Matchless (1967)

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Patrick O'Neal, of "The Kremlin Letter" (1970), here is some kind of skinny James Bond, who gets more punches than he gives, but, from time to time, he's invisible. Ira von Fürstenberg, who looks like a twin sister of Margaret Lee, is Arabella, kind of Bond girl. Donald Pleasence, post original Bond, makes a caricature of a villain. So does Henry Silva, a bad character parody. Nicoletta Machiavelli, who looks very good in this movie, is helping Henry Silva. All are spies and spies one another, American, Russian, Chinese, the whole planet etc. One half spies the other half... The music is signed by the great Ennio Morricone but it's not great. Director is master Alberto Lattuada, who has made many good films, including two absolute masterpieces: "Lights of Variety" (along with Fellini) and "Mafioso" with the great Alberto Sordi. Another interesting movie made by him is "Fraulein Doktor". This one is neither a masterpiece nor stupid. It's worth seeing if you like Bond parodies and for the sake of the stars.

Newspaper reporter and would-be spy, Perry Liston (Patrick O'Neal), finds himself in a Chinese prison. He's housed with old, dying man whom he befriends. Before the old man dies, he gives Liston a ring that has the power to make him invisible. Liston escapes, makes his way to Europe, gets mixed up with a crazed villain, and, in the end, must save mankind from destruction (or something like that). Other than the invisibility angle, this is all pretty standard Eurospy stuff. And, it's in these moments that I really enjoyed Matchless. But, the invisibility ring and all the "hilarious" shenanigans it produces really put a damper on my enjoyment. It's all too slapstick for my taste. I enjoy a spy film with a generous helping of tongue-in- cheek, but, at times, this goes way overboard into the realm of being absurd. And that's too bad because the rest is a pretty decent movie. Of course the plot makes little sense (do plots ever make sense in these movies?) and it's all shot fairly cheaply, but it's got something about it I enjoyed. The cast is really the standout. Donald Pleasance was never better. His take on the super-villain in Matchless is as good as I've seen. He's a hoot! Joining Pleasance are the manically laughing Henry Silva and the drop-dead gorgeous Ira von Furstenberg. Supposed star Patrick O'Neal is the weakest of the main cast. And the poor dubbing/looping of his dialogue doesn't help.Overall, Matchless is a decent Eurospy effort that's hurt by some lame attempts at humor. A wishy-washy 5/10 is about the best rating I can give it.

Lavishly produced with superbly imaginative direction and some marvelous color photography, shot on location in New York, London and Munich, this movie stars luscious Ira Furstenberg, who is sexily got up in alluringly weirdo costumes. A pity all this is lavished on yet another of those so-so sub-007 spy spoofs. Patrick O'Neal is a fine actor, though he does not possess the necessary comic insouciance to carry on his unwilling secret agent. Other members of the cast, including Donald Pleasance, Henry Silva, Howard St John and Sorrell Booke are similarly handicapped with the result that a lot of the movie's humor falls flat. Fortunately, no-one could complain about Miss Machiavelli, however, nor could they denigrate the film's sets and compositions which are as eye-filling as Princess Furstenberg herself.

Disclaimer: the DVD-R print of "Matchless" that I watched was atrocious. I am used to lower-than-normal print quality when it comes to these obscure movies, but this one was borderline unwatchable. Let's hope it gets an official DVD release some day. It's an amusing little spy comedy, which also contains a classic element of the fantastic cinema (invisibility), as well as some innovative action sequences (at one point, our hero hangs on at the BOTTOM of a moving train; at another point, he lands his car on the TOP of a moving train!). However, you get the feeling that "Matchless" does not really exploit all the comic possibilities of the invisibility gimmick; "Abbott and Costello Meet The Invisible Man" did it better. Patrick O'Neal is a likably understated lead, Donald Pleasence is well-cast as the vain and eccentric villain, and Ira Von Furstenberg tries on a variety of provocative, barely-there outfits; her face is gorgeous and her body is magnificent - she has the most perfect abs ever! ** out of 4.