Roger Brown's third Eurospy is an incoherent mess. There are plenty of Bond-esque scenes which are ok when considered individually, but add up to less than the sum of their parts when taken as a whole. In other words the plot makes no sense whatsoever.
Someone is selling arms to the Vietcong (in addition to the Chinese of course) and someone had obtained the evidence and hidden it inside a cigarette lighter in some way before being killed off. Now someone else has it and everyone else wants it. The Americans nominate Roger to represent their interests. So far so good, but after that it's anyone's guess what is going on.
The only thing you can rely on is that every five or ten minutes Roger will be attacked by several henchmen and will punch his way out, in his customary exaggerated style.
Women come at Roger so thick and fast during the first half of the movie that I couldn't keep up with them, but as far as I could tell, although he gets some offers and opportunities, he doesn't manage to bed any of them, (but I could be wrong, maybe the audience is meant to read more between the lines). However in the end he does manage to arrange an off screen assignation in San Tropez with Russian Agent Helga Line.
While the henchmen are numerous and undistinguished, Miguel de la Riva makes an angry impression in his red polo-neck and Franko Ressel foreshadows Charles Gray in "Diamonds Are Forever" as the evil mastermind.
After a while I gave up trying to keep track of who was who, who was on whose side or who was double crossing who.
Traditional settings like the casino, the docks, the cabaret and the luxury villa are visited and there are some nice locations choices for the key set piece confrontations, an imposing ruined castle on a cliff (with helicopter arrival and departure), and an empty bullring.
There's also an interesting double torture scene during the climax back at the villa. Helga is tied to a table "Goldfinger style" and tortured with gold tinsel blown by a fan (I think it was meant to represent some sort of Van de Graff generator style electrical charge?) while Roger is tied to a chair in an alcove, behind a glass wall, and subjected to poison gas. The villain makes them watch each other being tortured but he ends up being distracted by the writhing of Helga and Roger is able to make his move.
Paris, Tripoli, Madrid and other parts of Spain make for acceptable exotic locations.
The soundtrack is adequate with another Shirley Bassey-esque title song that sounds suitably dramatic unless you actually listen to the appalling lyrics.
There is one nice sports car, possibly a Triumph Spitfire Mk 1.
As for gadgets, he has an exploding watch, she has a lipstick with a laser weapon and the villain has a spear-gun umbrella.
Roger would fare much better in his next outing, "The Spy Who Loved Flowers"
Lines You Wouldn't Hear From The Other Fellow
Nightclub Singer - "It would be very easy to fall in love with a man like you"
Roger - "That would be my pleasure I can assure you (caresses her chin)...now let's get back to business, where can I find..." (!!! ???)
Mile - "Couldn't we..."
Roger - "Some other time (!!! ???), I hope you managed to check her hotel room, that's all I asked"
Mile - "I know, she's staying at the etc"
Roger - "Good, I don't think you should wait till I come back (!!! ???) (Kissing her gently on the mouth) you're very sweet and someday I want you to meet my twin brother" (???)
After interrogating Rosalba Neri by tickling her feet with a feather
Roger - "Humph, how about that, a wild goose chase, you don't know anything about anything"
Rosalba - "Well. After all. I'm only a woman"
Roger - "Humph, and I bet you'd be just great at freestyle wrestling... (gently fondles her hair) wouldn't you"
Rosalba - Chuckles
Roger - "Listen I have a proposition to make (!!! ???) you still broke?"
Rosalba - "Always daring, always"
