Siete minutos para morir

It all starts in Hong Kong. Al Monks, theoretically the Cultural and Commercial Attaché of the American Consulat is in reality a CIA-man. One day, he lays his hands on a list containing all the names of Chinese Nationalist agents working undercover in Red China. In stead of bringing it to his "Consul", he strikes a deal with the Italian Mafia organization Gamma. In exchange for money, and a new name -he wants to divorce his wife, who doesn't want to let him go- he will bring Gamma the list. The Mob offers him 200 000 $ and proposes the killing of his twin brother Domeinico Le Monaco in Italy. Monks' twin brother was working for Gamma, but became dispensable, so the Mafia kills him as part of the deal. At more or less the same time, at the other side of the world, Monks kills someone who resembles him vaguely. He puts the body in his own car, and makes sure that the hands of the dead body are burned. His girlfriend Karin Foster reinforces the cover up, by claiming that the unidentifiable body found in the car is indeed Monks'. The real Monks disappears to Italy, and takes the place of his twin brother Le Monaco, killed by Gamma. Soon he's joined by his lovey dovey Karin . Still following or is a drawing already needed ? The CIA sends special agent Bill Howard to investigate things in Hong Kong. Howard soon discovers that the body -supposedly Monks'- isn't his. He knew Monks in Korea, and a tattoo from 1945 draws his attention. He finds out the real Monks has slipped to Italy, and he gets after him. Monks/Le Monaco finds out that Gamma can get 5 mio. $ for the list, and insists in getting 1 mio. in stead of 200 000 $. So, now we have the Red Chinese angry with Gamma, and Gamma and the CIA are both trying to capture Monks and the list. Don't buy the movie if you want fast and funny dialogs... The aspect "action" gets all the attention: lots of fighting, shooting, climbing, jumping, flying etc. at a very steady rhythm. Lots of James Bond-ish exotic weapons, like an armored sports car than can spray slippery stuff to get rid of tailing cars, brief cases that can shoot, pistols that seem to be able to fire 26 shots, etc. The title refers to one of the tricky situations in which Special Agent Monks almost gets killed. He and a secretary who is helping him get trapped in a kind of gigantic press. Gamma's boss gives him only 7 minutes to commit suicide, before the walls will have squeezed both him and the secretary flat as a pancake. But fortunately enough our Billy has got some explosives with him ! Always handy, no ? All these exotic weapons makes it something closer to a Bond movie than to let's say "The spy who came in from the cold" or the "IPCRESS file". However, forget about the (so called) glamor and about the (rather dubious British) humor that Bond fans seem to enjoy so much...

Film without big names of actors, no star in the cast. The director is not a resonant name either. But, it's worth seeing, it's well done. A good Eurospy among hundreds of other very bad.

Paulo Gozlino stars in this Eurospy, one of only two times in his career that he got to be the star in a movie, which surprises me, as to me he has a strong screen presence, radiating confidence, with charm or a hard edge as appropriate.

Reading his Italian Wikipedia page, he was primarily a dancer and choreographer, a profession in which he worked alongside his wife Elena Sedlak. This accounts for his superior level of smooth physical movement, which helps a lot in this role. He looks very comfortable in the actions scenes, whether running, leaping or climbing. I was immediately aware that here was someone who had legitimate athletic ability, an aspect of espionage where other actors don't always manage to look convincing.

Being already involved in the entertainment industry would have made for a relatively straight forward transition into acting, and a Paulo became a familiar face in Spaghetti Westerns, rising as high as co-star, but only on one other occasion did he get top billing, in "Flashman", about a masked Superhero character, another role where his athletic dancing skills would have come in handy. Possessing swarthy good looks which remind me of Fernando Lamas, he could play hero, villain or frenemy equally effectively.

As far as his Eurospy career goes, he had earlier appeared in "The Fuller Report" in a supporting role alongside Ken Clark.

This film could serve as an object lesson to others on how to make a competent Eurospy, with straight forward direction, a sound script and action that does not try to stray beyond the limits of its budget. In fact I'm tempted to rate it one of the best I've seen because of that. It's probably good enough to rank alongside the better episodes of "Dangerman", "The Saint" or "The Man From Uncle", which is about the highest praise I can bestow on any Eurospy.

Apart from being more coherent than most Eurospys, the plot has an added dimension which make it a bit more interesting than is usual, the scenario being a three sided struggle between Paulo, old war buddy Ruben Rojo and the "Gamma / Mafia".

