Perfect cast and a good story
This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
View MoreOne of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
View MoreThrough painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
View MoreHere is a movie with no redeeming values. It's not interesting. It's not funny. There's no compelling cinematography. The musical score is blah. The script is awful. The acting is bad. The action scenes are meh. Jan Murray, a former SS Nazi, wants Paul Mantee (Dagger) dead. That's the plot. There are several attractive women that are scantily dressed at various points in the film, one of which is Murray's secret weapon under his control. Richard Kiel (Jaws from Bond) makes a couple of appearances as another Murray henchman but is given almost nothing to do. No reason to watch this - no entertainment value.
View More"A Man Called Dagger" has enough craziness and eccentricity to make it stand out somewhat in the crowd of James Bond imitators made in the 1960s. At the same time, it's far from being a total success; for one thing, it's cheaply produced, and for another, there are a few too many long, talky scenes inside cramped rooms (and the talk is of little significance). But there are also some inventive camera movements and angles, and an interesting cast: Paul Mantee is more convincing as an action man than as a babe magnet, but at least he doesn't take himself too seriously, Eileen O'Neil is gorgeous and lovable, Maureen Arthur's squeaky line delivery can be overlooked thanks to her phenomenal bust, and Richard "Jaws" Kiel has a speaking part as - you guessed it! - a superhumanly strong henchman. An uneven film, but it does have its moments. ** out of 4.
View MoreJames Bond is a character often imitated, never duplicated -- especially by this unskilled production which offers spy fans Paul Mantee ("Robinson Crusoe on Mars") as agent Dick Dagger (!) and his female ally, Terry Moore ("Might Joe Young").Mantee is armed with a laser-firing watch, but he doesn't use it often. The villain is played by Jan Murray, whose role wins him the dubious distinction of being the least believable Nazi war criminal in movie history.But the story does succeed in creating a disgusting villain; Murray's meat-packing business is processing meat from human bodies, and he serves a fillet mignon to Mantee obtained from sexy Maureen Arthur! (Yuck). Murray's sexy accomplice is Sue Ann Langdon ("A Guide for the Married Man"). Directed by Richard Rush. Co-star Terry Moore, a former wife of Howard Hughes, later posed for a photo spread in Playboy magazine, looking remarkably good for a woman over fifty.
View MoreRichard Rush is a good director, Paul Mantee is a first-rate character actor, and Eileen O'Neil is spectacularly beautiful besides being a very good actress. Put them together and what do you get? Junk.While low-budget doesn't necessarily mean low quality, in this case it applies. The film's cheapness shows through in practically every frame, and there's not much Mantee or Rush can do about that. With all of the film's many faults, though, there are two that it can't overcome--an incoherent script with holes you can drive a truck through, and an hysterically awful performance by comic Jan Murray. Murray plays a Nazi scientist trying to revive the Third Reich and take over the world from a wheelchair. His "research" for the part must have consisted of watching dozens of old silent movies, as his performance is a virtual carbon copy of the stereotypical nostril-flaring, eye-rolling, teeth-gnashing, hand-flailing ham acting from a cheap melodrama of 1915. After a while you find yourself yelling at the screen, "For God's sake, shut up!" It's almost as bad as watching a Madonna movie.If you're a fan of Paul Mantee (who did such a great job in 1964's "Robinson Crusoe on Mars") or Richard Rush ("The Stunt Man") or just want to stare open-mouthed at the gorgeous Eileen O'Neil, then go ahead and rent this movie. But do yourself a favour--turn the sound off.
View More