OSS117 - Mission To Tokyo

Tokyo Selves To Death

OSS117 - Mission To Tokyo
aka Atout coeur à Tokyo 
pour OSS 117
aka Terror In Tokyo
aka From Tokyo With Love
France/Italy 1966
Directed by Michel Boisrond
Gaumont/Kino Lorber Blu Ray Zone A

The fourth feature in Kino Lorber’s Blu Ray set of the five 1960s incarnations of OSS117 is OSS117 - Mission To Tokyo and, I was kind of holding out hope that this one would be a lot better than it’s predecessors, being as it’s not directed by André Hunebelle this time around... just ‘presented by’ him. Instead it’s directed by Michel Boisrond and, to further whet my appetite for the movie, instead of being based completely on a Jean Bruce novel, it’s instead ‘adapted by’ two people (and apparently the adaptation is pretty much a completely new story, such as often happened with the James Bond films this series was trying to compete with, up to a certain point), one of whom is Terence Young, who of course directed Dr. No (reviewed here) and helped groom Sean Connery to bring a definitive image of Bond to the screen. And I was similarly impressed that it’s set in Japan with many of the kinds of cultural elements utilised in You Only Live Twice (reviewed here) all present and correct here... a good year before the Bond film was even released. I guess the producers must have got wind that the next Bond would be set in Japan. 

But yes, even with all these good things going for it, this one is still quite a dull and disappointing affair and, perhaps better than the previous one but maybe not as good as the Kerwin Matthews films. Once again Frederick Stafford takes on the role of Hubert Bonnisseur de la Bath, aka OSS117, for his second and final time and, he’s not completely unlikable but, once again, I have to note that Matthews was a much more animated personality than this guy... which is really saying something. Although in fairness, Stafford does look a lot more like the typical movie spy of the time. 

The plot involves the world being blackmailed by a secret organisation who are using miniature planes to launch nuclear missiles at secret US government intelligence headquarters around the world unless, of course, they are paid huge sums of money. So OSS117 is sent to Tokyo for no earthly reason that I could fathom. I can only assume the Japanese were widely admired for their miniaturisation techniques and leave it at that. There’s a turncoat gal, played by Marina Vlady, who provides the story twists when she’s revealed to be helping the bad guys before turning coat again and working with Hubert. Plus there’s a second OSS117 girl in the form of a Japanese secret service sergeant played by Jitsuko Yoshimura, who you may remember as the younger of the two female protagonists/antagonists of Onibaba. There are the usual twists and turns plus the odd fist fight or car chase (although the opening action pre-credits sequence is nowhere near the quality of the Bond pictures) and it’s pretty much business as usual as far as this film series goes. 

One interesting bit of business, which heavily foreshadows You Only Live Twice, is a rival faction of thugs who you assume are out to get Hubert in the opening half an hour or so of the movie (but, yeah, not really... you’ll see it coming as soon as this bunch are first introduced) but who turn out to be the Japanese secret service, who then team up to help OSS117 fulfil his mission. 

And, there are a few nice shot set ups too. One such occurs when a character is in long shot and walking back towards his car from the right of the screen to the left. The camera starts moving sideways until a decorative architectural detail of an upright post with an elabourate carving, hollow and leaving a big hole in the middle of it, hits the centre of the screen and the car has shifted with the camera viewpoint until it’s directly lined up in the centre of the opening of that upright. Then the character continues walking to the centre of the shot and gets in his car in the small opening in the centre of the screen. Which is a nice way of doing things. There also a huge amount of effort to get the look right, such as a shot which reminded me of something of the deliberately controlled lighting in a specific sequence in Dario Argento’s Suspiria (reviewed here). As a shady figure in a raincoat at the end of the corridor, his face under shadows like a film noir, lights his cigarette, it lights up his face just a little too much when the lighter is engaged, making it evident that a light source hidden from view has been switched on at the same time to complete the effect, before being switched off again when the lighter is flicked closed. 

All in all, it’s not a terrible film but, accompanied once again by Michel Magne’s rather tepid score... which is fine as a stand alone listen but certainly doesn’t really seem to elevate the on screen action and pacing of the film... it’s all just a little dull and struggles to engage the viewer, at least this audience member, it has to be said. 

