Coplan FX-18 Super Spy/Coplan FX 18 casse tout/The Exterminators (1965)

‘What extraordinary archaeologists!’

Two important rocket scientists go missing while working on a secret project for the French Government. The indications are that the Egyptian Secret Service is responsible, so the top French agent is joined by his Israeli counterpart on his mission to investigate…

Surprisingly tough and serious-minded Eurospy from veteran director Riccardo Freda. Running around Europe as this week’s ‘Bond On A Budget’ is Richard Wyler in the third of five films featuring special agent Francis Coplan.

Secret agent Francis Coplan (Wyler) draws his gun under the table after getting the nod from accomplice Sheila (Maria-Rosa Rodriguez), who is stripping as part of her nightclub act. He aims at a waiter, who is serving champagne to a couple, across the room and shoots him dead. I guess that’s one way to complain about tardy service. Wyler then elbows his way through the crowd proclaiming that he’s a doctor, discreetly frisks the body, steals a coded message, declares the man died of a heart attack and pulls a vanishing act before the police arrive.

Back in his hotel room, he breaks the code in seconds and offers Rodriguez her payoff. However, she prefers payment in kind, and he’s not about to argue. In the next scene, Wyler lands a small private plane on top of a moving van, leaps clear as his ride explodes in a ball of flame, swings inside the cab, deals with the driver, stops the van and rushes to the back to free the kidnapped rocket scientist inside. Unfortunately, the egghead has gone to his reward, courtesy of being transported in the spy world’s equivalent of an iron maiden. And that’s the first ten minutes of the movie!

After this breakneck opening, it’s time for some context and a covert meeting underground between French spymaster Le Vieux (Jacques Dacqmine) and his Israeli opposite number Argaz (Christian Kerville). They agree to collaborate on the problem of the remaining missing rocketman, Dr Schwartz (Bernard Lajarrige). Still, the smug Kerville can’t understand why Dacqmine has come to the meet alone without backup. There’s a sudden cough, and Kerville turns to find his bodyguard vanished and Wyler in his place, looking vaguely bored. ‘Kids shouldn’t be allowed out late at night,’ he quips, laying the machine guns he has collected down on the desk.

Returning to Istanbul to pursue a lead, Wyler is teamed with the capable Israeli agent Shaimoun (Gil Delamare). The trail leads to a businessman named Hartung (Robert Manuel), who knew Lajarrige. The pretty receptionist insists that her boss is incommunicado, but, not being a man who takes no for an answer, Wyler smashes up the reception area to get an interview. Manuel provides a clue that leads to widow Héléna Jordan (Jany Clair), and, from her, it’s a short leap to a subterranean rocket base hidden in the Egyptian desert. Lajarrige has been forced to work on a nuclear missile, and it’s aimed at New York, with the intention to trigger World War Three.

Freda’s well-mounted spy game proves to be a curious beast in that it welds an outlandish (and very familiar) plot to a bleak, almost nihilistic, attitude. Wyler’s Coplan is a long way from a smirking pretty boy in a tux with a blonde on either arm, instead being far closer to a cold-blooded, ruthless killer who has absolutely no intention of taking any prisoners. At one point, he even stops Delamare from saving a woman being murdered as an intervention would reveal their presence. At another, he has his partner shoot an enemy in the head at point-blank range while he holds the man against a wall. Wyler is not a man to mess about, throw around one-liners or raise a curious eyebrow.

The other most notable feature of the film is its production value. Sure, it can’t compete with a multi-million dollar official Bond project, but it seems there was a decent budget here. If not, it demonstrates that an experienced director like Freda could make a little go a long, long way. Some of the stuntwork is outstanding. The car jump onto a ferry is an excellent climax, even if it can’t top the impressive flying early on (carried out in the rain, by the looks of it!) Delamare, who was principally a stuntman rather than an actor, was in charge of these dangerous undertakings, although he’s perfectly adequate in front of the camera as Wyler’s sidekick too. Resources also allow for filming in a visually striking Turkish cave system and a full-size mockup of the rocket, and Wyler ends up strapped to the nosecone for its maiden flight.

Although Freda directed the next entry in the series, ‘Mexican Slayride/Coplan ouvre le feu à Mexico’ (1967), unfortunately, Wyler was switched out for Lang Jeffries in the lead. That’s a shame, as the actor nails the role here. Coplan might be a one-man army, but there’s never a sense that he’s invulnerable with the outcome a foregone conclusion. Crucially, Wyler allows just enough humanity to seep through in the film’s quieter moments, so the audience remains on his side and is invested in the danger. Given the character’s apparent complete disregard for human life, it would have been easier to play him as a robotic killing machine, but Wyler makes a better choice. It’s also pleasing that the agent’s continued success in the field comes from smarts and experience rather than a reliance on having that one appropriate gadget available for each specific situation.

Freda was born in Egypt to Italian parents and began his career as a writer and assistant director. He took the full creative plunge as writer-producer-director of swashbuckler ‘Don Cesare di Bazan’ (1942). Significant success came with the historical drama ‘The Black Eagle/Aquila nera’ (1946) and never looked back. After a decade of commercial success, he began work on ‘I vampiri/Lust of the Vampire’ (1957), Italy’s first post-war horror film. After a dispute with producers, he walked off the set, and cinematographer Mario Bava finished the picture, but it flopped hard at the box office. Undeterred, Freda delivered more shivers with a remake of the silent classic ‘Maciste all’inferno’ (1962), ‘The Terror of Dr. Hichcock/L’orribile segreto del Dr. Hichcock’ (1962) and ‘The Ghost/Lo spettro’ (1963), the latter two with Barbara Steele. His films are most notable for their opulent look and sumptuous photography.

A published author at age 17, Englishman Wyler made his debut in pictures with a small role in MGM classic ‘The Three Musketeers’ (1948) under his birth name of Richard Stapley. The middling Hollywood career that followed featured supporting parts in big studio productions such as ‘King of the Kyhber Rifles’ (1953) with Tyrone Power. These alternated with second leads in less distinguished outings like ‘Jungle Man-Eaters’ (1954), the 13th entry in Johnny Weismuller’s long-running ‘Jungle Jim’ series. Returning to England to star as TV’s ‘Man from Interpol’, he adopted the Wyler stage name and kept it for the rest of his career. After more television roles, Coplan was his first movie role in Europe, and he followed it with more spy shenanigans as ‘Dick Smart 2.007’ (1967) and closed out the decade starring in Spaghetti Westerns. The male lead in Jess Franco’s dreadful ‘Sumuru’ picture, ‘The Girl from Rio/Die sieben Männer der Sumuru’ (1969), sent him back to England, where he made occasional appearances on television until his retirement in 1978. He passed away in California in 2010.

A definite contender for the best of the Eurospys.