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It’s something completely different . . . a genuine obscurity, a Swiss spy fantasy from the 1960s with major appeal to fans keen on (not in this order) art cinema, Fritz Lang, superspy romps, surreal silent serials, Eurocult actors, and visuals with a New Wave-ish flair. Teams of assassins vie for an atom secret held by mad scientist Daniel Emilfork. The spies target his gorgeous, innocent daughter Marie-France Boyer, but she’s obsessed with a romantic memory from ‘last summer in Shandigor.’ Jean-Louis Roy’s unique, precision-crafted gem evokes the graphic-novel pulp appeal of Dr. Mabuse, Alphaville, Judex or Diabolik — yet it is unlike any of them. It’s comic nonsense, but also earnest and original.

The Unknown Man of Shandigor

Blu-ray

Deaf Crocodile Films

1967 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date January 22, 2022 / L’inconnu de Shandigor / Available through Vinegar Syndrome / 34.98

Starring: Marie-France Boyer, Ben Carruthers, Daniel Emilfork, Jacques Dufilho, Serge Gainsbourg,...

It’s 1967 (probably). The famous inventor, Von Krantz (Daniel Emilfork), has created a device which could reshape the Cold War by rendering nuclear devices useless, but upon realising that various governments want it for political reasons rather than for the sake of world peace, he refuses to share it with anybody, instead retreating to his fortified villa (it’s a Swiss film so nobody is surprised that he owns one of these) and refusing to communicate with the outside world. With him are his albino assistant Yvan (Marcel Imhoff) and his beautiful daughter Sylvaine (Marie-France Boyer), who serves as his carer since he can’t walk. Just outside are not-very-secret agents from the US, the Ussr and France, along with a number of free agents, all determined to find some way of stealing the device.

Made as a B-movie to satisfy the then rampant public demand for spy thrillers, The Unknown Man Of.