Audience Member
The name is Malloy, Dick Malloy - Agent 077
Since my brother reviewed the golden Cadillac James Bond 007 film series, I found it perfectly fitting for me to review Italy's low budget rip-off trilogy featuring the suave, cool headed secret agent 077. I find the term "rip-off" to be a tad harsh here as this actually isn't a bad film at all. We'll use the term "inspired" instead to be nice.
Well back in the 1960s the three "B"s were God. That was 1. Beatles, 2. Bond and 3. Batman. Bond films were the box offices biggest draws but Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman couldn't produce the films fast enough fill the need by audiences so Italy was gracious enough to lend a hand and release a number of "inspired" films themselves, the most popular being the 077 trilogy (subtle weren't they picking that for his code number?). Being a hardcore Bond fanatic as well as a connoisseur of Italian films, these Bond "inspired" films are a combination made in heaven for this cult film fanatic. Heaven was exactly what I got as this first 077 adventure is a perfect mixture of a gritty Spaghetti Western and James Bond thriller.
Ken Clark plays our Bond clone agent 077 but instead of working for the British Secret Service, he is American and works for the CIA. 077 is on the trial of a stolen nuclear weapon device but not surprisingly he's not the only man who wants to get his hands on it. Nipping at the back of his feet are the Russian and Chinese secret service. Espionage and action are sure to come as well with interesting twists with "what side are they on" moments.
All the staples of Bond films are here: eye catching title sequence, car chases, spies in tuxedos, exotic locations, fights sequences, gorgeous women, wonderful music, and nasty villains. Some may just call this a "low grade Bond rip-off" but the filmmakers did a wonderful job with their shoestring budget to bring us a really enjoyable espionage thriller. I especially dug the gritty filmmaking nature to the picture very reminiscent of the popular Italian spaghetti westerns of the day.
Ken Clark is a likable handsome lead and is perfectly cast as a Bond Clone. He's a decent actor and holds his own in onscreen fights (the "From Russia with Love" inspired train fist fight was especially thrilling). He may work for the CIA as opposed to her majesty's secret service but I do believe Bond has met his match!
Are you a fan of early 1960s James Bond films? Then I highly recommend this 077 adventure. It may have a tight budget and the villain is rather lackluster but it doesn't hinder this espionage thriller too bad. I say give it shot if you can find it as it is hard to come by and the DVD release by Dorado Films leaves a lot to be desired.
Ah... the DVD release. Let me talk about that for a while. Well I blindly purchased a box set from the company Dorado Films entitled "How Europe Does Babes, Bombs and Guns" wanting really bad to see these obscure Euro Spy films. Well apparently Dorado films doesn't know how to properly transfer a widescreen film as they take the 2.35:1 ratio and stretch it 1.85.1 in order to fill your widescreen TV. Companies that know what the hell they are doing still leave 2.35 aspect ratio films slightly letterboxed so even when they are shown animorphically on a widescreen TV, they still have some black bars on the top and bottom of the image. Dorado Films instead stretch the damn picture image to fill your entire screen so everything in the film looks extra long vertically. Wheels are oval, characters are look 10 feet tall, the list goes on and on. This was EXTREMELY annoying and I will probably have to beg my friend Bill to fix the damn ratio problems. Hell I would preferred to have a cropped Pan & Scan version as opposed to this. Nothing burns my ass more than DVD companies releasing films with fucked up picture ratios. I mean come on! Can't they see the image is stretched when they are transferring it? Well this purchasing experience has chapped by ass from buying any other films from the company and that's a damn shame as I do truly love supporting small time cult film companies. If you can forgive the stretched image then give the DVDs a shot otherwise you have been warned.
Dick Malloy will return in "From the Orient With Fury"
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Virile blond stud Ken Clark slugs and shoots his way from Paris to Madrid and back in MISSION BLOODY MARY. Directed with momentum by BEAST WITH A GUN director Sergio Grieco, this scenic, fast-paced secret agent escapade qualifies as an above-average but low-budget knock-off of the Sean Connery James Bond epic THUNDERBALL. The first installment in a three film franchise about tenacious CIA Agent Dick Molloy, who rates as quite the ladies man, puts him on the trail of a mysterious organization that calls itself the Black Lilly. They use a resourceful impostor to sneak aboard a Strategic Air Command bomber and snatch a top-secret American nuclear warhead which the Black Lilly plans to sell to the Red Chinese unless the Soviets can acquire it first in this melodramatic international Cold War saga of action and intrigue. Of course, the impostor demands a bigger pay-off after he risks his life to seize the bomb for his employers. Naturally, the villains are prepared for this treachery and they barbecue the turncoat for his perfidy. Grieco stages a nimble scramble of a chase across the rooftops in Paris, a fistfight in the hold of a freighter off the Spanish coast, and a savage knockdown drag-out brawl in a train compartment along with several surprises right up to the last five that make this a exciting as well as entertaining adventure opus.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Ken Clark plays Agent 077, Anyone new to the world of secret agent films must learn there is much more to the secret agent film world then James Bond and 007. This is the first of 3 Agent 077 films, all made via Italy. This one had locations in France, Spain, Italy. Not on some hollywood set but in real locations. There are a number of European Secret Agent films out there, this ranks up there in my book. In this one a Nuclear Bomb has been taken from a USAF Plane crash site, and the Russinas, Germans, and Chinesse are all involved wanting the Bomb, and the USA and UK are trying to keep it in the right hands and recover it. There are all the Secret agent things in this movie, Beautiful naked Women, Neat spy gagets, chase scenes, fights the works. I got my copy of this film in the Grindhouse Experience 2 which has about 20 films in it. The quality of the movie was fair, had a few spots that you could tell it was dubbed from a VHS, even had a 30 sec blank spot, but still its worth the purchase, But can't give it no more then 3 stars.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/23/23
Full Review
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