Desperate Mission/Agente Z 55 missione disperata (1965)

‘What kind of chicken are you, Mr Manning?’

A nuclear scientist is rescued from the East, but the agent assigned to supervise his transfer from Hong Kong to America is murdered. A top agent is sent in to retrieve the situation but finds more than one opposing group trying to get their hands on the boffin and his secrets…

Italian-Spanish Eurospy from Roberto Bianchi Montero (directing as Robert M White) that features Spaniard Germán Cobos as this week’s ‘Bond On A Budget.’ Unfortunately, for him said budget stretches to a limited geographical itinerary; a quick stop-off in Barcelona and en extended stay in Hong Kong. Also, the production takes a pass on the ‘gadget’ element of the usual ‘Guns, Girls and Gadgets’ formula, leaving this a far more grounded production than many of its contemporaries.

It’s business as usual for special agent Robert Manning (Cobos), codename Agent Z-55. Just as things are starting to get interesting in the bedroom with his latest flame, the telephone rings, and it’s off to Hong Kong on his latest mission. Professor Larsen (Francisco Sanz) has been rescued from his Chinese captors by a team of Japanese Kung-Fu experts, led by a one-handed man, and sequestered in secret on the island. Unfortunately, the operative sent to bring him home has turned his toes up unexpectedly, and Cobos is next in line for the detail.

‘What have you done with the hot blonde in my shower?’

Arriving during a sudden onslaught of Hong Kong tourist board footage, our suave hero has a run-in with the local fuzz at the airport who want him on a trumped-up smuggling charge. One car chase later, he’s checking into his hotel when he finds something is very wrong. There’s no mysterious hot blonde using the shower in his room! Rather than ring room service to complain, he pops next door instead and starts putting the moves on sexy brunette, Sally (Maria Luisa Rispoli) but, of course, she’s not there by chance. She’s working for local crime boss, Barrow (Gianni Rizzo) who keeps an armadillo on his desk, rather than a white cat in his lap, and is looking for Sanz so he can sell him to the highest bidder.

But Rizzo and Cobos aren’t the only ones after the nuclear expert. There’s also the Chinese, led by To-go (Milton Reid) and his pretty sidekick Su Ling (Yôko Tani). Cobos must navigate these muddy waters, playing the ex-con for Rizzo to get into his organisation, and trying to keep the rather violent Reid at arms’ length. And that pretty much sums up the first hour of the film; it’s generic, dull and only sputters into life occasionally. There’s the unmistakable feeling that none of the incidents that do occur is all that important, or will generate any long-term consequences. Also, the occasional action, mostly fistfights, are often shot in near-darkness, which doesn’t help with audience engagement.

‘Your next cliché is right in there.’

However, everything takes a marked turn for the better as the film moves into its final act. Events turn increasingly violent as the stakes escalate. There’s nice confrontation backstage in a crowded cinema where the movie that’s playing covers the sound of the real-life gun battle. The audience in the cheap seats remains blissfully unaware that anything’s happening until one of the dead men falls through the screen and into the auditorium. It’s in these later stages that Cobos comes into his own too; his initial, somewhat bland and smug operative revealing his true colours as a hard man who will do anything to fulfil his mission. Whether this was an intentional tonal shift by actor and filmmakers is open to question, but it does work. The only downside is that audiences will be left wondering why it took so long for the film to find its edge.

There are some other minus points as well, the main one being the rather tiresome convention of caucasian actors playing orientals by the brilliant application of makeup around the eyes. This trope is evident in some of the supporting cast, but mostly with Reid who was of mixed Indian-Scottish heritage. His imposing physical appearance makes it obvious why he’s in the film, but couldn’t he have been recast as one of the non-Chinese villains instead? Similarly, Tani was Japanese. Elsewhere in the cast, the sharp-eyed viewer may spot Giovanna Cianfriglia as one of Rizzo’s henchmen; he became better known shortly afterwards as costumed crimefighter SuperArgo.

‘Armadillo!’

Cobos returned as Agent Manning in ‘Tecnica per un massacro’ (1967) also directed by Montero and enjoyed a long career on the Spanish screen. But it’s our ‘Chinese’ villains who boast far more interesting histories. Tani was born in Paris and began her career as a dancer before making her debut in a Japanese picture in 1949. Small roles followed in both French and Japanese productions until the late 1950s when she made her US debut in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s ‘The Quiet American’ (1958). Her big break came that same year opposite Dirk Bogarde in British film ‘The Wind Cannot Read’ (1958), and she opened the following decade starring in the Polish science-fiction feature ‘First Spaceship On Venus’ (1960). She was the Eskimo heroine of Nicholas Ray’s ‘The Savage Innocents’ (1960) with Anthony Quinn and tackled similar exotic roles in many European films, including ‘The Death Ray of Dr Mabuse’ (1964). There was also time for Italian Eurospys ‘Goldsnake Anonima Killers’ (1966) and ‘The Spy Who Loved Flowers’ (1966) plus British low-budget sci-fi ‘Invasion’ (1965). She even starred in the final episodes of Patrick McGoohan’s TV hit ‘Danger Man.’

Reid was a wrestler by trade but parlayed his fearsome physique, bald head and vicious scowl into many ‘heavy’ roles on television and in the movies. Sure, many of them were non-speaking parts, but he became a very recognisable screen presence, getting his first big break in Lewis Gilbert’s weak adventure flick ‘Ferry to Hong Kong’ (1959) which starred Orson Welles and Sylvia Sims. Small roles followed in big-budget Hollywood production ‘Swiss Family Robinson’ (1960), Hammer studio’s ‘Terror of the Tongs’ (1960) and Italian-U.S. fantasy ‘The Wonders of Aladdin’ (1960). One of his most notable roles was as the doomed mulatto in another Hammer production; the excellent historical adventure ‘Captain Clegg’ (1962) with Peter Cushing. Appropriately enough, there were also bits in the ‘Bond’ franchise; in ‘Dr. No’ (1962), the spoof ‘Casino Royale’ (1967) and ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ (1977).

This is a fairly run of the mill Eurospy. However, there was the potential to deliver something significantly better if the filmmakers had committed fully to the edgier tone of its later stages.