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Dean Martin returns as men's magazine photographer and part-time secret agent Matt Helm, in this, the last, weakest and most notoriously sexist of the whole leering, dirty-minded series. The plot, what there is of it, involves the recovery of a billion dollars worth of gold bullion; but the story is just a mechanism to string together a series of scenes of Dino smarming his way into the boudoirs of a bevy of beauties (Tina Louise, Nancy Kwan, Elke Sommer), hoping to tease information out of them. Sharon Tate, in one of her last screen appearances, reprises Stella Stevens' klutzy sidekick part from The Silencers, but, like the movie as a whole, does not quite hit the right note with it, making for a hit and miss performance. The whole exercise is silly beyond belief, the usual jokes about Dean/Matt's drinking and womanizing fall flat and Dean himself was beginning to look a little old for an action hero. Plus, the sets and settings looked a bit cheap and stage-bound for what was supposed to be an international action hit. What 'entertainment' value there is here involves the camera lingering on the legs and cleavages of Dean's shapely co-stars, and the tight plot from Don Hamilton's novel is a dog-eared illogical mess by the time it hit the screen. Any true action-suspense fan will rapidly develop a headache from the gaps and gaffs in the logic of what is left of the plot.
The final credits advertise a fifth Matt Helm adventure - The Ravagers - which was never made. Clearly, the public, the studio and Dino himself must have been tiring of the whole business by this point.
score 5/10
dave13-1 19 July 2008
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1914060/ |
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10-3-2021 04:54:18