Some girls do (4 Stars)

Some girls do have the power to corrupt and destroy you,
They'll take you and they'll break you,
Or they'll make you a king.
They'll bring you the summer when winter is due.
It is truly amazing the things that some girls do.

Some girls do satisfy you, but they all mystify you,
They'll thrill you and some will do anything you desire,
There's no doubt about it, it's known to be true,
There is nothing in the world that can do what some girls do.

This is the second film about the gentleman spy Hugh Drummond. It was made in 1969, two years after "Deadlier than the Male". If the film looks like a James Bond clone, you're right. In the first film especially the actor Richard Johnson is seen imitating the mannerisms of Sean Connery. The main difference of the Hugh Drummond films is that the killers are all female. There's also a camp atmosphere that reminds me of the final season of "The Avengers". The connection between the two franchises was amicable. The film was being made in Pinewood Studios at the same time as "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", and some of the actors appeared in both films and had to run from one set to the other. An example is Joanna Lumley, who had a small role in both films.

As in the first film, the adversary is Carl Petersen. He's involved in industrial espionage. He's been offered eight million pounds to sabotage a new supersonic passenger aircraft, so that the competition will get the contract. This was a hot topic in 1969, because the development of supersonic passenger aircraft was in the news. It wasn't until 1973 that the Concorde went into production.

The film's theme song starts in the opening credits and continues through the first two scenes. Before the song is over two women have killed their victims. The first is a stewardess who throws a scientist out of an airplane, the second clubs a man to death. Both laugh afterwards. This sets the tone for the rest of the film.

Pretty girls. Or are they? Carl Petersen is a scientific genius and has built an army of fembots. He plans to use them to seduce and control world leaders, but that's a story for the third film that was never made. Yes, the two on the right are identical twins, played by Doris and Dora Graham.

It's not just fembots. Petersen also has real women in his service, such as Helga, played by Daliah Lavi. After a night of passion with Hugh Drummond she plants a bomb in his apartment. That's so impersonal. If he hadn't discovered the bomb, he would have died before he even knew she was the killer. She gets another chance later, ramming his private plane in the air.

Is it only me who gets a tingle when a beautiful woman points a gun at me?

Another real woman is Beba Loncar as Pandora. She mockingly calls each victim "little man" before she kills him.

Helga and Pandora make a good team. Either one is deadly by herself, but together they're cataclysmic.

I have nothing against fake women if they're as beautiful as Yutte Stensgaard.

Carl Petersen might not be as much of a megalomaniac as the Bond villains, but he does have many of the same traits. For instance, he invites his adversary into his lair to explain his plans instead of killing him straight away.

This is a very good film, whether you see it as a campy parody of James Bond or a thriller in its own right.