Purely Joyful Movie!

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

For the most part, this constitutes the best of the myriad James Bond imitations (because it does not deliberately attempt to send up the genre while adhering so closely to the formula – down to the music score, including a title track sung by The Walker Brothers – that I am surprised that franchise's producers did not sue), even if the literary figure that was revived for the purpose actually preceded 007! For the record, I had watched a handful of the run of Drummond 'B' movies from the 1930s with John Howard or Ray Milland, but I also own the quartet of well-regarded initial entries (two starring Ronald Colman and a couple more emanating from Britain).Interestingly, the star of this one – Richard Johnson – had made an uncredited appearance towards the start of his career in the MGM one-off CALLING BULLDOG DRUMMOND (1951). By the way, throughout his two stabs at the role, the character is never once referred to by that nickname (which, I guess, suggests his resilience) but nor are we ever told just what field the hero operates in (is he a Military Intelligence officer or just another secret agent?)! Incidentally, while he was usually flanked by a flamboyant superior as contact man and a comic butler for sidekick, the former's role is downplayed here and the latter replaced with a youthful relative (but whose girlfriend – played by Virginia North, who would actually turn up in a different role in the sequel and also appear as Vulnavia to Vincent Price's THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES {1971} in the first installment of that particular two-movie series – still prefers the more experienced member of the family!).Anyway, the protagonist now has an elderly boss (Laurence Naismith) with a secretary (THE PRISONER's Justine Lord) with whom he flirts a' la M and Miss Moneypenny from the Bond series – though Drummond goes one better than his 'prototype' by taking the girl out to dinner and later to his flat! As expected, there are a plethora of attractive ladies and, given the moniker (which obviously bears no relation to a similarly-titled 1957 French melodrama starring Jean Gabin that I also own), some of them even do the dirty work for the villain (who, also typically, hides behind a veneer of respectability). The most notable are Elke Sommer, Sylva Koscina and Suzanna Leigh – the first two make up an interesting and sparring sexy/comic duo (with the former being the spokesperson for Carl Peterson's nefarious machinations and the latter the 'thug' but whose kleptomania ultimately proves the undoing of both!), while the latter is a new (thus uncommitted) recruit who, unsurprisingly, takes up with Drummond at the end. Curiously enough, though the 2 latter-day Drummond adventures were released simultaneously on R2 DVD, the edition I acquired of this one was unfortunately trimmed of some 2 minutes – running only 93 – with an evident cut in the scene where Johnson and Sommer share a room in Peterson's castle and all of a sudden she is in her underwear; this edit is all the more baffling because a split-second nudity by Leigh (or her stand-in) at the climax has been left intact!The plot is the standard 'bid-for-world-domination-through-economic-monopoly' which sees a great number of people involved: these can basically be divided into associates and victims (sometimes filling the requirements of both) and include Leonard Rossiter, George Pastell, Lee Montague (from the just-viewed THE LEGACY {1978}) and Zia Mohyeddin as the latest millionaire (coincidentally a school chum of the younger Drummond) to be targeted for elimination. Nigel Green, then, makes for a strong nemesis to Johnson (who would also face Harry Palmer and, with Sommer herself in tow, Matt Helm but never Bond!), and it is only in the latter stages that the film treads the camp factor, as Drummond constantly rubs his burly bodyguard-cum-manservant the wrong way so that they eventually engage in a karate fight – the obvious conclusion being that Peterson is much better served by the weaker sex! Hero and villain also conduct a game of chess where the pawns are creepily life-size but also ultimately prove deadly for Peterson himself.

The Bulldog Drummond character first appeared in Herman Cyril McNeile's 1920 novel entitled "Bulldog Drummond" and would be a film fixture throughout the 1930s. In 1967, at the absolute height of that decade's spy craze, the character (an admitted influence on Ian Fleming) was dusted off, refurbished and transformed into a very credible competitor in the James Bond arena. The resultant film, "Deadlier Than the Male," turns out to be one of the finest Bond wanna-bes I have ever seen, easily putting contemporaries such as Derek Flint and Matt Helm to shame. Here, insurance investigator, playboy and all-around tough guy Drummond tracks down the killers of a string of recalcitrant businessmen and tangles with a pair of deadly female assassins. As in the Bond films, there are ample attractive women on hand, some exotic locales (such as the Spanish Mediterranean coast), a suave and talkative villain, an Asian henchman, and well-integrated quips (although the film is devoid of the inane humor that would torpedo some of the Roger Moore Bonds); the film is even a Pinewood production, like the early 007s. Unlike a Bond film, "Deadlier Than the Male" does not feature any spectacular stunts or eye-popping FX. It is a more realistic spy outing, and rather than being merely a "poor man's Bond," is indeed more entertaining than some of the lesser 007 films, such as "The Man With the Golden Gun." Richard Johnson is quite fine in the lead role (he even looks a bit like Sean Connery at times!), and Elke Sommer and Sylva Koscina are perfect as the lethal hitwomen, the sexy Irma and adorable Penelope (perhaps never more so than when shown in microbikinis and toting harpoon guns!). Though the film's story line is a bit too dependent on coincidence, this picture--be it a Bond pastiche, send-up, homage or rip-off--is as entertaining as can be. Too bad the sequel, 1969's "Some Girls Do," is almost impossible to see....

Perhaps the best of the escapist superspy movies spawned by the James Bond phenomenon,"Deadlier than the male" benefits by taking itself more seriously than the leering and campy approach found in,for example,the "Matt Helm" series and the 2 "Derek Flint" films.Richard Johnson-who could well have played James Bond,and would have brought more humanity to the role than any of the actors who played 007 managed,is excellent as Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond(a character featured in a series of books in the 20s and 30s and a number of "b" movies,reborn here as a secret agent for the swinging 60s).Nigel Green is also perfect,as a suave and very dangerous master criminal.The female assassins,played by 60s stunners Elke Sommer and Sylva Koscina,are allowed to be despicably evil,and without any redeeming features(they are as keen to sadistically torture people as they are to kill them),and the sight of the murderous pair in bikinis emerging from the ocean with harpoon guns,should be as iconic as the "Ursula Andress hits the beach" moment in "Dr No".Unfortunately the sequel to this movie,"Some girls do"(1969),though not without interest,adopted the over the top camp "Deadlier than the male" avoided,and ended the franchise.

I never cared for the title of this film, although it's a fitting description of the circumstances that bring Richard Johnson, as accident insurance investigator Drummond, onto the case. Elke Sommer and Sylvia Koscina provide ample "eye candy" as villian Nigel Green's "hit girls" (no "hit persons", thank you - this is before political correctness) and Richard Johnson is perfect as the suave Bond-inspired update of the 1930's character, Bulldog Drummond. The finale on a giant mechanical chess board is a highlight!