This Spain-Italy co-production displays action enough , plot twists , and several villain roles ; being pretty entertaining from start to finish .This Spanish/Italian "thriller" to rediscover and claim was compellingly directed and in his own style by Ramón Fernandez . Colorful and acceptable rendition about European spy subgenre , an usual genre during the sixties , not taking any situation seriously . A US Secret Service agent named Bill Howard (Paolo Gozlino as Paul Stevens) is recruited and he has to go to Hong Kong because of the disappearance of some essential documents that another one carried . If these documents go to Chinese hands it will cause the killing of an underground spies ring . Bill must retrieve it at whatever cost , before the Italian Mafia nicknamed Gamma and China authorities take all the names of the nationalist agents working undercover in Red China. Along the way , he confronts his nemesis Al Monks (Rubén Rojo) , a nasty who has his own greedy agenda.
Ordinary Euro-spy movie with usual components : pursuits , car crashes , struggles , fantastic gadgets , strange artifacts , international conspiracy , explosive women and of course , the typical , simple helicopters that used to appear in the genre. This spy sub-genre borrows heavily from the OO7 series that at the time starred Sean Connery , such as : Dr No, From Russia with love , Thunderball, and Goldfinger . Dealing with an international plot in which some thorny documents have been robbed , if they fell into enemy hands, could be very dangerous and to cause many more deaths . It has rhythm enough , slight violence , the action never falters , the performances are quite acceptable , the issues raised are interesting , the direction is compelling , along with an attractive musical score from composer José Torregrosa , as well as colorful outdoors showing sightseeing from Milan , Lombardia , Genova , Liguria , Italy and interiors in Estudios Roma, Madrid Milan . The main and support cast -with everyone having fun- are passable and adequate to their functional characters . It has some flaws and gaps , as it does tend to get a bit old , including repetitive nature of some fight scenes , and excessive nonsense , but it has big fun , so it cares . The unknown Paolo Gozlino or Paul Stevens gives a sympathetic acting as a brave playboy/secret agent who takes on an criminal organization . Gozlino has an easy-going air about him that makes him great to see . Co-stars various Eurotrash starletts , such as : Betsy Bell , Nieves Navarro or Susan Scott , Claudia Gravy and Marisol Ayuso . Along with a plethora of Spanish secondaries , usual in the 60s and 70s , such as : Rubén Rojo , José Marco , Emilio Rodriguez , Rufino Ingles , Julio Pérez Tabernero , Francisco Sánchez , among others . And special appearance by George Hilton , the antihero of multiple Spaghetti Westerns , here in a brief role as a secret agent piloting a helicopter.
The motion picture was well directed by prolific filmmaker Ramón Fernández . He was a craftsman who made a lot of films, being his greatest hits ¨No desearas el vecino del quinto¨ that is deemed to be the most commercial and grossing movie of the Spanish cinema , as well as ¨Margarita se llama mi amor¨. Ramón Fernández made all kinds of genres such as thriller as ¨Rueda de Sospechosos¨, ¨La muerte ronda a Monica¨ ; Religious movies as ¨El Cristo del Oceano¨, ¨Sor Ye Ye¨, and especially comedy : ¨Aqui el que no corre vuela¨, ¨Casa Flora¨, ¨Un lujo a su alcance¨, ¨La chica de la piscina¨, ¨Simón contamos contigo¨, ¨Doctor me gustan las mujeres¨ , ¨La gloriosa hazaña del cipote de Archidona¨, ¨Cateto a babor¨, ¨Las panteras se comen a los ricos¨, ¨El diablo cojuelo¨, ¨Los novios de mi mujer¨, ¨Ahi va otro recluta¨, among others . Rating : 6/10 .Acceptable and decent thriller/Euro spy movie.
