VIDEO REVIEW: From The Orient With Fury

i SPY EUROSPY: Super Seven Calling Cairo

Super Seven Calling Cairo
Director: Umberto Lenzi
Year 1965

Super Seven Calling Cairo is a pretty enjoyable Eurospy effort that has all the right ingredients in its formulaic recipe to make for a wonderful super spy viewing. Umberto Lenzi directs this entry and it’s equally as fun as his other efforts in the genre around this time. The film stacks up nicely when compared to his The Spy Who Loved Flowers and 008: Operation Exterminate, and the same globe trotting aspect of those productions is brought to great realization in Super Seven Calling Cairo.

The film follows agent Martin Stevens AKA Superseven as he is in hot pursuit of a camera that houses a new valuable metal. His hunt for the rare item takes him across the globe, while at the same time dealing him some rather close encounters with some very dangerous women. I expect nothing less from a good Eurospy. With an excellent cast and a plethora of beautiful locations, Super Seven Calling Cairo is a great example of a highly entertaining Eurospy that knows how to deliver the goods.

Roger Browne plays the role of Superseven, the agent that every woman figuratively loves to death and often literally tries to. Browne takes on the character with almost a regal sensibility, coming off more refined then the usual Eurospy secret agent. He’s probably the closest to the James Bond stereotype that any Eurospy has gotten too, at least from the films that I’ve seen, and he brings a tinge of respectability to his role. Poised with a square jaw and calm demeanor, his secret agent is craftier then most, never relying on wit or charm to get him out of sticky situations but rather his athletic ability and intellect.

The film also plays off of this more leveled and focused tone, by presenting Superseven with an interesting pairing of girls that both tug on the viewers expectations on which one of the women is the bad guy of the piece. Rosalba Neri, who has appeared in a few choice Eurospy films but is mostly known for her large cannon of horror movie appearances, plays the role of Faddja, a beautiful young woman who is forced to aid the opposition to Superseven. She looks absolutely stunning in this film and she provides a rather important role in the story that comes full circle in the closing moments of the movie. Opposite her is actress Fabienne Dali, who plays the role of Denise, a local Egyptian woman that accompanies Superseven on his mission to recover the sought after camera. Dali has the bigger of the two roles, traveling from exotic location to exotic location all by the side of Superseven, often getting tangled up in the danger and espionage. Lenzi does a tremendous job in interweaving these two women into the story, while never giving us a clear intention on either of their motives for wanting to be around Superseven. The ambiguity of their objectives is spectacularly done and the film is better for it.

Another aspect of the film that I really enjoyed was the inclusion of all the globetrotting. Like any good Eurospy movie, you have to have a ton of exotic places for your agent to randomly visit and in Super Seven Calling Cairo, there’s plenty of that. Agent Martin Stevens finds himself in Rome, Paris, Locarno, and London, especially spending a good deal of time in Cairo, hence the title of the film. The Egyptian exteriors are wonderful, giving a wide breadth of interesting locals that showcase many expansive shots of crowded marketplaces and monumental glimpses of the iconic pyramids. I also enjoyed the filmmaker’s choice of shooting on location in Locarno, Switzerland. The area is absolutely beautiful and the film explored its surrounding areas in a way I’ve never seen before in a Eurospy film.

What’s also great about all of this globe-trotting is that it never feels random. Superseven always has a legitimate reason for visiting these gorgeous places and you never get the feeling that they just shoe horned the story into forcing him to be there because of the filmmakers’ prior permission to visit the cities. There’s much about this film that seems to fit just right and Lenzi has done a wonderful job in making the movie logical while still setting it in that wacky mind set of a traditional Eurospy. This flick really is that enjoyable and fun.

Super Seven Calling Cairo is a well put together little Eurospy film that tries to keep the espionage respective, while at the same time delving in a few guilty pleasures that the genre has to offer. The location shoots are wonderfully captured and fully utilized within the context of the story, making for a spy film that is both visually sweeping as it is contextually interesting.
 
Roger Browne brings a thoughtful nature to Superseven, classing up the role of secret agent a bit while still giving him that ruthless cunning attitude that is sorely missed in many Eurospy films. Both Rosalba Neri and Fabienne Dali look stunning in their opposing roles and the fact that they both have so much to do in this movie is an added plus. For me, Eurospy films are a medium for us to be able to be transported to exotic locations while at the same time role playing as a secret agent that has the world by the horns. Super Seven Calling Cairo does exactly that and it does it in style. If you’re looking for a quick Eurospy fix then look no further then this Umberto Lenzi directed effort, because there is much to love here. The movie is just…….

The names Martin Stevens, but you can call me Superseven if you're nasty.

With a cold stare like that, how can she not be pure evil?

Clinky.

Woah! I'm freaking out!

Another F on your report card? Superseven I'm ashamed of you.

Here, let me kill you slowly. Say lung cancer.

The kiss of death.

Get your naked ass out here.

Rosalba Neri hates back seat drivers. Especially when their next to her.

How cute.

Take that you son of a bitch!

Did you take the last of the Oreo's?

Superseven day-dreaming about joining the Mile High Club.

