Some Girls Do

This sequel for the 1966 trash classic "Deadlier than the male" is quite a disappointment compared with the original spy movie. There are good bad movies and there are bad bad movies. This one's medium bad. The film has a great storyline (in exploitation terms), but suffers from being quite unfunny and kind of lustless in acting and directing. If you expect something like an "Austin Powers" flick back from the original sixties, you will be disappointed. The production design and the costumes are uninspired and look as if they'd belong to a cheap british early-seventies TV series. Even those female robots have a boring look and could have been designed much, much spicier. The movie lacks highlights like the great Robert Morley's hammy appearances, provided only in the first half of the movie. And this first half is a bore, anyway, especially due to the unfunny comic relief of Drummond's sidekick. The second half runs better, with more action and more funny scenes in it. The best scenes belong to Daliah Lavi as the bad girl, while pretty Sydne Rome (as the good girl) is absolutely colorless. Poor production, poor fun -at least in this case. Watching this movie is not a complete waste of time, but it comes close to that. So you are recommended to watch "deadlier than the male" for a third time instead.

After several murders of key personnel involved in the making of a supersonic airliner called the SST1, "Hugh Drummond" (Richard Johnson) is sent to investigate who the mastermind is behind them. However, his investigation puts him directly in the cross-hairs of two attractive but deadly female assassins named "Pandora" (Beba Loncar) and "Helga" (Daliah Lavi) who are both very good at their jobs. Fortunately-or unfortunately, as the case may be-he has a rather inept assistant by the name of "Flicky" (Sydne Rome) to help him out. Now, rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that this film is essentially a remake of the movie "Deadlier Than the Male," which was produced only two years earlier. Obviously, this isn't the first time a film has been remade, but the major problem, as I see it, is the fact that it was remade so quickly after the first film and had very little to offer in addition to it. To be sure, there were a number of attractive young ladies to be found all through the movie, but other than the aforementioned Daliah Lavi, and to a lesser extent, Sydne Rome, none of them really stood out in my opinion. In short, this was an okay James Bond clone, but it wasn't nearly as good as "Deadlier Than the Male," and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

If you are tired of all the Politically Correct "no fun" offerings that Hollywood dishes out these days and yearn for some good clean fun from a bygone era when "Womyn" were just happy to be "Chicks" and men were having fun like no tomorrow (their grins say it all, lucky bastards!;-), and would like to indulge in an escapist fantasy with some naughtiness to it on a guys' night in, then you may find this film quite enjoyable. Besides which guy doesn't like watching "hot chicks" in short minis being seduced with kisses that turn their heads, even if they are robot "chicks"? This is obviously from the era when Jim Kirk was doing the same to exotically dressed "Hot Chicks" on TV in the original Star Trek series, and this film doesn't do such a bad job with the same naughtiness factor to it.

And if you like this one then try its predecessor film. The "Chicks" in these two films put todays' sour looking super-models and centerfolds to shame. The Movie industry just doesn't have the same level of beauty in their female actors anymore as they try to relate too much to a female audience to the great disappointment of the male audience.

If like me you fall asleep during chick flicks and would love to watch a movie made just for guys then enjoy this one.

If you don't think that this incarnation of Bulldog Drummond is very much like the many older ones (starring the likes of Ronald Colman, Ron Randall or John Howard, then you are right! Instead of being a man of adventure that gets sucked into solving crimes, Dick Johnson's version of Drummond is much more like a James Bond character--fighting and bedding very sexy ladies and trying to stop some big baddie who is bent on international wickedness instead of just murder or robbery. It's best just to forget about the earlier Drummonds and treat this one like an all-new character.

During the course of the film, various acts of sabotage are made on the SST-1 project (the 'SST' was an early name for what became the Concord project in the UK and France). In each case, a pretty woman is behind the attack. If this sounds a bit familiar, this is because it's much like the plot of Johnson's other Drummond flick, "Deadlier Than a Male". However, Drummond is not alone in investigating the sabotage- -a kooky and sexy lady assistant (similar to Britt Ekland in "The Man With the Golden Gun") is there as well. Also WHY and HOW these ladies work are a bit different from the previous film...as they are robotic in their actions and loyalty.

While this film is a decent spy-type film, it's less original than the last. Additionally, the film relies on two bad clichés ALSO found in the last film--the megalomaniac baddie who, instead of just killing Drummond, keeps him around supposedly to give him a chance to kill him AND all women (even robotic ones) find Drummond so sexy that they cannot control themselves. It's a shame, as the film is pretty good otherwise. All this plus the robotic aspect make this one far, far inferior than Johnson's prior effort.

This movie should not be mistaken as a budget imitation of a James Bond film, as it possesses it's own distinctive characteristics. Yet, for it's time (1969) it is just as adventurous and entertaining with Richard Johnson performing the role of (Bulldog) Hugh Drummond, similar to your James Bond Secret agent, but with a touch of humour and to some extent, a bit of sarcasm. Like Bond, Drummond is well skilled, serious and intelligent and is out to investigate what is behind a series of murders disguised as accidents, that are carried out by what appears to be beautiful young women (hence it's title Some Girls Do). Robert Morley performs the part of Miss Mary and is later found dead after having given classes to potential chef students in perfecting the art of cracking eggs open into a bowl.

Drummond is also targeted when flying a glider and is meant to crash down when his parachute has been tampered with by the beautiful robotic women who watch from below, but manages to skillfully and successfully release open the parachute, landing down safely as if nothing had happened.. A fine performance by Sydney Rome as the typical James Bond type girl, but Drummond is not at all fooled by her pampering and charming behaviour, as he is very intelligent in sensing her motives.. She does play the bimbo but is very cunning, as most Bond style girls are.

In a nutshell I did enjoy this movie and am not surprised that any criticisms are really more to do with it's comparisons to modern released movies. However, I am very surprised that the character of Bulldog Drummond was not pursued in later years like with remakes of `A Thomas Crown Affair', `The Avengers', `The Saint' etc. I believe that the character of `Bulldog' Drummond could have been further modernized and made into a big hit in the late 1970's upto the 1990's with newer adventures, as it had all the charm and character of serving action/adventure style movies, but on a larger scale. I would have kept one foot in the 1960's and another one in the 1990's keeping that style in an evergreen sense.