So that’s me done with OSS117 - Mission To Tokyo. Some may find it more yawn inducing than thrilling, I suspect. For the last film in the set we have American actor John Gavin taking over the role but we also have André Hunebelle back in the driving seat so, yeah, I’m maybe not looking forward to it as much as I’d hoped, to be honest. I’ll report back here with a review when I can. 

OSS117 - Mission For A Killer

Hell To Peyote

OSS117 - Mission For A Killer
aka Furia à Bahia pour OSS 117
France/Italy 1965
Directed by André Hunebelle
Gaumont/Kino Lorber Blu Ray Zone A

OSS117 - Mission For A Killer is the third of the films presented in Kino Lorber’s Blu Ray set OSS117 Five Film Collection. This time around, the main lead has been recast... we no longer have Kerwin Matthews in the role of Hubert Bonnisseur de la Bath aka OSS117, Instead we have Frederick Stafford who, it has to be said, is even more of a block of wood in the role than Matthews was. He does, to be fair, look much more capable of doing all the fights and is quite confident in the role but, well, when I say that Matthews displayed much more emotion and personality in the role, you can see what we’re up against here. I’m not sure I’m blaming the actor here though... I’ll get to that in a minute. 

Luckily, he has a really excellent female lead in Mylène Demongeot, playing a random lady who gets accidentally mixed up in the mechanics of a threat to the world, probably because she strikes up a friendship with Hubert as much as anything else. Said threat to the world starts off as a promising proposition, explained in a truly unmemorable and dull pre-credits sequence which, rather than starting off with an action piece as the Bond films would, is just lots of talking about important figures being assassinated by brainwashed, drugged up, suicide bombers. Hubert’s mission is to take over from another guy in Brazil (who obviously gets killed almost as soon as OSS117 gets there) and find out who is making and using these brainwashing drugs etc. I say etc because, it would seem implicit that they would also want to find out who’s actually programming these living bombs and stopping them in their tracks but, yeah, I don’t think that aspect of the mission is ever actually made clear.

From there on it’s the usual shenanigans where Hubert will get into a fight with a bunch of bad guys, romance a lady, step and repeat for a while before flying to a different part of Brazil to rescue some Indians who have been ‘making’ peyote, which apparently turns you into an easily suggestible robot (hmmm... I’m really not sure that’s what peyote and its mescalin ingredient does, to be honest). 

And it’s a fairly dull and plodding film it has to be said. Some of the fist fights do their best to break up the monotony, which is not in any way helped along by Michel Magne’s ponderous lounge score. I have to wonder how these were supposed to compete with the Bond films, which were already up to Thunderball when this was released without, apparently, the filmmakers managing to pick up on anything which made those films so good. This film is a big yawn compared to what EON were churning out at the same time. I also have to wonder how this was the 11th most popular film in France in the year it was released. 

I wish I could say that the film had some unseen twists or unusual things to recommend it. I suppose a fists against flame thrower fight in a hotel room is quite interesting in its own way and, later, when Hubert drives his car through a sheet of flame, the sight of the tyres on all four wheels of his car spinning orange flames is eye catching. But, over all, this film is as similarly snooze inducing as its predecessors.

I blame André Hunebelle... I thought his 1960s Fantômas movies made around the same time (and reviewed on this blog elsewhere, check out the movie section of the index) were somewhat okay but ultimately lacked a lot of the punch they might have had (although I think their screenplays were a little better) but these OSS117 movies are a somewhat duller affair than those. At least the Fantômas films had some novelty moments in them but, these OSS117 movies don’t even seem to have inherited Bond’s mania for sophisticated spy gadgetry... which is overplayed somewhat in the Bond series over time, to be fair but, yeah, they really could have done with something to lift these movies. 

So it would be true to say that OSS117 - Mission For A Killer is no better or worse than the previous two movies in the series. It’s not a film I would recommend, even to lovers of spy movies and, yeah, I won’t be watching this one again in a hurry. Still, there are two more films left in this set and the fourth, while produced by Hunebelle, is not actually directed by him so, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Frederick Stafford’s return engagement in the OSS117 role will be a better movie than this one. I should find out fairly swiftly.