie which had the amazing gimmick of being a Eurospy picture starring the brother of the guy who played 007 at the time, Neil was... a plasterer who got fired for losing this tools, and due to this publicity the producers of this film got the idea to cast him as the lead. In other words, he did not have the star power or charisma of older brother Sean.
They went all out in reminding everyone of the familial connection. Neil played... Neil Connery; yes, that's the character's name. In this universe he's not a simple plasterer-oh no, he's a master surgeon, skilled archery competitor, expert lip-reader, and he knows an “exotic” form of hypnosis which of course is quite useful when he is tasked to stop a nefarious plot he stumbled into. The story is rather preposterous and silly; there are many references to Neil having a famous secret agent brother; that's how “subtle” this is. The other noteworthy aspect is the number of actors who have been in 007 movies, from one time only appearances (Adolfo Celi, Daniela Bianchi, Anthony Dawson) to series regulars Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell.
Yet, I did not hate the movie. Honestly, it was too silly for me to get mad at it. I mean, there are some unique setpieces, a finale that involves many archers (that's the official name of someone who does archery) in an underground cave setting, Bianchi leads a clone of Pussy Galore's girl gang, several exotic locations in Europe-along with Morocco-were seen... I was at least entertained. Hell, in one scene Maxwell fires a submachine gun, which is far more than what she ever did as Miss Moneypenny. Given the movie's reputation, I was expecting this to be far worse; thus, this was average overall even with a non-actor in the lead who apparently had to be dubbed by an American because Neil was ill at the time he had to do that task. Heck, there is even a score done by Bruno Nicolai and MORRICONE which usually sounded like a thinly-veiled riff on the standard Bond music, along with an incredibly zany title song known as OK Connery... which is one of the many alternate titles this thing has.
In the future I should check out more Eurospy films as I have a feeling some of them will have their kitschy charms which will be appealing to me. As for Neil Connery, from all reports he's still alive; this was not the only motion picture he did but there were only a few other roles, all minor in comparison. I have no idea what Eon Productions thought of Lee and Maxwell appearing here... I understand Sean was pissed that his brother was roped into a movie where the main draw was the familial connection. At least Neil got to visit several pretty locations and hang out with a bevy of European beauties...
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