SuperSeven Calling Cairo/The Spy Who Loved Flowers
                 
             

SuperSeven Calling Cairo
Director:  Umberto Lenzi
Year:  1965
Rating: 6.0
Country: Italy
Umberto Lenzi returns to Cairo to direct this film. Or perhaps he never left after 008: Operation Exterminate which also primarily took place in Egypt and was made in the same year. Which is fine with me. Cairo looked to be a fascinating city back then and a great place to film. At the time Egypt had a thriving film industry so I expect it was easy to set up a shoot. I didn't really take to SuperSeven of the British Secret Service - played by American Roger Browne - a little smarmy and bland - a pipe smoker - but the film is fairly good. The plot makes no sense but who cares because there are two stunning Italian actresses who very nicely take up the frame and make you forget how ridiculous this is.



It is Paris. The Eiffel Tower, the Champs-Élysées. A bucket of ice and champagne next to the bed. A willing blonde frolicking on the sheets. The Paris we all know so well. Afterwards he gets up to go to his desk to write out a check. In the mirror he sees her pull out a gun to shoot him. So much for fun and games. Fortunately, his pen doubles as a gun and he kills her with no remorse. The pen is truly more powerful than the sword. Now to call room service I guess. This is Martin Stevens, better than 007 and so called SuperSeven by all of his girls. You are not just seven, you are super seven.



He gets called back to England to HQ, which is in the basement of the Waterloo Museum. It is also their training facility where women duck underneath machine gun fire. Great for your reflexes. The Professor tells him that a powerful radioactive material called Baltonium has been stolen and the thieves smuggled it out in a camera. But oops - they mistakenly sold it to a tourist who is in Egypt and they have no idea who he is or what he looks like. It is the good old days and he easily carries a case of guns through customs and when he gets to his room a woman is in the shower. Old fashioned hotel service. She is a plant of course from the bad guys who once again know he is an agent as soon as he leaves the plane. These spy services need to stop tweeting out this info. He knows she is a plant but he also knows a good thing when he sees it - a very good thing - the lovely Rosalba Neri - who had a great career in Euro genre films - and nicknamed The Italian Sphinx.







Stevens though hooks up with another female to help search for the tourist as she saw him. This is actress Fabienne Dali, another fabulous face. Between the two of them I barely paid attention to Superseven. They go from Cairo, to Luxor to Locarno and to Rome looking for this mysterious tourist with the villains chasing after him as well. They of course try to kill Stevens but when they hold him captive of course they don't. I would make such a better villain. Nicely shot, good production values, a few devices but not overkill and it doubles as a tourist promotion.  Roger Browne who had appeared in a bunch of Peplum films was now into Euro-spy and he was to appear one more time as Stevens, the 1966 The Spy Who Loved Flowers.
The Spy Who Loved Flowers
Director:  Umberto Lenzi
Year:  1965
Rating: 4.5
Country: Italy


This follow-up to SuperSeven Calling Cairo limps to the finish line like a runner with a pulled hamsting. British agent Martin Stevens is back and being directed again by Umberto Lenzi. Part of my lack of enthusiasm is my growing dislike for actor Roger Browne. He has the charm of a disgruntled child and it strikes me that he would do better playing smug villains - kind of a thinner Charles Gray smirkiness about him. But he is our hero for better or worse. Lenzi seems bored with the whole thing. No sizzling ladies, no sex, not a lot of action, not much of a plot - but there is a twist or two and this time we get to travel vicariously to Athens, Geneva, Rome and Paris - Europe in 90 minutes. It is dubbed again which doesn't help. But it makes me curious - were these films ever released in America - in the grindhouse circuit or later on video? I don't recall ever seeing them in a video store - but if they went to the trouble of dubbing them, they must have had a reason.



Stevens calmly kills a woman at a bullfighting ring and steals back a device that was stolen from the Brits. He returns it to his boss in London but is told that the operation isn't over. He has to kill three other people who were involved in the theft and who might be able to recreate it. He pushes back - you can get any one of our assassins to do that - why me. Because you are the best. The first two kills are pretty easy - almost too easy. He picks up a witness -  a woman (Emma Danieli) and forces her to come along for some reason. The other side has Yoko Tani, so the odds are even. The two women rumble a couple of times. The film gets to where it wants to go but without the usual Euro-Spy style, devices, cool moments and offbeat weirdness that they can have. By the numbers and the only numbers are one, two, three.