After Sean Connery's James Bond made a splash with Dr. No in 1962, spy movies became all the rage, and the French Gaumont Studios launched a series based on the novels of Jean Bruce about French-American aristocrat Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, codenamed Agent OSS 117, who singlehandedly undertakes the most dangerous assignments. The first two films—OSS 117 Is Unleashed (1963) and OSS 117: Panic in Bangkok (1964), the former in black-and-white and the latter in color—are both directed by André Hunebelle, and star Kerwin Mathews in adventures that involve (respectively) uncovering a device that can track submarines, and foiling a plot to release a virulent virus. In the next two—OSS 117: Mission for a Killer (1965) and OSS 117: Mission to Tokyo (1966)—Frederick Stafford takes over the lead. In Mission for a Killer, also directed by Hunebelle, 117 searches for a potentially lethal drug, and in Mission to Tokyo, directed by Marcel Boisrond, 117 is on the hunt for a weapon that can annihilate whole islands. In the final film, OSS 117: Double Agent (1968)—co-directed by Hunebelle, Renzo Cerrato, and John-Pierre Desagna, and also known as Murder for Sale—John Gavin plays the agent, who infiltrates a gang of assassins. The first four movies feature attractive locations—Corsica, Thailand, Brazil, and Japan—and while the Middle Eastern locale of the fifth seems more generic, all are visually decent productions. Unfortunately, the films are curiously slow-moving and the lead performances stiff, even in scenes with beautiful women whose dialogue is dubbed clumsily into French. Anyone expecting a foreign Bond here is bound to be disappointed. Not a necessary purchase. (F. Swietek)
OSS 117: Five Film Collection
Kino Lorber, 3 discs, 526 min., in French w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $49.99, Blu-ray: $59.99 Volume 33, Issue 1
OSS 117: Five Film Collection
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