In the wake of James Bond' s unprecedented success in the field of the spy thriller,Maurice Cloche ,like so many others,jumped on the bandwagon,he who began his career in....1937.In -to put it mildly - an uneven filmography ,he made some estimable works such as "Le Petit Chose" and his admirable "Monsieur Vincent" ;the late fifties found him lost in a world of pimps , prostitutes and gangsters.
"X13" is his second spy thriller ,after his Coplan (1964) and before his "Vicomte " (1966).
The hero,Serge Vadile " X13 " was renamed X77 (X double 7,to look like you-know-who) and "Baraka pour" became "orders to kill" ,which sounds like " license to kill";besides,the action often takes place in a clinic ,with bandages galore,a la "thunderball".All this to try and crack the commercial coconut of the international market.
Although full of implausibilities (after being flogged till he bleeds,X13 makes short work of three opponents ),this spy flick is probably the most pleasant of the trilogy :its principal ,Gérard Barray ,was a very talented actor,handsome and dynamic,with a good sense of humor;like his director ,he had to retrain into the spy thrillers,after having been a sword hero in swashbucklers;Sylva Koscina is a nurse many a patient would like to have ,but her part is decorative ;she even says towards the end "I'm bored " after the secret agent has told him for the umpteenth time "If I'm not back in fifteen minutes ....".
This is a far-fetched story which revolves around the key to a professor code ;the only (relatively ) original idea is Ingrid 's role (Agnes Spaak),Vadile's collaborator ,who falls for a man and continues to love him even when she learns he is an enemy.
The original title means " X13 got lucky"
