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The Silencers (1966)

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 11:02 am    Post subject: The Silencers (1966) Reply with quote



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)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Wed Jun 22, 2022 4:33 pm; edited 9 times in total
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Krel
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 12:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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.
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 6:40 pm    Post subject: Re: The Silencers (1966) Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
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.

Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm was a gritty, unglamorous, down-and-dirty spy/assassin who drove a pickup truck, not an Aston Martin. The movies, tailored to fit Dean Martin's boozy playboy image, turned him into a silly Bond spoof.

Bud Brewster wrote:
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.



Cyd Charisse was in her mid-forties then and looked amazing. That woman had a body that could make an atheist kneel down and pray.

Krel wrote:
Another problem with the films, was that Dean Martin refused to leave the United States to film the movies!

A large part of The Ambushers was shot on location in Acapulco.
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Krel
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 8:54 pm    Post subject: Re: The Silencers (1966) Reply with quote

scotpens wrote:
Krel wrote:
Another problem with the films, was that Dean Martin refused to leave the United States to film the movies!

A large part of The Ambushers was shot on location in Acapulco.

Was Dean Martin in Acapulco when the footage was shot? Or was like in the other movies, where a second unit shot the film on location with a double, while Dean Martin's part was shot in Hollywood?

I ask, because I have read in a couple of spy movie books that he didn't want to film out of the United States. Perhaps Acapulco was close enough to suit him?

David.
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 10:15 pm    Post subject: Re: The Silencers (1966) Reply with quote

Krel wrote:
Was Dean Martin in Acapulco when the footage was shot? Or was like in the other movies, where a second unit shot the film on location with a double, while Dean Martin's part was shot in Hollywood?

Dean Martin (along with costars Janice Rule and Albert Salmi) definitely did some location shooting at the famous Las Brisas Hotel in Acapulco.



Last edited by scotpens on Wed Jul 29, 2020 12:33 am; edited 1 time in total
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 4:45 am    Post subject: Re: The Silencers (1966) Reply with quote

scotpens wrote:
That woman had a body that could make an atheist kneel down and pray.

I know. I did.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 22, 2022 6:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________________________________________________

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. Cool


____________________ 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 . . . Sad

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! Rolling Eyes

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

[size=22]Meanwhile, IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production. Very Happy
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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! Very Happy

~ 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! Very Happy

~ 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 . . . Rolling Eyes

~ 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)
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