Getting home after helping a friend on a challenging day,I got in the mood for a easy-going viewing. A fan of the excellent two spoofs, (both reviewed) I was intrigued to find that before the 60's series had kicked off,there was an earlier OSS 117 film. This led to me getting set to join OSS 117 on his first mission.
View on the film:
Spying five years before the 007 franchise really got the Euro Spy movie genre rolling, Jacques Berland & Jean Jean Levitte adaptation of Jean Bruce's novel investigate OSS 117's espionage activities from a "Mystery" angle, playfully spun from OSS having to try keep an eye on the wealthy Mr Lead's safe, in order to slyly find who is stealing documents/microfilm from it. Whilst OSS and his gentlemen detective manner are put in the title, the writers make vixen Consuela (played by a foxy Jacqueline Pierreux) the alluring agent of the tale, thanks to Consuela being tied to the seedy night clubs in town and a feisty edge over keeping micro secrets to herself. Along with introducing the cute future OSS 117 regular Magali Noël to the series as agent Muriel Rousset, director Jean Sacha and cinematographer Marcel Weiss bring a Pop-Art sparkle from overlapping smash-cuts in the bars and on the grounds of the Lead household, as Agent OSS 117 eyes completing his first mission.
View on the film:
Spying five years before the 007 franchise really got the Euro Spy movie genre rolling, Jacques Berland & Jean Jean Levitte adaptation of Jean Bruce's novel investigate OSS 117's espionage activities from a "Mystery" angle, playfully spun from OSS having to try keep an eye on the wealthy Mr Lead's safe, in order to slyly find who is stealing documents/microfilm from it. Whilst OSS and his gentlemen detective manner are put in the title, the writers make vixen Consuela (played by a foxy Jacqueline Pierreux) the alluring agent of the tale, thanks to Consuela being tied to the seedy night clubs in town and a feisty edge over keeping micro secrets to herself. Along with introducing the cute future OSS 117 regular Magali Noël to the series as agent Muriel Rousset, director Jean Sacha and cinematographer Marcel Weiss bring a Pop-Art sparkle from overlapping smash-cuts in the bars and on the grounds of the Lead household, as Agent OSS 117 eyes completing his first mission.