The End.

i Spy Eurospy: From the Orient With Fury

From the Orient With Fury

Director: Sergio Grieco

Year 1965

From the Orient With Fury is a tremendously entertaining Eurospy film that presents Ken Clark in his second foray as the super spy Dick Malloy. This time Agent 077 must recover a kidnapped scientist and his extraordinary invention, a ray gun that can disintegrate solid matter, from a madman named Goldwyn. Can he recover the stolen weapon and its creator or is the world doomed? Of course the film isn't as melodramatic as all that, mostly relying on the fun aspects of the spy trade; guns, girls, and beautiful exotic sceneries. This films got it all in almost excessive amounts, for you'll forget multiple times what Dick Malloy's ultimate mission really is. Not to worry though because in this Eurospy, style is definitely better then substance, especially when there is this much eye candy and adventure to get lost in.

I'm not just a handsome man, but I also play one on TV.

Why so blue?

Ken Clark does another outstanding job as the titular spy, whose as good at spying as he is with the ladies. And boy is there a helping handful of them in this film. Unlike Clark's first film in the series, Mission Bloody Mary, he's crooning for the affection of just one beautiful damsel in the form of Helga Line, but in From the Orient With Fury he is bombarded with one female starlet after another. It's interesting that they decided to go this route and just go hog wild with Agent 077's love interests. The change makes for a more hectic movie, thowing any kind of structure to the way side in favor of a more dynamic and diverse slew of romantic interactions for Clark's agent to tackle.

Who would have thought that this tender moment would turn into a slap-fest?

A little help here guys.

In Mission Bloody Mary, we had Helga Line's character to help build the tension with whether she was truly on 077's side or if she was working with another opposing organization. That tense uncertainty worked its way through the entire film, all the way up until the end of the movie. In From the Orient With Fury, that narrative bridge that held the previous film together so well is now absent, making for a more muddled mess that feels like a number of separate missions glued together.

Now I love both approaches that each film takes, but for some reason the hectic mess that is From the Orient With Fury, seems just that much more random and fun. I love the assorted nature of it and the uncontrollable and contrasting quality of each one of Dick Malloy's encounters. It's strange, but it just felt more enjoyable not knowing what crazy thing was going to happen next. Does it make for a more coherent story, hell no, but it does make for some insanely entertaining moments.

I oughta slap you, you kooky dame.

Stop in the name of love!

So many women, so little time. Well time doesn't appear to be a factor for old Dick Malloy. In this mission he's tackling three gorgeous women and he's doing it in style. Some are in league with him and some are against him, but all add a special and significant flavor to the film. Fabienne Dali plays the venomous and deadly Simone Degas who takes a slapping of a lifetime from a pissed off Malloy after her failed assassination attempt on the super spy. Spanish actress and singer Mikaela plays a short but memorable role as Dolores Lopez, who has her life turned upside down by Malloy after he wines and dines her and then splits. She performs a magnificent musical number in the small portion of the film that she appears in, but it's a spectacular moment and very meaningful. Then rounding out the ladies is one of Eurospy's most legendary female forces of the genre, Margaret Lee. She plays the character of Evelyn Stone who partners up with Agent 077 to take down the evil Goldwyn. She is absolutely stunning in this film and does a great job of rounding out the cast and complimenting Ken Clark's promiscuous spy.

Damn that Ken Clark is one smooth mother.. shut your mouth.

Thank god I took off my heels and put on my Himalayan walking shoes!

We get a nice array of locations in this film, from Madrid, Istanbul, and the familiar Paris locations that were present in Dick Malloy's first film. The different looks of each locale is equal to the impressive vistas that were featured in Mission Bloody Mary, so the tradition of the Malloy series sustains its exotic wonder and breathtaking views. This is nice, because you really can't have a Eurospy flick without the globe trotting aspect to go along with it. It's just a part of the overall Eurospy recipe.

Add this with the fact that we get a large assortment of exotic femme fatales and a bat shit crazy mad man named Goldwyn, played by Franco Ressel, and you have yourself a strangely satisfying little film. The fact that they kept Ken Clark as super agent Dick Malloy to continue the spies adventures, only solidifies the series as a consistent addition to the Eurospy genre and one that I always love revisiting. Plus the fact that this film has a freaking ray gun that disintegrates anything in its path. A ray gun! Just saying.

Weee! Ray guns are fun!

Shout! Shout! Get this spear out!

From the Orient With Fury is not as established as its predecessor, but what it lacks in cohesive story telling it more then makes up for it with its over the top sub plot and never ending stream of silver screen beauties. The randomness of the film is highly entertaining and some of the sequences that they come up with in the film is actually pretty effective and appealing.

You really can't go wrong with this movie or any of the Ken Clark spy films. They've got something for every Eurospy lover out there and if you're not tickled by at least something in these ridiculously amusing flicks, then maybe you're taking these movies too seriously. Remember it's all in good fun. I highly recommend this film to all Eurospy devotees and to anyone who wants a little adventure and fun in their lives, even if it's lived through the celluloid life of the one and only Dick Malloy.

4 out of 5 guns        A Great Eurospy Adventure With Beauty to Spare!