Death Is a Woman (1966)

Dennis (Mark Burns), a British agent of some sort, is on "the island" (Malta but it's not named) to carry out an undercover investigation of two crooked casino owners. The suspicion is that they get guests who run up gambling debts to become the sort of smuggler Customs won't suspect. Dennis runs up a debt in the hope he'll be induced into the racket. The film opens with the murder of one of owners by Francesca (Patsy Ann Noble), a femme very fatale indeed, and her lover Joe (Shaun Curry ), who want all the ill-gotten gains for themselves. The other owner, Malo, is found dead just after he'd given Dennis an advance in return for his passport. The local police naturally suspect Dennis. The thing is Malo was found in a locked room, seven floors up with no sign of the murder weapon. The solution to this locked-room mystery is about as good as this film gets. Priscilla (Wanda Ventham) is sent out from the UK to help Dennis while posing as his fiancé. So far, so good. But that's as good as it gets. We get to see sunny skies and sparkling seas, we get to see another of Joe's girls topless in a scene that seems to be included because they'd an actress who'd go topless back in 1966 or maybe to get a 1960's X rating, we get to see the good girl and the bad girl in their bikinis, and - not much else. The film is padded out to barely feature length with Anita Harris singing a song, multiple sequences of our hero darting down side streets trying to dodge the most visible police tail in history and of our villainess swimming underwater. Cut out the padding and the topless scene and you'd have had a good hour-long episode of a Sixties TV series.

This film was distributed by Associated British Paths who were on their last legs as is evidenced by this abysmal film.This is the company that made many fine films in the fifties including The Dam Busters and Ice Cold In Alex.Now they were reduced to making films like this.It is a very pale imitation of the James Bond films.Notwithstanding the fact that there is some location filming on Malta it would seem that every expense was spared.The film is poorly written acted and directed.It is quite difficult to believe just how badly Patsy Anne Noble tries to act.It shows how desperate the producers must have been.It is also difficult to understand why the film was given an X certificate.Presumably the brief nudity qualified it.However this would have reduced its potential audience.Mind you that must have been small enough to begin with.

So what do you expect from a movie with a title like this? A deadly femme fatale who kills repeatedly and without remorse? You'll get that....but only twice, at the start and at the end of the film. Patsy Ann Noble is perfectly cast, and she is equaled, if not surpassed, in the hotness department by the two other female cast members, Wanda Ventham as the good girl and Caron Gardner as a ditzy conquest for the bad guy; this film comes from the era where the thick, strong, curvy, healthy look was the "in" look for women. But the story, after setting up an intriguing locked-room mystery, meanders, the underwater scenes are - as usual - boring, and there is FAR too much screen time given to an old drunk character, who turns out to be of no consequence to boot - was this actor a friend of the producers or something? This film would have been better without him. ** out of 4.

This movie has got it all: stunning photography, excellent (character) actors, bikinis, superb underwater-scenes......and: a great musical score! Although the story could have been more exciting this off-beat pearl of 60s UK-crime is definitely worth an 8 out of 10.