Lovely photography, mood, and story telements - shrunken heads, butlers killed, women going mad, leopards.
But the problem is the same as The Uknown the third in the I Love Mystery series - this was the second - in that the two leads are shoehorned in. The heroes are really Anita Louise (woman investigating death of her father whose head may have been shrunk) and Michael Duane.
Still, a kiler leopard gets you a lot of points.
Silly Eurospy spoof from Dino de Laurentiis which gives you everything you need from a Bond spoof - mad villain (Raf Vallone) with outlandish plan, hero agent (Mike Connors), female lead (Dorothy Prvine), exotic locations (Brazil).
Connors is a little dull as a hero but he's offset by Provine and Terry Thomas in an outrageous rip off of Lady Penelope and Parker from Thunderbirds - they're a lot of fun.
Critical reception was hostile, in part I think because so many films like this were then being made. But the time of this genre has passed so we can appreciate that Provine never got another role this fun, and Connors didn't get another chance to run around Brazil, nor did Terry Thomas to play a skilled secret agent.
Launched George Hamilton. Roger Corman had money in it. Interesting rather than good. Good things about it - photography, ambition. Felt a little like Night Tide - low budget, jazz, art hosue links. George Hamilton's performance and character all over the shop - sometimes arrogant, other times idiot, sometimes sympathetic. Why does Mary Murphy's hooker go near him?
Best moments are when the cop interrogates him. Also the creepy guy who leches after Hamilton's sister is effective. But the film is tonally inconsistent. And has too many characters to service - the sister, the mother, the guy, Hamilton's friend. It feels undefrcooked.
Still, worth watching.
The last in the I Love a Mystery trilogy has many wonderful things - splendid photography, sets, Old Dark House atmosphere - and starts very well, but there's not enough plot to justify a feature. Also the two leads, the investigators, don't need to be in the film, they feel shoehorned in. The film gets off to a flying spooky beginning but becomes bogged down.
There's a lot of hammy Southern acting which is part of the fun.
Henry Levin died of a heart attack on the last day of filmng apparently. The film is dedicated to him. I wish it was better. This is dull and slow. Set up has potential - high falutin Katherine Helmond is assigned to manage a scout troupe including Gary Coleman. But Coleman's mischeviousness is restrained, Helmond pulls back. There's no villain, no stakes. The last half hour they're stuck in a cave. There's no life, no vivacity, no fun.
Coleman still has a lot of charisma. He deserved a better vehicle as did Helmond. I probablt would have liked it was an eight year old because I loved Coleman.
Odd sort of late 60s Western from oldies - Henry Levin, Irving Allen, Jack Palance - with the spaghetti influence, also more violence. Levin shoves in lots of scenes of people blasting guns and horse galloping.
Story - Palance is a Southern raider with sons George Maharis and Vince Edwards, going overboard with the killing and raping so Edwards drops out. Years later Palance and Maharis are still running riot and they cross with Edwards.
This was shot in Spain so there are English actors in it -Sylvia Syms doing a topless swim (she went nude a bit, was she ask or offered) as Edwards' wife.
Edwards seems bored - it's not hard to see why he didn't become a star, at least not based on this. Palance hams it up. Maharis is a blank presence. Neville Brandis is a sympathetic marshall.
Down beat - Syms is killed, Palance and Edwards kill each other, a lot of rape.
Feels kind of... stockly nihilistic. Written by Walter Brough who worked with Levin on The Treasure Seekers.
Willard Parker was a third tier leading man who Columbia had under contract for a while. this is a gift for an actor playing a Scarlet Pimpernel type - an aristocrat who robs nobles and gives to the poor This is the time of Louis XVI who appears. There's decent complications - Parker is in love with Anita Louise whose brother George Macready (excellent as always) is an aristocrat, Parker's men don't trust him because he's an aristocrat, ally Janis Carter (hugely fun) becomes a mistress of Louis.
Parker is dull and wooden. There's no difference between the characters. John Loder is a sympathetic Pom. He's also blank. Carter and the support are great; Louise is fine.
A strong story, solid Henry Levin direction. Just let down by its lead.
