Eurospy film
Eurospy films is a nickname for the genre of European international co-production films that imitated and spoofed the James Bond 007 series of films. The Eurospy genre was highly prolific in the years from the end of 1964 when Goldfinger was released until 1967 following the release of You Only Live Twice or the demise of the international popularity of the sword and sandal genre and the rise of the spaghetti western. They often featured American and British stars in the lead.[1]
Examples
Some European stars and their films were renamed and retitled to cash in on the superspy craze. For example Jesus Franco's or "Jess Frank"'s 1964 La Muerte Silba un Blues was later retitled 077 Operation Jamaica or 077 Operation Sexy with star Conrado San Martín rechristened "Sean Martin" to evoke images of Sean Connery and Dean Martin (who played Matt Helm). Germany's fictional hero Rolf Torring's film Der Fluch des Schwarzen Rubin was retitled Agente S3S Operazinie Uranio.[2]
France and Italy
So many French and Italian films used "007" that United Artists told the Italian film industry that only James Bond could be 007, and threatened legal action.[3]
Notable examples are the French OSS 117 André Hunebelle series based on the Jean Bruce character [4] and Claude Chabrol's Tiger series, the German Kommissar X and Jerry Cotton series, and various Italian imitations such as the Secret Agent 077 series with Ken Clark in the lead. 008: Operation Exterminate (1965) from director Umberto Lenzi features the first female Bond-type hero. Lenzi also made Last Man to Kill (1966) and The Spy who Loved Flowers (1966), both starring Roger Browne.
CIA agent Bob Fleming is in a trio of Italian films, Secret Agent Fireball also titled Da 077: le spie uccidono a Beirut (1965), Killers are Challenged aka A 077, sfida ai killers (1966), directed by Antonio Margheriti, and Fury in Marrakesh, aka Furia a Marrakech (1966). Margheriti made one other spy film, Lightning Bolt, aka Operazione Goldman (1966).
Bruno Corbucci's James Tont series starring Lando Buzzanca[5] is the earliest Italian comedy series based on 007. James Tont operazione U.N.O. (1965) features a female character named "Goldsinger" and underwater sequences that echo Thunderball. This was quickly followed by the sequel James Tont operazione D.U.E. aka The Wacky World of James Tont (1965). Corbucci also wrote the screenplays for Kiss Kiss - Bang Bang (1966) and the Derek Flint parody Il vostro super agente Flit (1966).
Dino De Laurentiis's Italian–American international co-production Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die was filmed in Rio de Janeiro using an American director and an Anglo-American cast (Mike Connors, Terry-Thomas, et al.) and a higher budget than most Eurospy films. A touchstone of this series of films was OK Connery (1967) which featured Neil Connery as the lead who was the brother of the then-James Bond actor Sean Connery as well as featuring many other actors who appeared in the James Bond series.
French film star Jean Marais starred in the French-Italian The Reluctant Spy (1963) and Killer Spy (1965). American actor Ray Danton made two French films, Code Name: Jaguar (1965), Secret Agent Super Dragon (1966), and the Spanish-Italian 007 parody Lucky, el intrépido aka Lucky, the Inscrutable (1966) directed by Jesús Franco. Franco also made The Girl from Rio (1969).
British actor Stewart Granger starred in Target for Killing (1966) and Requiem for a Secret Agent (Italy, 1966) along with Daniela Bianchi. In addition to the James Bond film From Russia with Love (1963), Bianchi made the Italian spy films Code Name: Tiger (1964), Special Mission Lady Chaplin (1966), and two 007 parodies: Balearic Caper (1966), and O.K. Connery aka Operation Kid Brother (1967).
Marilù Tolo was in three Italian productions, Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die (1966), Perry Grant, agente di ferro (1966), and Judoka-Secret Agent (1966). And Luciana Paluzzi from Thunderball (1965) also made the French-Italian OSS 117 - Double Agent (1968).
British films
Daliah Lavi, best known for her two American 007 spoofs The Silencers (1966) and Casino Royale (1967), was in Shots in 3/4 Time (Germany, 1965) and British films The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966) and Some Girls Do (1969), starring Richard Johnson. He starred in Danger Route (1967) and Deadlier Than the Male (1967), the latter with Sylvia Koscina. She made two other British films, Agent 8 3/4 (1964) and Bang! Bang! You're Dead! aka Our Man in Marrakesh (1966) and two Italian productions, That Man in Istanbul (1965) and Agent X-77 Orders to Kill (1966).
Other British-made films include Master Spy (1964), The Quiller Memorandum (1966), and Subterfuge (1968) starring Gene Barry. The parody Licensed to Kill aka The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World (1965), directed by Lindsay Shonteff, featured Bond-like agent Charles Vine. This was followed by two sequels: Where the Bullets Fly (1966), directed by John Gilling, and an obscure Spanish production O.K. Yevtushenko (1968). Shonteff went on to direct three more films with a similar spy named "Charles Bind": Number One of the Secret Service (1970), Licensed to Love and Kill aka The Man from S.E.X. (1979), and Number One Gun (1990). Michael Caine played the spy Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File (1965), and four sequels.
Christopher Frayling, who estimated the number of Eurospy films at 50, felt that they passed on such traits to the Spaghetti Western as emphasis on the technology of death, such as special weapons, the anonymity of the protagonist, the "money=power" equation of the villains and humorous asides that released the audience's laughter after a violent sequence.[6]
Post-sixties parodies
Two French films, 2006's OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (set in 1955) and 2009's OSS 117: Lost in Rio (set in 1967) both recreate the style of the period and parody the spy genre for a new audience.
The American Austin Powers (film series) (1997-2002) of three comedies starring Mike Myers are set in the 1960s and 1970s. The trio parodies James Bond and other Eurospy films. Michael Caine, as a character similar to his Harry Palmer role (The Ipcress File, et al.), plays Powers' father in the third film, Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).
Notes
- ^ Blake, Matt & Deal, David. The Eurospy Guide, Luminary Press, 2004
- ^ Der Fluch des schwarzen Rubin (1965) at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Chapman, James. Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films, I. B. Tauris, 2007
- ^ http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.oss117.org/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=10&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522oss%2B117%2522%26hl%3Den
- ^ p. 126 Biederman, Danny. The Incredible World of Spy-Fi: Wild and Crazy Spy Gadgets, Props and Artifacts from TV and the Movies, Chronicle Books, 2004
- ^ p. 92 Frayling, Christopher. Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone, I.B. Taurus, 2006. See Karl May and Sergio Leone.
References
- Blake, Matt & Deal, David. The Eurospy Guide, Luminary Press, 2004
- Giusti, Marco. 007 all'Italiana, Isbn Edizioni, 2010
- Magni, Daniele. Segretissimi, guida agli spy-movie italiani anni '60, Bloodbuster edizioni, 2010 ISBN 978-88-902087-3-7 (Italian)
