Taking part in ICM challenges to watch It Italian and "cult" films,I decided to take a look at what titles DVD sellers had recently found. With his superb 1970 film And God Said to Cain being my intro to Spaghetti Westerns, I was happy to read from a seller that he had found a Euro Spy flick by Antonio Margheriti,which led to me spying on the goldman.View on the film:Swooning into the peak of the Euro Spy years on Riz Ortolani's colourful Jazz score, director Antonio Margheriti & cinematographer Riccardo Pallottini, (who both later reunited for Cain) investigate the spy genre with hip Pop-Art, via a glittering use of matte paintings building the underground lair of the baddie, and Sennet's gadgets being given a kitsch appearance. Referencing their work in the Horror genre, Margheriti and Pallottini stylishly use whip-pans and zoom-ins to give the lazer burns and henchmen Sennet faces a level of threat, and blends the matte paintings with tightly held shots to give the final fight between Sennet and Rehte an exciting atmosphere.Sending Rehte off with a baddie plan that allows the flick to chip into the Sci-Fi space craze of the era, the screenplay Alfonso Balcázar/José Antonio de la Loma and Ernesto Gastaldi smash Sennet into the mission with cheeky comedic asides that allow him to outwit the baddie and his own agency. Teaming up with fellow agent Captain Patricia Flanagan once entering Rehte's lair, the writers give Sennet's attempt to succeed at the mission a surprising level of menace, with the sassy one-liners being replaced with shocks of death and Sennet's frustrations over not being able to break Rehte's traps on his own. Joining the mission half-way,Diana Lorys gives a sparkling performance as Flanagan,thanks to Lorys giving Flanagan a mischievous edge when helping Anthony Eisley's lean Sennet,which Lorys turns cold when she begins to fear it's the kiss of death from (Folco Lulli's excellent) Goldman.

An American variation of James Bond is still a poor man's James Bond, and this one really deserves the title of "the rip-off movie". It's all about some convoluted attempt for foreign enemies to interfere with space travel, and starring third string leading man Anthony Eisley, it is short on A talent. What it lacks in a Sean Connery or Dean Martin or even a James Coburn, it makes up for in scantily clad blonds of every side of the spectrum, some of them more cartoonish than Bullwinkle's Natasha.In spite of a concrete, believable plot, there are plenty of engaging action sequences including a very intense scene where Eisley and his companion for the evening get stuck in a giant tank quickly filling up with scalding hot water. The main villain is a total rip-off of the Bond villains, and this makes it ultra predictable. But I still couldn't help bit enjoy it even though at times, I couldn't figure out at all what the heck was going on.

If you grew up watching late 50s and 60s TV shows, chances are that you would recognize Anthony Eisley but not his name. While Eisley never became a big star, he was rather ubiquitous on TV. I remember him from "Dragnet", "The FBI" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" but he's more remembered for "Hawaiian Eye". However, in "Lightning Bolt" he's given the chance to be a star--albeit in a very low-budget Italian spy caper. Often American 2nd and 3rd tier actors were brought in to star in Italian films of the era. Since few knew Italian, the films were completely dubbed and marketed internationally. Many were horrible, some were classics (such as "La Strada" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly") and most were somewhere in the middle--like "Lightning Bolt".In "Lightning Bolt" (a.k.a. "Operazione Goldman"), Eisley (who is inexplicably red-haired) stars as Lt. Harry Sennett--an American James Bond-type hero. His mission is to discover what's causing the rockets at Cape Kennedy to go off course and explode. This means lots of pretty girls, fast cars and danger. The plot is very similar to two films--"You Only Live Twice" (a Bond film about Blofeld capturing manned rockets) and "Strange Brew" (since the evil boss-man turns out to be an insane brewmeister!!).So is it good? Well, yes and no. The film looks like they wanted to make a Bond film but only had about a tenth the budget. Some of the sets are impressive but all too often the stunts and action scenes come off as not quite ready for the bit screen. As for Eisley, he isn't bad as he isn't meant to be as smooth or sexy as Bond and is pretty decent in the action scenes. The print is often poor. In some cases you cannot blame the filmmakers--such as the scratchy or grainy sections. But, in others they obviously used lousy stock footage. "Lightning Bolt" is a movie with much to dislike. Yet, it also has a certain kitschy fun that makes it worth seeing. It certainly is NOT a film for everyone--but for the right audience it's worth seeing. For a much better Italian action/adventure film, try watching the much more slickly made "Danger: Diabolik"--especially since Diabolik dresses EXACTLY the same as the brewmeister's henchmen. Overall, bad but quite enjoyable.

Lightning Bolt doesn't come close to being what I'd call a "great" Euro-Spy film, but it's harmless enough and can be quite fun if you don't go into it expected the world. The basic plot has Harry Sennet (Anthony Eisley), our would-be hero, being sent to Cape Kennedy to investigate a series of rocket launches that have all ended in disaster. He quickly discovers that a ray of some sort coming from under the water is knocking out the rockets' guidance systems. But who's behind it and why? There are a few other surprises and twists to the plot, but it's all pretty standard stuff for a spy film.Anthony Eisley is easily the worst thing Lightning Bolt has going for it. I found it difficult to root for him. He doesn't come across as a very good actor and is not capable of pulling off the role of the smug secret agent. Like the white socks he can be seen wearing with his suit and tie, he seems totally out of place. In fact, I probably should have just said that I didn't like a lot of the casting decisions in Lighting Bolt. Diana Lorys, normally a winner with me, is horribly miscast as spy boss Capt. Patricia Flanagan. And Folco Lulli's beer-maker turned super-villain Rether is more pathetic than terrifying. I about lost it when I saw this little fat man sitting behind his giant console in that giant room. Too funny! (Now that I'm thinking about it, that might have been what director Antonio Margheriti was going for – and ineffective looking bad guy. If so, he succeeded.) The only member of the main cast that worked for me was Wandisa Guida as Kary, the good girl turned bad girl turned good girl. What a hottie! Another thing that definitely worked for me is the whole look of the film. For example, Rether's underwater lair is awesome in its design and simplicity. It's not difficult to see where a major portion of Lightning Bolt's budget went. I've seen some complaints about Margheriti's use of miniatures. Maybe I'm showing my age, but I liked it. Sure, they're not realistic, but what is in a movie like Lightning Bolt. Riz Ortoliani's score is another highlight. It's a piece of music that fits the movie beautifully. Throw in some good action scenes, bodies frozen in a state of suspended animation, a cool gadget or two, and a group of henchmen dressed like Diabolik and you end up with a movie that I quite enjoyed despite its faults.Finally, before I finish this, I feel compelled to write about one scene in the movie that left me scratching my head. A rocket is about to blast off from Cape Kennedy and Sennet knows it's going to be destroyed. What does he do? Does he call NASA or some other agency to notify them? No! Instead, Sennet drives his car through a fence and directly at the rocket as it takes off. What, does he have a death wish or something? Was he trying to be burned to a crisp? What did he hope to accomplish? What was his motivation? It's just one of the more puzzling scenes I've run across in a while.