Ken Clark was an American actor who, like others, found fame and fortune working in a variety of Euro-films. His most prominent American films for Monster Kids would be 12 TO THE MOON and ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES. Some may remember him from ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS.
Clark hit Europe at an opportune moment. The 1960s was a decade in which the dominant genre trends were peplum, westerns, and spy films, peplum carrying over from the initial success of Steve Reeves' HERCULES, westerns thanks to Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone, and spy films due to James Bond. Clark had the looks and physique to appear in any of these genres and did. After a few peplum films he appeared as the French spy Coplan in FX 18 before toplining a trio of Dick Malloy spy films.
MISSION BLOODY MARY (August, 1965)
This one owes a lot to THUNDERBALL. A pilot is killed so a substitute can take his place. Purpose? To crash a plane in the ocean containing the military's newest weapon, the Bloody Mary, a particularly nasty bomb wanted by the international crime group The Black Lily. Phillippe Hersent, who plays the M equivalent Heston (as in Charlton?), interrupts Malloy's lovemaking to send him on what becomes, in the Bond tradition, a globetrotting mission to recover the Bloody Mary.
Being a co-production between Italy, France, Greece, and Spain we get scenes in each country. An early scene takes place at a sanitarium, another nod to THUNDERBALL, and there's a vicious train fight ala FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. There are a few gadgets but not many. One is a cufflink that houses a knife blade. Something I found a little weird was the number of ten-year-old American cars we see. One of the agency's car is a ten-year-old Chevy. There are also a number of scenes in which Malloy walks into a scene, or exits a scene, and, then, suddenly, someone else steps into the frame or behind him. Clearly impossible as he would have seen them even though we can't because they are simply standing out of frame.
Helga Liné (VAMPIRE'S NIGHT ORGY, THE DRACULA SAGA, HORROR EXPRESS) is Malloy's agent in the field. Erika Blanc is Heston's secretary. The film is directed by Terence Hathaway (Sergio Grieco) another one of those curious pseudonyms that echo other more famous names such as Terence Young and Henry Hathaway. Angelo Lavagnino provided the score. Altogether, a nice entry in the Eurospy derby and apparently successful enough to produce a second episode.
FROM THE ORIENT WITH FURY (September, 1965)
Actually, the close release dates for these two movies suggests they were shot back-to-back or simultaneously. A lot of the scenery -- France, Italy, Spain, Turkey -- suggests the same. Regardless, this adventure, reworking the title of FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE only slightly, finds Malloy on the trail of kidnappers who have made off with a scientist, Professor Kurtz, and his latest invention, a disintegrating ray. The way it works is a little strange. If it's aimed at, say, a machine gun on the ground, it only disintegrates the gun. If it's aimed at five or six gunmen who are spread out, it disintegrates them all. A bit quirky.
In the previous film, Malloy demonstrated that he likes to bust up bars and nightclubs. He gets to do it again in this one, the first near the beginning of the movie. This one has a good cast of well-known European actors. You'll see Evi Marandi (PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES) as Kurtz's daughter, Fabienne Dali (KILL, BABY... KILL), Fernando Sanchez (THE BIG GUNDOWN), Franco Ressel (TRINITY IS STILL MY NAME), Lorenzo Robledo (A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS), and Luciano Pigozzi (THE WHIP AND THE BODY). Phillippe Hersent is back as Malloy's boss Heston. Best of all is Margaret Lee, the English actress who made her name in continental movies and remains largely overlooked today. Unfortunately, she appears late in the movie, robbing us of her pleasurable presence.
People still pop into the frame unexpectedly right after Malloy exits same frame. Could this be a trademark of director Terence Hathaway (Sergio Grieco)? Music this go around is from Piero Piccioni (THE 10TH VICTIM) but is the worst score, I think, of the three 077 films. Gadget-wise we get the cool looking zap rifle, a belt camera with self-developing film, a lighter that shoots poison darts, a black 1950s Chevy with rear-firing twin machine guns, a cigar with a lockpick in it, and an LP with a message on it like MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE although that TV show wouldn't premiere for another year.
Another good one for Eurospy fans.