Ruben plays an American agent who has decided to "take the money and run" by stealing some MacGuffin documents that he has arranged to sell to the "Gamma / Mafia", who in turn have made a deal with the Chinese. He fakes his own death in Hong Kong before escaping to Milan, where Gamma have bumped off his twin brother so he can take his place. But he doesn't trust them and takes some precautions which make his part of the story just as interesting as Paulo's. He surreptitiously plants a bug under the Gamma contacts desk during a meeting, so he (or his love interest Neves Navarro) can listen in and stay one step ahead, and arms himself with a sleeve gun, which he gets to deploy several times over the course of the film, which is one of the highlights for me.

The female roles in this one are better than usual as well, Betsy Bell gets plenty to do helping out Paulo, including saving his skin with some gun play, while Neves Navarro brings some gravitas to her partnership with Ruben and Fajda Nicol is all business as the Gamma henchwoman. Even Marysol Ayuso, as Paulo's obligatory additional conquest, is no bimbo, coming across as a woman of the World with no illusions about her situation.

On that subject, while we can assume that Paulo may have previously bedded Elisabetta Wu, the woman he is going on vacation with at the start of the film, he is interrupted by the mission call from his boss, so she doesn't count. He accepts Marysol's invitation and switches off the room light, which makes one, and then when he is with Betsy and we cut to Paulo buttoning up his shirt in front of the mirror while Betsy reclines on the bed covered by a sheet, that makes two. So sexual prowess credentials validated. In the end Paulo and Betsy fly off into the sunset together.

Surprisingly George Hilton turns up in a supporting role as another agent. Hilton was a frequent star of Spaghetti Westerns, so it's almost as if the casting director got mixed up and swapped Paulo and George's parts by mistake.

Good use is made of Hong Kong as an exotic location and the choreography of the Hong Kong fight sequence is noticeably superior to any of the European based ones. The only slip up is when Paulo's plane lands in Hong Kong on a runway that appears diametrically opposed to that city's then infamous location (a flat plain more likely to have been Milan airport, which is then re-used, as itself, later).

Back in Italy, Milan, Lake Garda and Genoa are also well utilised for their scenic possibilities. The European fight scenes are unsophisticated, but enthusiastic, in the style of Roger Browne.

There are no shortage of interesting vehicles on display, Paulo drives a Lancia Flamina, which he tells us is bulletproof and which can spray oil from its rear bumper onto the road to get rid of a chasing car, that being the villains Alpha Romeo Julietta 1, which then skids over a cliff and crashes into Lake Garda. Ruben drives a Chevrolet Corvair, Betsy drives a Porche and there is also a helicopter.

The producers do a good job of creating the right of ambiance of sophisticated electronics and gadgetry. Gamma have a man-in-the-chair who appears periodically, sitting in front of a microphone at a three piece silver control panel with an array switches, buttons, plugs and dials, and four blank white monitor screens mounted above, from where he conducts surveillance and relays information and instructions. Mario Donen, as lead henchman, communicates with Gamma's big boss, Jose Marco, via a wall mounted panel of dials, lights, gauges and speakers and observes activity in his nightclub via another panel of dials with a sliding automated peep hole located behind his desk. The finale takes place at a factory which is part electricity substation, part theatrical sound stage and part machine shop. Numerous characters make use of hand held micro radio transmitters to communicate with each other. Finally there is the crushing room, with its metallic walls, floor and ceiling, the deployment of which gives the film its title.

There's even a half decent torch song in the nightclub sequence, although they don't really make the most of it, not featuring either in the opening or closing credits.

"How cruel his eyes, and kind of mad, Oh I Love Him Still, Oh man of mine, who loves to kill.."

With a bit more work I think that could really be something?

Bondian banter

Marysol - "They won't find you here, don't worry"

Paulo - "If they find out you've helped me, you could get into serious trouble"

Marysol- "Women in my line of work always help men on the run. Do you like rum?"

Paulo - (sculls drink) "Thanks, what's your name?"

Marysol - "Sonya, yours?"

Paulo - "Bill"

Marysol - "Bill what?"

Paulo - "Is that at all important?"

Marysol - "No, not really"

Paulo - (looks out the window and checks that the coast is clear) "They're gone, its best I left"

Marysol - (giving him the look) "It's that uncomfortable with me?"

Paolo - (smirks and moves in) "What do you think?"

They clinch and Paulo turns off the light.

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.