Why so much hype?

Good start, but then it gets ruined

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

I have always been nostalgic about this Euro-Spy film. When very young, I picked up the soundtrack (which is still available if you look for it) and used to listen and dream about exotic locales, adventure, and of course about that special woman that would be a part of it all. I especially like(d) the Ray Anthony song "Love was Right Here all the Time" which plays at the end against a dark screen when the audience is supposed to leave the theater. Just minutes earlier the leading man, Horst Bucholz, had given his heart to the leading lady, then winked at the audience and confided verbally: "It happens to everyone sooner or later." Many in the audience must have smiled and left the matinée filled with no little amount of delight and renewed hope! Also available are lobby cards and a few B&W photos from the movie. If this movie was ever released on VHS in North America, I'm totally unaware of it. In Europe, yes, but apparently many years ago. I finally acquired a copy of this film, dubbed in English, and with Greek subtitles in DVD which had either been taken off Greek television, or a European VHS. My nostalgia was only increased by spending a week in Istanbul myself, as part of the People-to-People Program for "Student Ambassadors," five years after the movie came out. It is Istanbul as I remember it. Twenty-six years later I again journeyed across Turkey and can say that old, freer, almost magical feel that once was Istanbul was largely gone, and the same can be said for all the islands and seacoasts of the Eastern Mediterranean region. So, for me the movie is a fun and romantic snapshot in time.

I caught this last week on the German 3rd / regional channel RBB, unaccountably included on a Spanish hotel cable TV service. Unfortunately for me, with a lot of work to do the following day, I couldn't bear to turn it off, so got to bed rather late. Why? Because as most of the other reviewers have noted, it's really rather good. The action just keeps flowing and the entirely watchable cast imbue the whole thing with a decent slickness.Spanish director Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi captured the emerging glamour/spy zeitgeist with style, underpinned with a workmanlike eye for detail (I forgive him the wrecked car replacements, I'm sure the budget was not over generous). The occasional asides of the Tony Mecenas hero are fine in the context of the time and probably soften the otherwise implausibly super-human aspects of the character. It's a technique already pioneered in similar genres, e.g. Roger Moore's "The Saint".Mid-sixties Istanbul comes across as very Euro-Mediterranean and serves as an excellent backdrop for most of the action. The plot was a satisfying mix of set pieces (meaning that one felt at home with the genre) and unexpected twists (meaning that there was no way the viewer could foresee the eventual outcome). Like a number of other reviewers, I also found the relatively low profile of Sylva Koscina for much of the action to be a bit of a shame, having fallen for her somewhat after watching the excellent "Deadlier Than The Male" recently.P.S. Retro-discovering these decently constructed sixties Euro-thrillers, particularly those made totally outside the Anglo-American sphere, has become a real pleasure in recent years.

This is one of the best action spy thrillers I saw, and believe me I've seen a lot.Even by today's standards, it would be good, provided someone cared to restore it's brightly colour, perfect editing, and natural sound. The alternate soundless shots of a knife fight inside the hotel swimming pool, where he can see each detail of two athletic actors actually going at it, and the merry sounds of tourists on the esplanade above while still unawares of the drama close-by, has NEVER been recreated in any film, possibly because it was too much trouble, or there were no Horst Buccholz and Mario Adorf around.The dialog was OK, and true grit, real lines, and delivered with realism. In that not only Buccholz was good, but the other actors, too, therefore grabbing the spectator into a quite realistic scenario. The story develops from a predictable ending into something quite different, therefore we miss the presence of Koscina in the later part of the story, but it is all for the best of the film.The director was defending his name and career, but also his money in more ways than one, as he was one of the producers investing in the project through Isasi (Barcelona, Spain). It is a pity that there was never a VHS around that I know of, and that no DVD is made of such a precious B jewel.

With the explosion of James Bond on to the film world in the early 1960's every producer tried to duplicate that genre. This multinational European effort is relatively fast paced and doesn't take itself too seriously. A $ I million ransom has been paid for kidnapped American nuclear scientist Dr. Pendergast (Umberto Raho) but he has not been returned. American secret agent Kenny (Sylvia Koscina) goes to Istanbul, Turkey to investigate. There she teams up with expatriate American gambling club owner Tony Maecenas (Horst Buchholz) and his henchman Brain (Gustavo Re) and Bogo (Alvaro de Luna). They trace the missing scientist through a trail of villains; from Hansi (Gerard Tichy) to Gunther (Agustin Gonzalez) to Bill (Mario Adorf) to Schenck (Klaus Kinski). Along the way they compete with Chinese agents and rescue a kidnapped heiress Elisabeth (Perrette Pradier). Trust me, reading the plot here is a lot clearer than trying to follow the movie!One of the attractions of this movie is the continuous action. It keeps moving, covers a number of locales (i.e. gambling clubs, mosques, ferries, public baths, hotel pools, boats) and involves a lot of fights. While obviously not having the budget of the James Bond movies it does its best to exploit the Istanbul scenery.The movies doesn't take itself to seriously and Tony is a font of one liners. Whether you enjoy the movie is largely dependent on how to like Buchholz's performance. Another commentator described him as "annoyingly smug" and, if you don't relate to the tongue in cheek humor, that is how you may find him. Koscina starts off as central to the movie but quickly fades into the background as action scenes with Buchholz take over. The performances of the other actors are hard to judge given that you have German, Italian and Spanish actors dubbed into English. However I enjoyed, who wouldn't, the impeccably dressed and throughly nasty Kinski. I can't really comment on the technical credits inasmuch as the video copy was very "washed out" but, even when I have seen it on TV, I have yet to see a really decent print.The imitation James Bond sub-genre have their own rules and by that standard this faced paced and action filled film is an acceptable treat.