What a waste of my time!!!

Brilliant and touching

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Greedy big business tycoons fighting each other for oil wealth propels a plot that is formulaic, more or less, to those James Bond spy flicks of the 1960s. Here, the most conspicuous villains are females: young, shapely, and sexually alluring.The fantasy script is comic bookish, with absurd action segments, shallow characters that lack a back-story and have no depth; contrived coincidences in timing; witty but too clever dialogue. All of which contribute to entertainment value for viewers who don't mind an almost total absence of realism. But I do mind, and I find the film boring. The clichéd plot elements render a lack of tension, suspense, and mystery. Mostly what the filmmakers seem to want is for male viewers to fixate on the lovely, curvaceous females.Visuals are quite dated. I did like the life-size chess players toward the end. But even the dialogue comes across as dated, like when one character challenges another to a game of chess, the first character announces in a proud voice: " ... the age of computers, Drummond", and up pops the life-size chess props controlled by remote control. The implication is clear; viewers are supposed to be impressed.Casting consists of mostly beautiful people. Richard Johnson, as hero Hugh Drummond, is as boring as the plot. Elke Sommer plays her usual stiff, cold performance, but is less robotic than in other films of hers that I have seen. Mediterranean settings are attractive and nicely filmed. Sound effects are adequate; the opening song and some of the scenes appear to have an interesting echo chamber effect. Film editing is quite good, though the plot seems too long and drawn out; a one-hour run-time would have covered the two or three essentials."Deadlier Than The Male" is typical of spy films made during the 1960s, especially in tone, costumes, and script gimmicks. It's a film that will be nostalgic and entertaining to male baby boomers. I regard it as kind of a cinematic relic.

Several oil executives die in mysterious 'accidents' and each time, an anonymous company is richer by a million pounds. Insurance underwriter Hugh Drummond is called in to investigate. Jimmy Sangster had earlier put Hammer Films on the map by reworking old horror favourites like 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein'. In 1966, he gave Sapper's 'Bulldog Drummond' a Bond make-over. Richard Johnson was well cast; smooth, charming, and sophisticated. The girls are stunningly beautiful, and the film bristles with excitement, invention and good humour. Nigel Green is excellent as Carl Petersen. Some great set-pieces; the underground car park fight is surprisingly violent, while the chessboard finale is straight out of 'The Avengers'. All this plus a cameo by the late, great Leonard Rossiter, and a blinding title song by The Walker Brothers! Wisely, the film doesn't try to compete with the more lavish Bonds such as 'Goldfinger' and 'Thunderball'. Both Drummond films were novelised for Coronet Books by Henry Reymond.

This 1966 adventure flick was quite well done and Richard Johnson seems perfectly cast as the lead. The real treat of this flick is the women: Elke Sommer in a bikini with spear-gun is as attractive as any Bond moment, Suzannah Leigh, and the Italian beauty Sylvia Koscina. Nigel Green is great again as a corrupt adversary and the locations are great. This is a 7 out of 10. Best performance = Elke Sommer.This blows away FATHOM with Raquel Welch. Tough chicks who are easy on the eyes in the mid-60's will always be a joy to watch. Don't sell this one short. Well worth the effort and a pleasant experience. This is definitely available so look for it if you dig those 60's spoofs!

This above-average Bond knockoff deserves to be better known. It's too imitative of the Bond pictures of the time (especially "Thunderball" - minus the underwater scenes), and the plot slows down at times, but Elke Sommer and Sylva Koscina make a terrific pair of sexy, teasing assassins (with Sommer being the sexier one and Koscina the more teasing one). Nigel Green also makes a smooth villain (although he should have hired more guards!). This picture should become more widely available, because although it's not perfect, it's much better than, say, the atrocious pseudo-spoof "Our Man Flint". (**1/2)