What a waste of my time!!!

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Patrick O'Neal, of "The Kremlin Letter" (1970), here is some kind of skinny James Bond, who gets more punches than he gives, but, from time to time, he's invisible. Ira von Fürstenberg, who looks like a twin sister of Margaret Lee, is Arabella, kind of Bond girl. Donald Pleasence, post original Bond, makes a caricature of a villain. So does Henry Silva, a bad character parody. Nicoletta Machiavelli, who looks very good in this movie, is helping Henry Silva. All are spies and spies one another, American, Russian, Chinese, the whole planet etc. One half spies the other half... The music is signed by the great Ennio Morricone but it's not great. Director is master Alberto Lattuada, who has made many good films, including two absolute masterpieces: "Lights of Variety" (along with Fellini) and "Mafioso" with the great Alberto Sordi. Another interesting movie made by him is "Fraulein Doktor". This one is neither a masterpiece nor stupid. It's worth seeing if you like Bond parodies and for the sake of the stars.

Disclaimer: the DVD-R print of "Matchless" that I watched was atrocious. I am used to lower-than-normal print quality when it comes to these obscure movies, but this one was borderline unwatchable. Let's hope it gets an official DVD release some day. It's an amusing little spy comedy, which also contains a classic element of the fantastic cinema (invisibility), as well as some innovative action sequences (at one point, our hero hangs on at the BOTTOM of a moving train; at another point, he lands his car on the TOP of a moving train!). However, you get the feeling that "Matchless" does not really exploit all the comic possibilities of the invisibility gimmick; "Abbott and Costello Meet The Invisible Man" did it better. Patrick O'Neal is a likably understated lead, Donald Pleasence is well-cast as the vain and eccentric villain, and Ira Von Furstenberg tries on a variety of provocative, barely-there outfits; her face is gorgeous and her body is magnificent - she has the most perfect abs ever! ** out of 4.

Wonderful mindless fun entertainment. Goofy plot, passable acting, clumsy dialog, but it is the kind of movie that doesn't ask much of the viewer, and viewers shouldn't ask much of it except for a bit of fun. I had fun. There is a wonderful bad guy, there are beautiful women like in the James Bond films, and there is a rather hapless quasi-Bond type who gets caught up in the intrigue. This is a film in the 1960s spoof genre, with its chase scenes, cars, planes, helicopters, parachutes, kites, boats, and on and on. It pokes fun at the James Bond type of movie, while at the same time having a bit of its own espionage action, just enough that the film could stand on its own (shakily) as a spy/seduction movie. This is worth renting if you can get it. It is too bad they don't make more of this fun entertainment these days.

A Euro production that calls upon the talents of people like Patrick O'Neal, Donald Pleasence and the consummate movie and TV bad guy, Henry Silva, can't be all bad, which it isn't.A spaghetti spy flick spoof, which starts with the inheritance of a mystical ring containing a drug which can enable the wearer invisible (but not their clothes, leading to usually interesting rematerialization scenes), and can only be used every ten hours, leads to a manhunt for our titular hero as he is pursued for the ring throughout Europe by every single government espionage agency on the Earth, as well as his backstabbing, sleazy partner (Silva) who provides a great deal of comic relief during the chase. Nothing tremendous in storytelling, it serves as a light hearted romp for the stars.