Touches You

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Spy spoofs were ten a penny in the 1960's. Norman Abbott's 'Last Of The Secret Agents?' ( 1966 ) is one of the better ones. It was intended to showcase the then-popular comedy double act Allen & Rossi ( Marty Allen and Steve Rossi ). With his mobile face and shock of untidy black hair ( and "Hello Dere!" as a catchphrase ), Marty is firmly in the Lou Costello mold of comic sidekicks, while Rossi is a Dean Martin tribute act. 'Last' is a decent film, and this is mainly due to its associate producer and writer, the talented Mel Tolkin. Marty and Steve are a pair of down on their luck furniture removal men based in France. A mysterious organisation known only as THEM ( also the name of an organisation to be found in the 'Captain America' and 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' Marvel comics of that period ) has them under surveillance. It specialises in stealing valuable art treasures and wants to use Marty and Steve as unwitting couriers. 'J.Fredrick Duval', head of G.G.I. ( Good Guys Institute ) recruits the boys to find out what THEM's latest scheme is and, if possible, wreck it. Marty is given a gadget-packed umbrella which contains a gun and a radio, and even converts into a hot-air balloon. As it turns out, their Blofeld-like leader 'Zoltan Schumach' ( Theo Marcuse ) is out to steal the Venus De Milo...The gags come thick and fast ( the passengers' changing clothes each time a train enters a tunnel was copied a year later by the 'Matt Helm' movie 'The Ambushers' ), some work and some don't, but overall this is an extremely likable motion picture, packed with 1960's colour, gorgeous girls and good humour. As well as Bond, the 'Batman' television spoof is spoofed, along with war movies ( Harvey Korman's cameo is hilarious! ) and cigarette commercials. Nancy Sinatra plays Rossi's love interest 'Micheline' and gets to sing the title theme. If Allen and Rossi did not, as was hoped, become the 1960's answer to Lewis and Martin, well, at least, they had a good try.

As a kid, I really enjoyed this movie. But that was the 70s. While still having positive feelings for it, that is from memory. I don't blame Allen and Rossi. Their humor did not translate to the big screen and were let down by a script written by someone who had no understanding of the spy genre, nor how to spoof it. It seems to me you have to have a plot that makes sense within the context of the story and then introduce humorous characters and twists that have no business being there. After an entertaining opening sequence, which goes on a bit longer than it should, the first half hour is fun, introducing Allen and Rossi and setting up the story. What follows after is slow, unfunny and nonsensical. More staid 50s than the hip 60s. Too bad Mel Brooks wasn't brought in to save it.

Art thieves in France are in for trouble when a couple of clumsy American tourists-turned-spies (Steve Rossi and Marty Allen) are assigned to expose their operation. Loud, poorly-written slapstick comedy might appeal to Three Stooges or Martin & Lewis fans. It isn't a bad-looking film, but it's shrill instead of funny. Director Norman Abbott (who also co-wrote the script and produced!) seems to really believe Marty Allen is the next Jerry Lewis or Lou Costello (he isn't) and there's far too much of him. Linking this to later spoofs like "The Naked Gun" is really doing this movie a favor. It has some snap, but it's a bit long and bumbling. Good supporting cast features Nancy Sinatra, who also sings the title cut penned by Lee Hazlewood (which is more clever than anything else in the picture). *1/2 from ****

My family took us to the drive-in to see this when I was around six years old. Needless to say, I was not quite as tough on it as the junior John Simons around here. In fact, we all thought it was a masterpiece. Well, we didn't say that; but we thought it was funny. My Dad probably even knew the connection to "Your Show Of Shows." Now it is impossible to see, though I guess it turns up on T.V. now and then. It sounds like the historic significance as a precursor to the now played out "Airplane" school of comedy might make it fun. Martin and Rossi continued to play Vegas for many years after the film. Harvey Korman must have just been getting started.