Unexpectedly decent spy flick. I think it would have been a whole lot better if it had just been played straight. It is listed as a comedy - parody might have been a better description - but it holds up much better on its own merits. The Russians are the bad guys and the dialog among them gets a bit silly but the rest of the plot and the action is exciting. The storyline involves a scientist that has invented a device that produces anti-gravity when aimed at certain objects. He needs protection from the Russians while visiting the Brits to sell them the invention. Tom Adams is good as the unflappable 2nd Best Agent assigned to protect him. The rest of the cast is fairly nondescript. The ending has some unique twists. A decent watch.

The first part of a trilogy starring Tom Adams as British secret agent 'Charles Vine', a man equally adept with both girl and gun. For his first assignment, he is assigned to protect Swedish scientist 'Henrik Jakobsen' ( Karel Stepanek ) who claims to be on the verge of a great scientific breakthrough - a gravity control device known as 'Regrav'. Not only will it revolutionise the transport system, but is capable of creating a force field to protect a country from nuclear attack. The British want Regrav, so do the Russians. From the moment Jakobsen steps off the plane, both his and Vine's life are in danger. The enemy are ruthless and cunning - deploying fake policemen, soldiers, transvestite killers, and even a double of Vine - to try and get what they want. All he has on his side is a Mauser Broomhandle, his wits and his fists. Made on a budget which wouldn't have paid for one of 007's Vodka Martinis, this little-known British spy film is surprisingly good. Adams is handsome and laconic and could - in my view - have made a fine Bond ( one wonders if he was ever seriously considered for the role ). A throwaway reference to "that chap who cracked the gold conspiracy" puts Vine in the same universe as Bond. Like 007, Vine has his own twangy guitar theme tune which plays whenever he walks into a room. The supporting cast is fine, particularly Francis De Wolff as 'Walter Pickering' of the Foreign Office and Peter Bull as the scheming criminal boss 'Masterman', while John Arnatt steals the show as Vine's boss Rockwell - his explanation of events to Vine at the hospital is brilliantly delivered. Look out for the lovely Judy Huxtable ( a.k.a, 'the computer centre girl' ) - she later married Peter Cook. The script is well-written, beginning with a teaser worthy of 'The Avengers' in which Henrik's brother August ( Robert Marsden ) is gunned down by enemy agents on Hampstead Heath, and climaxing with a multi-double cross shoot-out in London's docklands. Lindsay Shonteff pulls off some decent action scenes, using the city of London to good effect. If 'Licensed To Kill' can be compared to any Bond film, its 'From Russia With Love', as once again agents of the East and West are played off against one another by a mysterious third party. Vine's miniature gun is a real hoot! Very underrated film. Shown in America as 'The Second Best Secret Agent In The Whole Wild World'.Things To Look Out For - during the opening titles, when Tom Adams' credit appears, in the bottom right-hand corner you can see a caricature of Vine, holding a gun and smoking a cigarette. Vine's next mission was 'Where The Bullets Fly' ( 1966 ). Shonteff had nothing to do with it, sadly, and it shows.

Let's be frank. This is one damp spoof. I'll go into the details of this deadly dull affair if, for some reason, you're interested. Tom Adams is Charles Vine, an inexperienced agent whose assignment is to keep an eye on a scientist (Karel Stepanek) as he prepares his formula for Regrav, a process that reverses gravitational waves. Vine is `a double 0 number, licensed to kill' and he certainly does make use of that particular privilege. During the course of the film Vine kills more than a dozen people. It's not the number that gives one pause, it's the callous and somehow nonchalant way he goes about it that is perturbing. Vine is, by his own confession, in it for the money but one suspects he gets a certain pleasure out of taking lives as well.Stepanek (Our Man in Havana), as the Swedish scientist, gives the best performance of the movie but that's not saying much. The entire production is so lifeless that the actors seem to just want to get it over with, and one can hardly blame them. The film starts off with a bad taste killing when a nanny pulls a machine gun out of her baby buggy and slaughters a man in front of her two infant charges. Then we are treated to a lame theme song by Sammy Davis Jr. and it's all downhill from here, folks. The film suffers from poor pacing, badly choreographed gun battles and worse fight scenes and the whole thing feels much longer than its 95 minute running time.

Any actor who carries....and can PROPERLY LOAD ...a Mauser Broomhandle has GOTTA worth an hour or two of my time. And Tom Adams as Charles Vine can sure do THAT. He's suave, sophisticated, very-British, and carries an odd-ball handgun. Wow!I first saw this movie, via Turner's Chanel 17, when I was in college. It seemed to me to be head and shoulders above the average James Bond-wannabies. It stuck with me well enough I watched the second film, called WHERE THE BULLETS FLY, when it was offered.My only regret is, since TIME-WARNER took over Turner Television, many of these 'small' films are lost...never re-shown....by these out-of-touch cost-accountants that run TW.Take my advice...if offered a chance to see LICENSED TO KILL or WHERE THE BULLETS FLY, give it a chance. It MIGHT just grow on you.