Baraka sur X 13

This film begins with a man planting a canister of knockout gas on a passenger airplane in flight and after retrieving some scientific papers from a highly regarded rocket scientist parachuting out just before the aircraft crashes into a nearby mountain. Concerned about the possibility that the scientist's papers may have been compromised the French send "Agent X-77 Serge Vadile" (Gerard Barray) to the crash site to investigate. Surprisingly enough, however, is that the scientist in question just happens to be one of only two survivors of the crash and as a result measures are immediately taken to ensure security in the local hospital at all costs. And this becomes even more important due to the fact that his papers were encoded and only he knows how decipher it. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a rather routine EuroSpy film which suffered from extremely annoying music between scenes along with poor editing which gave the film a rather choppy feel throughout. On that note, about the only item of interest was the presence of Sylva Koscina (as the nurse named "Mania") who was absolutely breathtaking. Even so, it wasn't enough to overcome the faults just mentioned and for that reason I have rated this film accordingly. Slightly below average.

Gerard Barray must protect a scientist and his new invention. The invention is another super fuel that will `advance the exploration of space by ten years' and the plot devolves to stopping the bad guys from blowing up a factory where the invention is being worked on.

Barrray is actually quite good in the role of a secret agent. He has the qualities required to seamlessly blend humor and determination and his dark good looks are softened by an impish gleam in his eye. He previously played a spy in Gibraltar (64). His love interest here is Manya played by the lovely Sylva Koscina who graced several other spy pictures as well. Here she plays a nurse who falls for Barray and joins him not only in bed but on several adventurous episodes. The more of her the better.

The bulk of the Georges Garvarentz score consists of an annoying zither theme but there is one nice jazz tune played on a radio. So, overall this is an enjoyable film even if has been made nonsensical by the dubbing into English.

I have seen almost all of the Euro-Spy movies made during the James Bond craze. They all are not as great as the original but all have "something" unique to offer. Baraka X-13 is no exception. There is lots to see here as our Hero tries to solve a crime of industrial intrigue. It is just plain FUN to watch.

An average but passable -at times - thriller with explosive conflict of world-shattering espionage , containing regular ingredients as suspense , intriguing events , sightseeing and a few bouts of unconvincing fights . Includes thrills , frantic action , several villain roles , fist-fights , various international locations , shootouts with high body-count and being middlingly entertaining from start to finish . An international espionage in which a nasty mastermind (Renato Baldini) with help of the bad guy Frank (José Suárez) try to get an essential formula for a solid-rocket-fuel . Meanwhile , our spy , government agent Serge Vadile, agent X 13 (Gérard Barray) attempts to prevent foreign spies from obtaining the scientist's formula . Posing as an accident investigator, Serge visits a plane crash site in which the professor was injured and all we see is the disordered interior of the passenger cabin playing dead. Much of the subsequent action is centred on the hospital where the Professor is admitted and a series of less than stellar plot developments that seem merely designed to pad the run time to feature length. Along the way , Serge falls in love for a gorgeous nurse (Sylva Koscina) , and he will stop at nothing to get his purports , as he even gasses a fellow agent who has switched sides for love.

