Deadlier than the Male (3½ Stars)

This is a spy thriller made in 1967. It was obviously made as an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the James Bond films, and some critics go as far as to call it a James Bond clone. Maybe it's true. Richard Johnson, the actor who plays the secret agent Hugh Drummond, seems to be doing his best to imitate Sean Connery, with varying levels of success.

The villain in the film isn't a megalomaniac of James Bond proportions, he's merely a crooked investor who uses murder to further his aims. Carl Petersen arranges company takeovers by killing board members who refuse to vote his way, accepting a payment of one million pounds per takeover. The payment isn't as modest as it seems. Allowing for inflation, that would be worth £17 million today. For that sort of money it's worth killing a few people.

Mr. Petersen doesn't get his hands dirty. He has an all-female army of assassins. It's an exaggerated version of the James Bond femme fatales. In the film's opening scenes Elke Sommer (the blonde) and Sylva Koscina (the redhead) kill three men and blow up a plane. It's not difficult. For instance, they walk up to a potential victim on the beach, and while he's admiring their bikini-clad bodies they shoot him through the chest with a harpoon gun.

It would have been better if the murders had been carried out slower and more seductively. The girls must have been paid by the hour to dispatch as many victims as possible in the shortest possible time. The one exception is when Elke Sommer melts into Hugh Drummond's arms in Petersen's castle. In between kisses she promises him he won't survive the night. He has more will power than me. He pushes her away so he can escape.

Hugh Drummond, nicknamed Bulldog Drummond, was an established secret agent at the time the film was made. He appeared in ten novels written by Herman McNeile from 1920 to 1937. After McNeile's death Gerald Fairlie wrote another seven novels.

Two years later a sequel was made, "Some girls do". That was the end of Hugh Drummond's screen career. That's a shame. The character has promise. He could be brought back today with a new actor and even deadlier females.

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