That Man in Istanbul (1965)

Very best movie i ever watch

Good concept, poorly executed.

A different way of telling a story

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Yes, it's one of those so many Eurospy made in the '60s, which amounts to a decent level, acceptable to a demanding spectator. Horst Buchholz (dead in 2003), one of the seven gunmen in "The Magnificent Seven"(1960), is here the beautiful boy who beats and shoot everyone and stays with the girl in the end. The girl is the beautiful Sylva Koscina(dead in 1994), the woman-killer Penelope in "Deadlier Than the Male", here an American agent. Klaus Kinski(dead in 1991), as a villain, as usual, appears too little. Gérard Tichy(dead in 1992), another villain, appears more than him. Last but not least, Mario Adorf, the best actor in the whole film, as in all the movies he played, a living legend, is another villain. Him and the director, Antonio Isasi, are the only still alive. The plot is cheap, as usual, a kidnapped nuclear expert, a lot of ransom money, a lot of Chinese spies, stupid Turkish policemen, etc. But is well done, not bad!

MASTER PLAN: kidnap scientists and keep the ransom money. The James Bond film this obviously calls to mind first is "From Russia From Love" but, besides the locations, there is very little actual similarity. Horst (the snot-nosed hothead member of the original "Magnificent Seven") stars as a well-known rascally adventurer who is forced to foil the dastardly schemes of a criminal organization after he's targeted as an initial suspect. Koscina offers support as the FBI agent sent in to figure things out; she was in a few such roles in the sixties (see "Hot Enough For June" and "Deadlier Than the Male"). The story jumps around and drags in the first half, as well as being hard to follow. It's also a bit too long at nearly two hours and, as mentioned elsewhere, only washed out prints of the picture seem to be available.The action really picks up in the 2nd half, with Tony (Horst) doing a lot of running around in Istanbul, whether being chased or doing the chasing. At one point, he's thrown off a tower during a fight in the closest we get to a spectacular sequence. The best action bit, though, is when he uses a bulletproof glass table while an assassin takes potshots at him (the killer is played by Kinski in a small, yet memorable role). The action is sort of a mixture of slapstick and straightforward thrills which never really finds the right tone; a lot of it is presented as serious danger, yet Horst also winks at the audience a couple of times. He's probably a bit too cute for Bond fans, strictly for the girls. There's also some surprising (for mid-sixties cinema) bits of female nudity. Hero:6 Villains:5 Femme Fatales:6 Henchmen:4 Fights:5 Stunts/Chases:5 Gadgets:3 Auto:3 Locations:6 Pace:6 overall:5

With the explosion of James Bond on to the film world in the early 1960's every producer tried to duplicate that genre. This multinational European effort is relatively fast paced and doesn't take itself too seriously. A $ I million ransom has been paid for kidnapped American nuclear scientist Dr. Pendergast (Umberto Raho) but he has not been returned. American secret agent Kenny (Sylvia Koscina) goes to Istanbul, Turkey to investigate. There she teams up with expatriate American gambling club owner Tony Maecenas (Horst Buchholz) and his henchman Brain (Gustavo Re) and Bogo (Alvaro de Luna). They trace the missing scientist through a trail of villains; from Hansi (Gerard Tichy) to Gunther (Agustin Gonzalez) to Bill (Mario Adorf) to Schenck (Klaus Kinski). Along the way they compete with Chinese agents and rescue a kidnapped heiress Elisabeth (Perrette Pradier). Trust me, reading the plot here is a lot clearer than trying to follow the movie!One of the attractions of this movie is the continuous action. It keeps moving, covers a number of locales (i.e. gambling clubs, mosques, ferries, public baths, hotel pools, boats) and involves a lot of fights. While obviously not having the budget of the James Bond movies it does its best to exploit the Istanbul scenery.The movies doesn't take itself to seriously and Tony is a font of one liners. Whether you enjoy the movie is largely dependent on how to like Buchholz's performance. Another commentator described him as "annoyingly smug" and, if you don't relate to the tongue in cheek humor, that is how you may find him. Koscina starts off as central to the movie but quickly fades into the background as action scenes with Buchholz take over. The performances of the other actors are hard to judge given that you have German, Italian and Spanish actors dubbed into English. However I enjoyed, who wouldn't, the impeccably dressed and throughly nasty Kinski. I can't really comment on the technical credits inasmuch as the video copy was very "washed out" but, even when I have seen it on TV, I have yet to see a really decent print.The imitation James Bond sub-genre have their own rules and by that standard this faced paced and action filled film is an acceptable treat.

I saw this on late-night broadcast TV in the early '80s, when old spy movies were a dime a dozen on New York City-area TV. I remember boyishly handsome Horst Buchholtz doing a pretty poor job of aping Sean Connery/Robert Vaughn/Robert Culp as the cool, suave secret agent; Horst came off as annoyingly smug. There was enough good action (including a fun chase through the sewers) and exotic '60s atmosphere, though, to make it enjoyable fluff for fans of the genre. If this diehard spy movie fan could find it on video, she'd pay $10 to own a copy.