I wanted to but couldn't!

An Exercise In Nonsense

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Fluffy day glo spy spoof for those who don't take their action/adventure too seriously. Dean Martin plays the part of Matt Helm with his typical laid back swagger which is just right for the featherweight material. Not as reliant on gadgetry as the 007 series, probably due to budgetary restraints, this still has some cool set pieces and that swingin' 60's atmosphere. It also has that same 60's sensibility to it's female characters namely viewing them as sex objects and little else, if you're willing to take that into consideration before viewing this is a pleasant way to pass a little time. Aside from Dean the cast is full of beautiful women. Two of those knockouts, Tina Louise, fresh from Gilligan's Island, is in and out of the film in under ten minutes, and Nancy Kwan's part doesn't require much more than her looking great in psychedelic dresses and doing karate chops. It's the other two ladies who make an impact despite the script's rather weak efforts to provide them with anything to work with. Elke Sommer, phenomenally beautiful, manages to be silkily devilish in one stunning outfit after another. The real standout is Sharon Tate as the klutzy but endearing Freya Carlson. This was the tragic beauty's penultimate role before her murder and coupled with her amusing performance in the previous year's Don't Make Waves it shows that she had a very real talent for comedy add into that her lovely looks and she could have had a solid career ahead of her as a glamorous comedienne. Of the four films in the Matt Helm series the first The Silencers is probably the best but this one is a close second.

The movie is fantastic in its execution, not its substance, but it was never intended to be serious. The movie has all the glamor, and opulence that only American movies seems to be able to deliver. The choice of color, the character, and of course the girls.Dean Martin's Matt Helm was a product of the swinging '60s, and it's a beautiful movie in its own way. I wish that the modern movies had more of this kind of opulence to its style. Why not live a little like the way these people did ?It's intentionally silly, but if you take away the silly it still has the glamor like nothing you see these days. The movie is worth seeing for this alone.Elke Sommer, and Sharon Tate were beautiful, and we don't see beauties like this anymore either.

The final film in the 'Matt Helm' ( Dean Martin ) franchise saw a few interesting changes. The spy fad was all but over, so it was decided to make 'The Wrecking Crew' more of a caper movie akin to 'The Italian Job'. It opens with the hijacking in Denmark of a train carrying one billion dollars in gold bullion. It is panic time on the world's money markets, so I.C.E. sends for its best agent ( guess who ). The only lead is a beautiful gypsy dancer named Lola Medina ( Tina Louise ), ex-girlfriend of Count Massimo Contini, a multi-millionaire dreaming of becoming a multi-billionaire. Lola claims that Contini is behind the heist. Equipped with a do-it-yourself helicopter, a camera that bellows incapacitating gas, and explosive handkerchiefs, Matt flies out to Copenhagen, knowing that MacDonald has broken his cover...After a run of two ( outrageous ) movies scripted by Herbert Baker and directed by Henry Levin, crime novelist William McGivern and director Phil Karlson ( who launched the series five years earlier with 'The Silencers' ) brought Matt down to Earth. Out went 'BIG O', 'Lovey Kravezit', and the sci-fi paraphernalia. Donald Hamilton's book was unfilmable - set in Sweden, it had Matt on a manhunt to find a killer named 'Caselius' - so the movie was replotted. Unfortunately, the new story was not much better, lacking in excitement and wit. It was also riddled with longueurs ( such as the Lola/Linka/Yu-Rang seduction scenes ). The Bruce Lee-supervised karate fights look suspiciously like an attempt to cash in on 'Our Man Flint'. The excellent Nigel Green was evil genius 'Carl Petersen' in 'Deadlier Than The Male' ( 1966 ), which starred Richard Johnson as 'Bulldog Drummond'. But Contini is nowhere near as interesting, and does little apart from issue threats and stare at television screens ( one of his henchmen is a young Chuck Norris ).As for Dino, by this time, he was looking more than a little heavy and tired, despite his sun tan and trendy suits. He moves and speaks so slowly at times you think he's impersonating Frankenstein's monster. When Freya ( Sharon Tate ) accidentally bumps into Matt's car, we get: FREYA: Mr.Helm, our cars are stuck. MATT: What? FREYA: We're stuck. MATT: We're stuck? FREYA: Yes. MATT: Good! FREYA: Is that all you've got to say? And with that, she walks off in a huff. Hard to believe someone got paid for writing such drivel. Nancy Kwan's 'Yu-Rang' should have been excised from the script and Elke Sommer's ( 'Irma Eckman' in 'Deadlier Than The Male' ) 'Linka Karensky' beefed up to become the movie's main femme fatale. Of the women only Sharon Tate makes an impression as accident-prone British agent 'Freya Carlson', while John Larch shines in his few scenes as MacDonald. Nice to see him getting in a punch or two.Hugo Montenegro's sub-Bacharach score grates dreadfully, particularly the la-la-la-la-la cue heard whenever Tate goofs. The opening theme contains the ( politically incorrect ) refrain: 'Ah-so, ah-so, vedy vedy nice!'. Oh boy! On the plus side, the film is beautifully photographed by Sam Leavitt ( who had earlier worked on 'Murderers' Row' ), and has some impressive helicopter action. I liked the scene in 'The House Of Seven Joys' club when Matt's table and seat suddenly spins around, taking him to Contini's lair. It preempts a similar scene in 'Live & Let Die' four years later. Dean was booked for one more romp - 'The Ravagers' - but hung up his camera and gun for good after this. 'Matt Helm' would next be seen on television, in a short-lived series starring Tony Franciosa.Sharon Tate was brutally murdered by the Manson Family soon after completing the film. 'The Wrecking Crew' was both a sad epitaph to her career and the Matt Helm series.

The 4th and final M. Helm film, this is definitely the bottom of the barrel, except for the lovely and funny Sharon Tate near the end of career. There are other babes as well: Elke Sommer (hot for many years), Nancy Kwan lovely as always and Tina Louise who doesn't get to do much. Nigel Green is a noble villain and very creepy. Dino slogs along the best he can under the circumstances and Sharon Tate is just a joy! If she'd ever been given a decent role in a good film, I think she might have surprised a few skeptics about her talent.A 3 out of 10. Best performance = Sharon Tate. All of these Helm flicks are cotton candy at best, but a pleasant reminder of bad fun films of the late 60's.