SPECIAL MISSION LADY CHAPLIN (August, 1966)
The third and last of the Dick Malloy, Agent 077 adventures. This one starts intriguingly with a nun (Daniela Bianchi, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE) entering a monastery and shootin' up the joint. This introduces us to the beautiful Lady Chaplin, known to the public as a fashion stylist but in reality a criminal mastermind and professional assassin who is after 16 Polaris missiles on a sunken U.S. submarine.
This one pays homage to three Bond movies. The most obvious one is featuring Daniela Bianchi, the kind of casting that some other Eurospy movies tried, OK CONNERY (aka OPERATION KID BROTHER) maybe taking the cake in that regard. GOLDFINGER gets a nod when one baddie with a sort of carpet cutter knife instead of a hook gets caught on a fuse box and is electrocuted and again when a steam shovel tractor uses its scoop to crush a car. The underwater scenes and use of a rebreather point to THUNDERBALL. What, no love for DR. NO?
Helga Liné returns in a different role as does Phillippe Hersent as Heston. Jacques Bergerac, as Kobre Zoltan, is a suave, classy villain who enjoys watching scorpions fight it out. Bianchi gets to play a fashion clothes horse with loads of costume changes. She got to play the character again later that year in YOUR TURN TO DIE. Bruno Nicolai's score is the best of the series with a catchy if cheesy main title song. We also get a full pullover face mask in the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE tradition but a month ahead of that TV show's premiere. I think this may be my favorite of the three movies but I enjoy them all. I think most Eurospy fans ought to like them, too.
One thing I've never understood about European films is the propensity of distinctive names that bring to mind other famous filmmakers. I mean, when you choose a name like Robert Widmark, Richard Wyler, or Terence Hathaway do you not realize those are unusual last names, names that will conjure images of better-known celebrities? Or perhaps your goal is to fool some people. It seems pretty crazy to me that they named their main character after the most famous comic movie actor in history. Especially as his last movie was due out in January of the following year and was most likely already being advertised and marketed. But again, maybe that answers the question. It's only tangential that giving their female lead the designation of "Lady" was a prediction of sorts after Oona Chaplin's husband was knighted.
Clark hit Europe at an opportune moment. The 1960s was a decade in which the dominant genre trends were peplum, westerns, and spy films, peplum carrying over from the initial success of Steve Reeves' HERCULES, westerns thanks to Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone, and spy films due to James Bond. Clark had the looks and physique to appear in any of these genres and did. After a few peplum films he appeared as the French spy Coplan in FX 18 before toplining a trio of Dick Malloy spy films.
MISSION BLOODY MARY (August, 1965)
This one owes a lot to THUNDERBALL. A pilot is killed so a substitute can take his place. Purpose? To crash a plane in the ocean containing the military's newest weapon, the Bloody Mary, a particularly nasty bomb wanted by the international crime group The Black Lily. Phillippe Hersent, who plays the M equivalent Heston (as in Charlton?), interrupts Malloy's lovemaking to send him on what becomes, in the Bond tradition, a globetrotting mission to recover the Bloody Mary.
Being a co-production between Italy, France, Greece, and Spain we get scenes in each country. An early scene takes place at a sanitarium, another nod to THUNDERBALL, and there's a vicious train fight ala FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. There are a few gadgets but not many. One is a cufflink that houses a knife blade. Something I found a little weird was the number of ten-year-old American cars we see. One of the agency's car is a ten-year-old Chevy. There are also a number of scenes in which Malloy walks into a scene, or exits a scene, and, then, suddenly, someone else steps into the frame or behind him. Clearly impossible as he would have seen them even though we can't because they are simply standing out of frame.
Helga Liné (VAMPIRE'S NIGHT ORGY, THE DRACULA SAGA, HORROR EXPRESS) is Malloy's agent in the field. Erika Blanc is Heston's secretary. The film is directed by Terence Hathaway (Sergio Grieco) another one of those curious pseudonyms that echo other more famous names such as Terence Young and Henry Hathaway. Angelo Lavagnino provided the score. Altogether, a nice entry in the Eurospy derby and apparently successful enough to produce a second episode.