The story is a fun mess starting with a twisted plot with pursuits and thrills along the city of Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy and some spectacular locations . Happening mutual spying and disconcerting confrontations with a lot of violent fights , treason , crossfire , some decent stunt driving and a couple of explosions . Rather boring , routine Eurospy shenanigans, with the only noticeable twist being the involvement of a French film company in its production, along with the inevitable collaboration of Italian and Spanish studios . The lack of production resource is pretty obvious from our opening sequence with a few extras and the plane disaster is rendered through the tremendously convincing medium of two characters hearing a distant explosion a bit of gun play. It displays a charming cast , but the uneven filmmaking falters in film that wavers from mystery , thriller and necessary action-packed . There're lack of decent action scenes , big sets, stunt work, gadgets and set pieces may have been as much to do with budget limitations . Colorful and so-so rendition about European spy subgenre , a prolific genre during the sixties , not taking any situation seriously . A fashion , but pedestrian run-of-the-mill spy film at the time, meaning it stuck to a lot of what was currently popular , but here including some embarrassing and nonsense scenes . Inspired by the success of the James Bond films, as this spy sub-genre borrows heavily from the OO7 series that at the time starred Sean Connery , such as : Dr No (1962) , From Russia with love , Thunderball, and Goldfinger . The content remains similar other stories in this Euro-spy sub-genre : a ruthless villainous , some beautiful girls , alongside ridiculous , uptight and extremely silly action set pieces from a today's point of view . A Sixties-style film usually has a short sell-by date , and this flick isn't exception . The script doesn't help him either , as it consists of the habitual intrigue to take on a powerful organization , while our starring go around , stalking here and there , but actually tells no more than different people spying on and beating up each other in the hope of getting their ominous aims . Of course , with such a film from nostalgic and botcher ways , one does not count on high art work . It is staged in a hopelessly amateurish way , it shows us rows of bare fights and several confrontations with a number of dead people in the worst choreography . As our starring behaving in such an tough activity and so stupid manners so that committing usual mistakes on their own way . The screenplay works with unnecessary contradictions and implausibility , including absurd moments , and the story is thinner than it usually is in works of this kind , the Euro-spy sub-genre . 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 a bit of fun , at times, so it cares . The main and support cast -with everyone having amusement- are acceptable , slightly adequate to their functional characters . At a time when espionage plots were very much in fashion thanks to the bursting onto celluloid of films about secret agent James Bond , European filmmakers returned to action and adventure cinema with this film starring one of the greatest European actors in adventure genre : Gérard Barray who was the leading hero in Adventure-Movies made in France - following Jean Marais and on his side in his starting-out-Movies . He became famous as D'Artagnan in "Les trois mousquetaires", Surcouf in ¨The Sea Pirate¨and ¨Le retour de Surcouf¨, as Hardi Pardaillan in ¨Le Chevalier de Pardaillan¨or ¨The Gallant Musketeer¨ and "Commissaire San Antonio". In 1969 he changed his profile to the dark side as Van Britten , partner of young Claude Jade in ¨Le témoin¨ (1969) - his most interesting part , but whithout great success . And he played a similar Euro-spy co-produced by the same countries titled Gibraltar (1964) . His come-back to popularity was the TV-Man Duvernois and a fundamental secondary role in ¨Open your eyes¨ (1997) by Alejandro Amenábar. Being well accompanied by one of the best post-war Italian actresses , Sylva Koscina, who is best remembered as Steve Reeves' better half in cheesy Italian muscleman epics 'Hercules' (1958) and 'Hercules Unchained' (1959) but had a significant career in more respectable cinema, appearing in Georges Franju's 'Judex' (1963) and 'Juliet of the Spirits' (1965) for Federico Fellini. Appearing some familiar faces from the Sixties who worked in the habitual 60s , 70s sub-genres : Peplum, Spaghetti Western , Giallo, horror, Euro-thriller , including Spanish actors : José Súarez , Gemma Cuervo, Gérard Tichy , Miguel de la Riva, Oscar Pellicer , Luis Induni ; French players : Agnès Spaak , Yvette Lebon and Italian ones : Renato Baldini , Aldo Bufi Landi , Osvaldo Genazzani .

Mediocre directing was appropriately split between Italian Silvio Siano (La vedovella, La donnaccio, Lo sgarro) and Frenchman Maurice Cloche (who made a loose Eurospy trilogy with 'Agent FX18' (1964) starring Ken Clark and 'Le Vicomte Regie Jes Comptes' 1967). Rating : 4.5/10 . Very average Euro-spy movie.

Baraka X-77 is a neglected but worthy spy flick, overlooked due to Bond mania. Fans of the genre should readily take to handsome Gerard Barray as he works to foil an international plot. Unlike the Bond films, this one is a bit more believable as it relies less on fantastic gadgetry and special effects. The agility and endurance, as well as the charm of Barray's character are the main ingredients which he has in abundance. The sinister deliberate arrangement of the initial passenger plane crash effectively opens the film on an intense, dark note. The action and pace never let up and there are some unforgettable sequences such as Barray fighting a blonde female spy dressed in a nightgown who is expert enough in judo type combat to take him down several times and throw him around the room before she's bested. There are several brutal killings and a memorable, heavy-duty torture and flogging scene of Barray. The main fault of the film is the awful inappropriate music which accompanies much of the action resulting in an unfortunate, rather silly Keystone Kops tone. The cutting is frequently maladroit, with transitions jerky rather than fluid. But in spite of these flaws Baraka X-77 is thoroughly entertaining and will win the dashing continental Barray many new fans who don't already know him or his work.