Very well executed

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Taking part in ICM challenges to watch It Italian and "cult" films,I decided to take a look at what titles DVD sellers had recently found. With his superb 1970 film And God Said to Cain being my intro to Spaghetti Westerns, I was happy to read from a seller that he had found a Euro Spy flick by Antonio Margheriti,which led to me spying on the goldman.View on the film:Swooning into the peak of the Euro Spy years on Riz Ortolani's colourful Jazz score, director Antonio Margheriti & cinematographer Riccardo Pallottini, (who both later reunited for Cain) investigate the spy genre with hip Pop-Art, via a glittering use of matte paintings building the underground lair of the baddie, and Sennet's gadgets being given a kitsch appearance. Referencing their work in the Horror genre, Margheriti and Pallottini stylishly use whip-pans and zoom-ins to give the lazer burns and henchmen Sennet faces a level of threat, and blends the matte paintings with tightly held shots to give the final fight between Sennet and Rehte an exciting atmosphere.Sending Rehte off with a baddie plan that allows the flick to chip into the Sci-Fi space craze of the era, the screenplay Alfonso Balcázar/José Antonio de la Loma and Ernesto Gastaldi smash Sennet into the mission with cheeky comedic asides that allow him to outwit the baddie and his own agency. Teaming up with fellow agent Captain Patricia Flanagan once entering Rehte's lair, the writers give Sennet's attempt to succeed at the mission a surprising level of menace, with the sassy one-liners being replaced with shocks of death and Sennet's frustrations over not being able to break Rehte's traps on his own. Joining the mission half-way,Diana Lorys gives a sparkling performance as Flanagan,thanks to Lorys giving Flanagan a mischievous edge when helping Anthony Eisley's lean Sennet,which Lorys turns cold when she begins to fear it's the kiss of death from (Folco Lulli's excellent) Goldman.

The Plot. A U.S. agent goes undercover as a rich playboy to stop a madman from destroying a NASA moon project. I saw this under the title of Lightning Bolt.Made in Italy and Spain, this 1966 movie takes it's plot from the James Bond / spy craze of the 60s, with a bit of NASA space work thrown in to make it interesting.It is by no means a great movie, however I can see how this could be fun as a midnite grind-house screening. It's wide screen and technicolor and there are relatively decent special effects. There's also some fun 60's misogyny.What brings the experience down a notch is that it seems like the whole movie is dubbed even though they are speaking English. It gives the film a cheaper feeling.A lot of the sets look very Bond-ish. The acting and directing is a few notches above most cheap-o Italian movies. Although it's a bit slow paced.

If you grew up watching late 50s and 60s TV shows, chances are that you would recognize Anthony Eisley but not his name. While Eisley never became a big star, he was rather ubiquitous on TV. I remember him from "Dragnet", "The FBI" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" but he's more remembered for "Hawaiian Eye". However, in "Lightning Bolt" he's given the chance to be a star--albeit in a very low-budget Italian spy caper. Often American 2nd and 3rd tier actors were brought in to star in Italian films of the era. Since few knew Italian, the films were completely dubbed and marketed internationally. Many were horrible, some were classics (such as "La Strada" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly") and most were somewhere in the middle--like "Lightning Bolt".In "Lightning Bolt" (a.k.a. "Operazione Goldman"), Eisley (who is inexplicably red-haired) stars as Lt. Harry Sennett--an American James Bond-type hero. His mission is to discover what's causing the rockets at Cape Kennedy to go off course and explode. This means lots of pretty girls, fast cars and danger. The plot is very similar to two films--"You Only Live Twice" (a Bond film about Blofeld capturing manned rockets) and "Strange Brew" (since the evil boss-man turns out to be an insane brewmeister!!).So is it good? Well, yes and no. The film looks like they wanted to make a Bond film but only had about a tenth the budget. Some of the sets are impressive but all too often the stunts and action scenes come off as not quite ready for the bit screen. As for Eisley, he isn't bad as he isn't meant to be as smooth or sexy as Bond and is pretty decent in the action scenes. The print is often poor. In some cases you cannot blame the filmmakers--such as the scratchy or grainy sections. But, in others they obviously used lousy stock footage. "Lightning Bolt" is a movie with much to dislike. Yet, it also has a certain kitschy fun that makes it worth seeing. It certainly is NOT a film for everyone--but for the right audience it's worth seeing. For a much better Italian action/adventure film, try watching the much more slickly made "Danger: Diabolik"--especially since Diabolik dresses EXACTLY the same as the brewmeister's henchmen. Overall, bad but quite enjoyable.

One of the most enjoyable Eurospy flicks I've seen lately, though it's not perfect by any means (the first half is better than the second). Diana Lorys is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen: her character is introduced very promisingly, as a high-ranking agent who can even cause "spinal fractures" to her enemies, and she develops a nice interplay with the male lead, Anthony Eisley. But then she is rather clumsily written out of the story until the very end, while the main bad girl of the film (Wandisa Guida - her ultra-tight black outfit emphasizes her jaw-dropping curves) turns out to be an entrapped good girl after all. Although the influence of "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball" on "Lightning Bolt" is clear, the sci-fi aspects actually predate other official Bond films such as "You Only Live Twice" and "Diamonds Are Forever". The second half takes place almost entirely in the villain's underwater headquarters: the sets are quite elaborate, but the scenes of their eventual destruction go on too long. Still, if you're in the mood for a light and unpretentious take on the less serious side of espionage, "Lightning Bolt" should fit the bill. **1/2 out of 4.