This is another Eurospy which doesn't seem to know whether it wants to be taken seriously or be a comedy, and thus fails to do either.
Did they start out wanting to make a serious Bond knockoff, only to have a change of heart and try to switch to a spoof? Or did they just realise that what they had made was sub-par and decide that their only chance was to and try to dress it up as a spoof, in the hope of salvaging something from the wreckage? Or is it just an attempted spoof that isn't very funny? Movie spying before Bond was generally a serious business and Bond still took itself seriously, but also introduced more glamorous and fanciful elements. However many also felt the franchise crossed the line into parody and the "Spy Spoof" became a fad.
The opening credits of this one strongly suggest it is going to be a comedy, but after that proceedings are mainly played straight, apart from a frequent and annoying "boing" sound effect in the sound track. There are other random moments which might be interpreted as humorous, but they are few and far between.
The MacGuffin is a pile of Nazi secret documents from the war that could contain information which may either be useful or just embarrassing to various parties. Someone has smuggled them out from behind the Iron curtain, but now they have gone missing and everyone wants to find them. The Americans assign Gordon Scott to the task.
Gordon Scott has boyish good looks and a genial nature, but doesn't really display the level of sophistication expected from an "International Man of Mystery". Magda Konopka does better, as the woman who is not what she seems, on the other hand Aurora de Alba's character starts out promisingly but is then underutilised and fades into the background. The villains are numerous but largely undistinguished.
Exotic locations include Casablanca, Rome and Naples, none of which are used particularly imaginatively.
At first the plot develops adequately enough, however eventually it becomes apparent that the makers only have half a script and don't know what to do with the middle section of the film.
Some of the individual action scenes are top notch, but taken together do not add up to a satisfactory whole. The characters end up going around in circles much time, without really moving the story forward. Over and over Gordon leaves the hotel, gets ambushed, fights his way out (or not) and eventually returns to the hotel dishevelled. Moments later he is off again, eventually with the same result. The villains get the drop on him, then he turns the tables and so it goes on, like deja-vu all over again. The villains also deploy several versions of the customary "over-elaborate method of executiing the hero" gambit.
The ending is something of a "The Spy Who Loved Me" scenario. It turns out there's only one competent agent in this film and it's not Gordon Scott, its International Woman of Mystery, Magda Konopka, who's been representing Russian interests. It is she who really succeeds in carrying out her mission, leaving Gordon in the dust in the process.
However she takes pity on him in the end, and is waiting patiently in bed in his hotel room when he finally makes his way back to the hotel for the umpteenth time, looking much the worse for wear, as usual.
No wonder Gordon decide to retire after this one!
