Lightning Bolt (1967)

Taking part in ICM challenges to watch It Italian and "cult" films,I decided to take a look at what titles DVD sellers had recently found. With his superb 1970 film And God Said to Cain being my intro to Spaghetti Westerns, I was happy to read from a seller that he had found a Euro Spy flick by Antonio Margheriti,which led to me spying on the goldman.View on the film:Swooning into the peak of the Euro Spy years on Riz Ortolani's colourful Jazz score, director Antonio Margheriti & cinematographer Riccardo Pallottini, (who both later reunited for Cain) investigate the spy genre with hip Pop-Art, via a glittering use of matte paintings building the underground lair of the baddie, and Sennet's gadgets being given a kitsch appearance. Referencing their work in the Horror genre, Margheriti and Pallottini stylishly use whip-pans and zoom-ins to give the lazer burns and henchmen Sennet faces a level of threat, and blends the matte paintings with tightly held shots to give the final fight between Sennet and Rehte an exciting atmosphere.Sending Rehte off with a baddie plan that allows the flick to chip into the Sci-Fi space craze of the era, the screenplay Alfonso Balcázar/José Antonio de la Loma and Ernesto Gastaldi smash Sennet into the mission with cheeky comedic asides that allow him to outwit the baddie and his own agency. Teaming up with fellow agent Captain Patricia Flanagan once entering Rehte's lair, the writers give Sennet's attempt to succeed at the mission a surprising level of menace, with the sassy one-liners being replaced with shocks of death and Sennet's frustrations over not being able to break Rehte's traps on his own. Joining the mission half-way,Diana Lorys gives a sparkling performance as Flanagan,thanks to Lorys giving Flanagan a mischievous edge when helping Anthony Eisley's lean Sennet,which Lorys turns cold when she begins to fear it's the kiss of death from (Folco Lulli's excellent) Goldman.

The Plot. A U.S. agent goes undercover as a rich playboy to stop a madman from destroying a NASA moon project. I saw this under the title of Lightning Bolt.Made in Italy and Spain, this 1966 movie takes it's plot from the James Bond / spy craze of the 60s, with a bit of NASA space work thrown in to make it interesting.It is by no means a great movie, however I can see how this could be fun as a midnite grind-house screening. It's wide screen and technicolor and there are relatively decent special effects. There's also some fun 60's misogyny.What brings the experience down a notch is that it seems like the whole movie is dubbed even though they are speaking English. It gives the film a cheaper feeling.A lot of the sets look very Bond-ish. The acting and directing is a few notches above most cheap-o Italian movies. Although it's a bit slow paced.

A cheap but cheerful Italian/Spanish co-production which mixes sci-fi staples in with a "spy" plot involving a Bond-like playboy /secret agent. Apparently these movies were all the rage in Italy back in the mid-'60s as just about every studio jumped on the bandwagon to make their own James Bond rip-off. LIGHTNING BOLT is a film severely lacking in budget which struggles in places to make ends meet, but ends up being a thoroughly entertaining little movie in it's own right. One word of advice, though: all of this film's budget is saved for the finale, meaning that the first two-thirds are a little too low budget and slow. Stick with it, as you won't be disappointed by the action-packed ending.The film begins - as a lot of these movies do - with some copious use of stock footage showing a space shuttle exploding. Apparently it has been sabotaged by a hidden criminal who uses false science to send radio waves which send the shuttles off their target, causing them to be automatically destroyed (the explanation is a little hazy for good reason!). In order to discover the source of the radio wave, the government sends in a scientist and a diver to investigate, as the signal is coming from underwater. In a confusing sequence, their boat explodes, apparently killing the pair of them.It is at this point that we are introduced to the two heroes of the film: special agents Harry Sennet and Captain Patricia Flanagan. Sennet is masquerading as a rich playboy, which means that he has lots of scenes where he makes sexist remarks and checks out an assortment of bikini-clad bathing beauties. Flanagan is supposedly a tough female agent who broke somebody's spine once, but here she's just a weak, woman-in-peril type character who makes loads of mistakes (see later). After some lounging around, Sennet finds himself being attacked by a man at his house; after a brief tussle the intruder is gunned down by a female assassin! Action ensues including unlikely water traps and larking about in flashy red sports cars. Some of Antonio Margheriti's trademark miniature effects work are present in the form of an exploring car scene. Sennet must battle loads of bad guys in a warehouse, where they try to crush him with fork-lift trucks (!) and engage in some exciting shootouts. Luckily he has a gas-emitting pen to use on the bad guys, but sadly this doesn't stop him being captured. He's bundled into a capsule and taken to the underwater base, which is where the film's rather good conclusion takes place.This underwater base has some great, science-fiction inspired set design, and wonders are worked on the small budget. Even the bad guys have funny black suits and balaclavas to give them that extra weird, kitsch look. The locations are expansive, cavernous even, and look pretty expensive. The only clue to the film's budget is that we only see the base briefly from the outside, but otherwise you wouldn't guess! The baddie - Retke - also has a cool cold storage locker where he keeps various people in suspended animation! Sennet himself is nearly frozen before he manages to escape, and from here on he battles guard after guard before going one-on-one against Retke.This section of the film is the best, and thoroughly entertaining. Sennet must battle at least thirty guards in this segment, and some have cool deaths like electrocution, falling on generators and exploding, etc etc. At the very end, there's suddenly a flood of unexplained lava as the base is destroyed, the bad guy gets his just desserts and Sennet manages to escape on the same capsule he arrived in, just in time to get the girl in the (very) cheesy conclusion which apes the Bond films no end.Anthony Eisley has a ball as Harry Sennet, the film's answer to James Bond. He mugs for all his worth and seems to be really enjoying himself, and his good spirit rubs off; I'm looking forward to seeing more of the actor's work on the strength of his performance here. Folco Lulli hams it up as the Blofeld-like baddie, and the various females supply sufficient '60s-style glamour for the production (the box I have claims that Ursula Andress stars: I can confirm that this is a downright lie!). The direction of Antonio Margheriti is okay to good; at times the film suffers from the Italian curse of extreme close-ups (at one point of somebody's cheek!) but for the majority he keeps things pacy and looking good.Margheriti also gets the opportunity to throw in his trademark horror scene in which the frozen victims are burnt alive, leaving lots of grim skeletons behind! The music is a fun jazzy theme which sets the scene well; the miniature effects are worthwhile and the various gadgets a lot of fun. Not to mention Eisley's assured performance as the heroic, wisecracking lead. Although only a cheap rip-off, forgotten to the modern audience, LIGHTNING BOLT is a FUN cheap rip-off and that's what counts in my humble opinion. A must-see for Euro-spy fans!

One of the most enjoyable Eurospy flicks I've seen lately, though it's not perfect by any means (the first half is better than the second). Diana Lorys is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen: her character is introduced very promisingly, as a high-ranking agent who can even cause "spinal fractures" to her enemies, and she develops a nice interplay with the male lead, Anthony Eisley. But then she is rather clumsily written out of the story until the very end, while the main bad girl of the film (Wandisa Guida - her ultra-tight black outfit emphasizes her jaw-dropping curves) turns out to be an entrapped good girl after all. Although the influence of "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball" on "Lightning Bolt" is clear, the sci-fi aspects actually predate other official Bond films such as "You Only Live Twice" and "Diamonds Are Forever". The second half takes place almost entirely in the villain's underwater headquarters: the sets are quite elaborate, but the scenes of their eventual destruction go on too long. Still, if you're in the mood for a light and unpretentious take on the less serious side of espionage, "Lightning Bolt" should fit the bill. **1/2 out of 4.