ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Dean Martin's first "Matt Helm" film. In the novels by Donald Hamilton, Matt Helm is a ruthless super spy who makes James Bond look like Mr. Rogers. Dean Martin's version of Helm portrays him as a playboy photographer who drinks (naturally), chortles wisecracks, and stays constantly surrounded by gorgeous girls.

The unavoidable adjective here is "sexy".



Dean has a sexy partner (Daliah Lavy), a sexy sidekick (Stella Stevens) —



— and a sexy secretary named Lovey Kravezit (Beverly Adams).



He's seduced by sexy Nancy Kovaks ("Jason and the Argonauts").



Dean gets to "interrogate" sexy Stella Stevens by stripping her down to her black lace undies and then wrestling with her on a couch!



Dean even sings a song or two (in voice-over, not on camera). Cyd Charisse sings the title theme (very much on camera, not off). She concludes it by unzipping her slinky dress from ankle to armpit — which displays an impressive amount of Miss Charisse, but the scene is abbreviated in most prints today.

However, it looks like the picture on the left. The scene does not contain the lovely look at Miss Charisse on the right, which may have been shot for the movie, but was never ever shown. Dammit.



"The Silencers" offers a clever spoof of James Bond's trick weapons; a gun that shoots backwards. When the bad guys capture Dean's gun, he provokes them into shooting at him and — Bang! Suicide. Later, Stella tricks a bad guy into thinking she's about to shoot herself with the gun and — Bang! Murder.

Victor Buono is the portly villain who tries to take over the world by . . . ah, who cares about that, eh? Dean was back in three sexy sequels: "Murderer's Row" (1967), "The Ambushers" (1968), and "The Wrecking Crew" (1969).
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]

The most serious of the Matt Helm movies, Helm and the later films were rarely this serious. The fight scenes are said to have been choreographed by Bruce Lee. Another problem with the films, was that Dean Martin refused to leave the United States to film the movies!

David.

[scotpens]

[Krel]

[scotpens]

[orzel-w]

[Bud Brewster]

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I was delighted to find this movie on YouTube, and the file size is 911.1 MB, so it looks really good!

In fact, I've scheduled it for All Sci-Fi's Saturday Live Chat (<— link) on August 6th. So, please join us when we share this delightfully silly spy spoof.

____________________ The Silencers (1966)


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The Matt Helm movies demonstrated just how misguided Hollywood's attempt to imitate the bond films were.

The target audience for the "spy craze" was young men between the ages of 13 and 35 — guys who yearned for brilliant and brave heroes, armed with clever gadgets given to them by their grateful governments who sent them out to save the world from evil men!

Unfortunately, Matt Helm missed the mark in every way . . .

He was just a silly male fantasy of a man who shirked his duties while experiencing unrealistic situations in which beautiful women begged him to be his sexual playthings.

Not only did Matt Helm NOT provide us with a heroic role model, he encouraged us to regard women as submissive sex objects who couldn't resist us!

Even when I was sixteen years old, this version of a Secret Agent was not appealing.

Meanwhile, IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production.
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~ Although one of the greatest female dancers in the history of the movie musical, Cyd Charisse singing in films was almost always dubbed. A young Vikki Carr performed her singing in The Silencers (1966).

Note from me: Miss Vikki Carr dubbed many Hollywood stars. Obviously she was a remarkable singer.

~ The gorgeous statuesque blond stripper in the opening title sequence is dancer Larri Thomas who would later portray Henrietta Hippo on TV's New Zoo Revue in the early 1970s.

Note from me: From a "gorgeous statuesque blond stripper" to Henrietta Hippo. That's a remarkable range of acting jobs!

~ In the scene where Matt Helm (Dean Martin) is checking into the Phoenix Hotel and Andreyev (Roger C. Carmel) is lurking in the foreground, the hotel newsstand is immediately behind him. The newsstand shelf is lined with books from Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm series, on which the movie is based.

Note from me: That is "product placement" of a unique kind!

~ Stella Stevens co-starred with Dean Martin's comedic ex-partner Jerry Lewis three years earlier in The Nutty Professor (1963).

Note from me: When I saw Stella Stevens as "Apassionata Von Climax" in Lil' Abner in 1959, I was so aroused by her that I wrote her character's name on a piece of paper and carried it around in my wallet! I was 13 years old . . .

~ Stella Stevens said in interviews that she considers her klutzy character as the female Jerry Lewis to Dean Martin's straight man.

Note from me: I don't really by that claim, but Stella was pretty damn sexy in the Jerry Lewis movie, The Nutty Professor.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Brent Gair]

A nice surprise in the mail today.

My set of four MATT HELM Blu-ray Discs was delivered from England ahead of schedule (projected delivery was May 16 to June 7).

These are labelled "Region B" and shouldn't play here. In fact, when ordered, I received an email from the seller asking me to confirm that I have a multi-region player (which I don't). However, I had read multiple reviews stating that this set is, in fact, region free and will play anywhere.

I personally checked and can confirm that these are region free and start up with no issues.

These were a GREAT deal. Each movie has it's own disc and I payed about $48.00CDN with FREE shipping. 12 bucks per Blu-ray is a steal.

I'm a HUGE Dean Martin fan and he was perfect for this role.

[Bud Brewster]

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Brent, we certainly agree on the greatness of Dino!

I'm sure you have the Blu-ray of Rio Bravo, the great John Wayne, Dean Martin Western in which Dean and Ricky Nelson do a wonderful duet.

I love this movie, and this tender moment just melts my heart every time I watch it.

Rio Bravo - Dean Martin & Ricky Nelson & Walter Brennan (High Quality)


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Here's a bonus I'm sure you'll enjoy . . . just to prove that "this Bud's for you!"

Dean Martin - I'm Not the Marrying Kind (Matt Helm Theme From "Murderers' Row")


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)