You gotta love the Italians - they do enjoy making their own versions of other people's movies. And you really gotta give it to these filmmakers - they didn't just find some hunky lantern jawed hero type and stick him in a generic James Bond pastiche - no, this bunch went and hired Sean Connery's brother - a non-acting plastic surgeon and archer - and had him play himself. Then they went and hired the Bond Girl from From Russia with Love (Daniela Bianchi); the main villain from Thunderball (Adolfo Celi); and a secondary bad guy from Dr. No (Anthony Dawson).
They weren't done yet either! They also hired M (Bernard Lee) to play Neil Connery's spy boss and Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) as the spy boss's secretary. Mind: blown! I guess what really surprises me is that the 007 producers just let this go on - with apparently no problem whatsoever.
I'd always heard and believed that this was just terrible - but I finally saw it a few months ago - and you know what? While it's true Neil Connery was no actor - the movie is actually an entertaining Bond knockoff - with outlandish but respectable production values and tongue enough in cheek to make it fun.
It was on Amazon Streaming in a nice widescreen version and might still be if you'd like to check it out.
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!