the audience applauded

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Patrick O'Neal, of "The Kremlin Letter" (1970), here is some kind of skinny James Bond, who gets more punches than he gives, but, from time to time, he's invisible. Ira von Fürstenberg, who looks like a twin sister of Margaret Lee, is Arabella, kind of Bond girl. Donald Pleasence, post original Bond, makes a caricature of a villain. So does Henry Silva, a bad character parody. Nicoletta Machiavelli, who looks very good in this movie, is helping Henry Silva. All are spies and spies one another, American, Russian, Chinese, the whole planet etc. One half spies the other half... The music is signed by the great Ennio Morricone but it's not great. Director is master Alberto Lattuada, who has made many good films, including two absolute masterpieces: "Lights of Variety" (along with Fellini) and "Mafioso" with the great Alberto Sordi. Another interesting movie made by him is "Fraulein Doktor". This one is neither a masterpiece nor stupid. It's worth seeing if you like Bond parodies and for the sake of the stars.

Newspaper reporter and would-be spy, Perry Liston (Patrick O'Neal), finds himself in a Chinese prison. He's housed with old, dying man whom he befriends. Before the old man dies, he gives Liston a ring that has the power to make him invisible. Liston escapes, makes his way to Europe, gets mixed up with a crazed villain, and, in the end, must save mankind from destruction (or something like that). Other than the invisibility angle, this is all pretty standard Eurospy stuff. And, it's in these moments that I really enjoyed Matchless. But, the invisibility ring and all the "hilarious" shenanigans it produces really put a damper on my enjoyment. It's all too slapstick for my taste. I enjoy a spy film with a generous helping of tongue-in- cheek, but, at times, this goes way overboard into the realm of being absurd. And that's too bad because the rest is a pretty decent movie. Of course the plot makes little sense (do plots ever make sense in these movies?) and it's all shot fairly cheaply, but it's got something about it I enjoyed. The cast is really the standout. Donald Pleasance was never better. His take on the super-villain in Matchless is as good as I've seen. He's a hoot! Joining Pleasance are the manically laughing Henry Silva and the drop-dead gorgeous Ira von Furstenberg. Supposed star Patrick O'Neal is the weakest of the main cast. And the poor dubbing/looping of his dialogue doesn't help.Overall, Matchless is a decent Eurospy effort that's hurt by some lame attempts at humor. A wishy-washy 5/10 is about the best rating I can give it.

Disclaimer: the DVD-R print of "Matchless" that I watched was atrocious. I am used to lower-than-normal print quality when it comes to these obscure movies, but this one was borderline unwatchable. Let's hope it gets an official DVD release some day. It's an amusing little spy comedy, which also contains a classic element of the fantastic cinema (invisibility), as well as some innovative action sequences (at one point, our hero hangs on at the BOTTOM of a moving train; at another point, he lands his car on the TOP of a moving train!). However, you get the feeling that "Matchless" does not really exploit all the comic possibilities of the invisibility gimmick; "Abbott and Costello Meet The Invisible Man" did it better. Patrick O'Neal is a likably understated lead, Donald Pleasence is well-cast as the vain and eccentric villain, and Ira Von Furstenberg tries on a variety of provocative, barely-there outfits; her face is gorgeous and her body is magnificent - she has the most perfect abs ever! ** out of 4.

Wonderful mindless fun entertainment. Goofy plot, passable acting, clumsy dialog, but it is the kind of movie that doesn't ask much of the viewer, and viewers shouldn't ask much of it except for a bit of fun. I had fun. There is a wonderful bad guy, there are beautiful women like in the James Bond films, and there is a rather hapless quasi-Bond type who gets caught up in the intrigue. This is a film in the 1960s spoof genre, with its chase scenes, cars, planes, helicopters, parachutes, kites, boats, and on and on. It pokes fun at the James Bond type of movie, while at the same time having a bit of its own espionage action, just enough that the film could stand on its own (shakily) as a spy/seduction movie. This is worth renting if you can get it. It is too bad they don't make more of this fun entertainment these days.