Wizard-8 The fourth entry in the official French movie series of "OSS 117" movies, while a notch better than the previous entry ("OSS 117: Mission for a Killer"), still fails to engage viewers as much as even a second rate James Bond movie. There are a few things along the way to catch the eyes or ears of viewers momentarily. The location shooting in Tokyo, combined with an adequate budget, do provide a lot of pleasant eye candy. The musical score is also pleasant, sounding very much like the music found in a James Bond movie of the same era. And the action sequences are pretty well done. That is, when there IS action. There simply isn't enough action to be found in the 100 minute running time, which will leave viewers impatient for the movie to get down to business like James Bond. I think the lack of action can be blamed for a very slow-moving script. Surprisingly, James Bond veteran Terence Young had a hand with this movie's story, but you wouldn't know it. The story unfolds at a snail's pace, and another unfortunate consequence of this is that there is no feeling of tension, no feeling that people's lives are on the line. It doesn't take long for the movie to become quite frankly dull. "James Bland" is more like it.

ShadeGrenade French thriller writer Jean Bruce was the creator of secret agent OSS 117 - real name Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath - who appeared in a string of bestselling books in the Fifties, and landed his own movie franchise seven years before James Bond. There has been renewed interest in him lately due to a pair of well received spoofs - 'OSS 117 - Cairo Nest Of Spies' and 'OSS 117 - Lost In Rio', starring Jean Dujardin. The original series, however, took itself a bit more seriously.'Terror In Tokyo For OSS 117' ( known in some quarters as 'From Tokyo With Love' ) was the second to star American actor Frederick Stafford ( the first being 'OSS 117 Mission For A Killer' ). It opens with a nifty Bond-type pre-credit sequence, with Hubert involved in a car chase, gun battle and helicopter escape. Back in Washington, he learns that an American air force base in the Pacific has been destroyed with a new type of missile, one so small it can not be detected by radar. The organisation behind the attack want a king's ransom to stop them doing the same thing again. The one lead is Eva Wilson ( Marina Vlady ), a cypher girl in the American embassy, who is being blackmailed to pass secrets to the enemy. Posing as her husband John, Hubert returns with her to Tokyo. Installing a bugging device in her clothing, he waits for the blackmailer to make the next move...It is interesting to compare this to 'You Only Live Twice', released the following year. 'Tokyo' is more slowly paced, not so gadget heavy, with fewer action scenes, yet works well enough on its own terms. Hubert trapped in a moving vehicle with a bomb aboard ( which will go off if he tries to stop ) is particularly thrilling, as is his later fight with a Sumo wrestler. Stafford ( best known for starring in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Topaz' ) was by far and away the best 'OSS 117' - cool, handsome, and charismatic ( he gives a better performance here than Sean Connery managed in 'Twice' ) - and Marina Vlady is so beautiful you want to pull her out of the screen. The last twenty minutes or so are dynamite - Hubert parachutes out of a plane, uses a harpoon to secure a hold on the yacht the villains are using as a base, gets aboard, and saves the day. Some stunning looking interiors. The yacht is capable of opening up and swallowing smaller vessels, a bit like the Liparus supertanker in 'The Spy Who Loved Me' ( 1977 ).One of the writers was Terence Young, director of the Bond films 'Dr.No', 'From Russia With Love', and 'Thunderball'. The only let down is the music which is on a par with Michel Legrand's infamous score for 'Never Say Never Again' ( 1983 ). The next film in the series was 'OSS 117 - Murder For Sale' - also known as 'OSS 117 - Double Agent', and had John Gavin ( of 'Psycho' ) replacing Stafford. It proved to be the writing on the wall.

gridoon2018 The French answer to James Bond is back. And this time he travels to Tokyo and battles international terrorists. This film does have some things going for it: Frederick Stafford is a good enough spy lead (I'll take his OSS 117 over Timothy Dalton's 007 any day!), the cast includes a French mega-babe (Marina Vlady) and a Japanese super-cutie (Jitsuko Yoshimura), there are some enjoyable fight scenes, and the Oriental setting actually predates Connery's "You Only Live Twice" by one year! Despite all that, however, the film is a bit of a bore. It is VERY slow-moving and lacks a strong central villain. The filmmakers probably stretched the budget as far as it could go, but in comparison to the Bond pictures of the time, they still came up short. They just about beat "Diamonds Are Forever", though. (**)

elshikh4 Yes, Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath is based on novels by Jean De Bruce but he is so similar to Ian Fleming's very well known English spy James Bond who is by the way funnier and more advanced.Well, I adore the 1960s and all of its crazy, charming and sexy stuff. So when it comes to Bond movies' formula I wait for : good action, good science fiction, good Jazz music, good huge production and for sure good seductive delicious women from the good old 1960s when the voluptuous style was on and Marilyn Monroe was the perfect model (forget our miserable damned days of Jessica Alba or Sarah Michelle Gellar ! GOD HELP US !!). But this movie anyway is not working as its likes. The action is not so good, it's average. The direction is not that well done; you'll watch the camera more than once (in the glass of some bus and in the bathroom's mirror of the submarine..), plus the stunt man's face tells you that he isn't the real hero ..And so on. The music is not the unforgettable one !. Frederick Stafford is trying to be (or forced to be) another Connery, and that dubbed voice case was unfunny, but I think with some other director and writer he would've done much better work. The cinematography by Marcel Grignon was real nice as the classic rich shooting of the very era. You won't have a lot of exciting spying devices (only a little microphone and sunglasses which had a camera in it !). And although it's French-Italian production but it's not BIG one by all means ?! Especially when all of the events take place just in Tokyo. The writing was mediocre or maybe the surprises of 1966 are corny in 2007 ! (someone is shooting Hubert in his bed to discover that it wasn't him it is a doll under the blanket !, another one was chasing Hubert to discover that he was a harmless policeman.. etc). Let alone the non-creative dialogue (forget utterly the sly work at Bond with the forever double meaning phrases).Though the real anger would come from my remorse because of the long waiting for the enjoyable Marina Vlady to do anything would show her remarkable beauty but I've got NOTHING at all !!. She was explosive as a cross between Marilyn Monroe and Elke Sommer with charming ambiguity and suppressed great womanhood where the simple yet crafty smile, the silent deceptive look and the confident sexy walking !! But believe me the disappointment will be too awful to stand when you have just one kiss, a very quick brief scene where she was wearing a black swimsuit "under the water ??", and no alluring scenes like Mr. Bond's women made us accustomed to !! However when you read that Marina Vlady wanted to prove that she wasn't a second-rate Brigitte Bardot or another blonde bombshell (and Oh Boy she was indeed) but an actress who is capable of much more, then you'll understand why she wasn't one of the playboy's posters at the time ! So the only thing to say and sorrowfully is : what a loss !!.All in all, this movie is a poor one when you compare it to Bond movies. But if you measure it by its own desire to be amusing and how it could fulfill it by itself, then you'll find that it's a nice humble small espionage flick not too boring, silly nor bad.Yet unfortunately most of the global taste or mood will innately compare that French spy to the original English one hence he'll be some sort of the fool cousin from France whom imitates desperately his uncle's famous clever son !