FROM THE ORIENT WITH FURY (September, 1965)
Actually, the close release dates for these two movies suggests they were shot back-to-back or simultaneously. A lot of the scenery -- France, Italy, Spain, Turkey -- suggests the same. Regardless, this adventure, reworking the title of FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE only slightly, finds Malloy on the trail of kidnappers who have made off with a scientist, Professor Kurtz, and his latest invention, a disintegrating ray. The way it works is a little strange. If it's aimed at, say, a machine gun on the ground, it only disintegrates the gun. If it's aimed at five or six gunmen who are spread out, it disintegrates them all. A bit quirky.
In the previous film, Malloy demonstrated that he likes to bust up bars and nightclubs. He gets to do it again in this one, the first near the beginning of the movie. This one has a good cast of well-known European actors. You'll see Evi Marandi (PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES) as Kurtz's daughter, Fabienne Dali (KILL, BABY... KILL), Fernando Sanchez (THE BIG GUNDOWN), Franco Ressel (TRINITY IS STILL MY NAME), Lorenzo Robledo (A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS), and Luciano Pigozzi (THE WHIP AND THE BODY). Phillippe Hersent is back as Malloy's boss Heston. Best of all is Margaret Lee, the English actress who made her name in continental movies and remains largely overlooked today. Unfortunately, she appears late in the movie, robbing us of her pleasurable presence.
People still pop into the frame unexpectedly right after Malloy exits same frame. Could this be a trademark of director Terence Hathaway (Sergio Grieco)? Music this go around is from Piero Piccioni (THE 10TH VICTIM) but is the worst score, I think, of the three 077 films. Gadget-wise we get the cool looking zap rifle, a belt camera with self-developing film, a lighter that shoots poison darts, a black 1950s Chevy with rear-firing twin machine guns, a cigar with a lockpick in it, and an LP with a message on it like MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE although that TV show wouldn't premiere for another year.
Another good one for Eurospy fans.
SPECIAL MISSION LADY CHAPLIN (August, 1966)
The third and last of the Dick Malloy, Agent 077 adventures. This one starts intriguingly with a nun (Daniela Bianchi, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE) entering a monastery and shootin' up the joint. This introduces us to the beautiful Lady Chaplin, known to the public as a fashion stylist but in reality a criminal mastermind and professional assassin who is after 16 Polaris missiles on a sunken U.S. submarine.
This one pays homage to three Bond movies. The most obvious one is featuring Daniela Bianchi, the kind of casting that some other Eurospy movies tried, OK CONNERY (aka OPERATION KID BROTHER) maybe taking the cake in that regard. GOLDFINGER gets a nod when one baddie with a sort of carpet cutter knife instead of a hook gets caught on a fuse box and is electrocuted and again when a steam shovel tractor uses its scoop to crush a car. The underwater scenes and use of a rebreather point to THUNDERBALL. What, no love for DR. NO?
Helga Liné returns in a different role as does Phillippe Hersent as Heston. Jacques Bergerac, as Kobre Zoltan, is a suave, classy villain who enjoys watching scorpions fight it out. Bianchi gets to play a fashion clothes horse with loads of costume changes. She got to play the character again later that year in YOUR TURN TO DIE. Bruno Nicolai's score is the best of the series with a catchy if cheesy main title song. We also get a full pullover face mask in the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE tradition but a month ahead of that TV show's premiere. I think this may be my favorite of the three movies but I enjoy them all. I think most Eurospy fans ought to like them, too.
One thing I've never understood about European films is the propensity of distinctive names that bring to mind other famous filmmakers. I mean, when you choose a name like Robert Widmark, Richard Wyler, or Terence Hathaway do you not realize those are unusual last names, names that will conjure images of better-known celebrities? Or perhaps your goal is to fool some people. It seems pretty crazy to me that they named their main character after the most famous comic movie actor in history. Especially as his last movie was due out in January of the following year and was most likely already being advertised and marketed. But again, maybe that answers the question. It's only tangential that giving their female lead the designation of "Lady" was a prediction of sorts after Oona Chaplin's husband was knighted.
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