OSS 117: Double Agent Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

OSS 117: Double Agent Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 3, 2024

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Kino Lorber's OSS 117: Five Film Collection release.

Someone thought it would be a good idea to reinvent Jean Bruce's iconic spy OSS 117 as a blundering oaf, with the result being what I personally found to be the surprisingly unfunny OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies and OSS 117: Lost in Rio. As I mentioned in my OSS 117 Blu-ray review, while anyone who sees a spy with two repeated digits and then a seven in their codename might naturally instantly think of, um, someone else, Bruce's creation actually predates Ian Fleming's work both in the book arena and the film world. Perhaps for licensing issues, the very first OSS 117 film, 1957's OSS 117 n'est pas mort, is not included here (and just as weirdly, it's not even in our database, which is why I linked to its IMDb listing). That particular outing featured Ivan Desny as Bruce's perhaps unfortunately named spy (officially Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath), but starting with 1963's OSS 117 se déchaîne, Kerwin Mathews took over the role for two films, followed by lookalike Frederick Stafford for the next two, and then by stalwart John Gavin for the final film in this collection, 1968's Pas de roses pour OSS 117. (Kind of interestingly in the trivia department, both Stafford and Gavin seem to be relatively "forgotten" Hitchcock actors.)

John Gavin, much like his "forgotten" Hitchcock brother Frederick Stafford, has often been derided for a somewhat wooden performances style, and in that regard it may be "same old same old" with the last of the OSS 117 films collected in this set, albeit now in a context that seems to be influenced at least as much by Italian Poliziotteschi offerings as by Bond, James Bond. And in fact there evidently was an Italian component to the production, not necessarily limited to its use of Rome as a location. What's kind of interesting about this multinational effort one way or the other, though, is that it finally seems to address the fact that, as odd as it may sound, OSS 117 is supposed to be an American agent, and so this film has at least a smattering of English dialogue in it.

There's a certain feeling of being adrift throughout this enterprise, even if, as some of its predecessors did, it utilizes aspects of some of the former films in the franchise, including a plot element in this outing which is at least somewhat similar to the "mind controlled" assassins afoot in OSS 117: Mission for a Killer. In that regard and somewhat comically given his role in 1969's The Assassination Bureau, Curt (here billed as Curd) Jurgens is on hand chewing the scenery (and then some) as this film's power hungry mad genius. Jurgens of course is just another tether to the Bond franchise courtesy of The Spy Who Loved Me, but Bond trivia fans may also know that Gavin was reportedly actually slated to play Bond himself in Diamonds Are Forever and Live and Let Die.

OSS 117: Double Agent Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

OSS 117: Double Agent is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is the only film in the collection granted its own disc. This has the same generally excellent appearance of some of the other color films in this set, with rather appealing fine detail levels and a healthily suffused palette, though rather than the skewing toward yellow (however slight) I mentioned in some other reviews of the OSS 117 this occasionally can offer a slightly faded brown quality, though it's never severe and certainly never overly debilitating. The move away from a 'scope aspect ratio also provides more opportunities for convincing close-ups, where fine detail is typically excellent. Grain resolves naturally throughout.

OSS 117: Double Agent Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

OSS 117: Double Agent offers another DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that like some of its predecessors can show occasional thinness in some of the sound effects like gunfire, but which otherwise offers a secure presentation. As mentioned above, this actually has an English component, including some narration and dialogue scenes featuring Americans (including OSS 117). There's a pretty swingin' Hammond inflected score which also sounds fine. Dialogue in both English and French is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

OSS 117: Double Agent Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Just a bit oddly, Kino Lorber has aggregated three trailers for prior films in the series on this disc, rather than placing them on the disc(s) containing the actual films.

• OSS 117 Is Unleashed Trailer (HD; 2:58)


• OSS 117: Panic in Bangkok Trailer (HD; 3:45)


• OSS 117: Mission for a Killer Trailer (HD; 3:51)

OSS 117: Double Agent Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This final film in Kino Lorber's OSS 117 collection may offer more interest in some of its "meta" tethers to the James Bond franchise than for anything it offers itself. The film is really a rather curious combo platter of plot elements from some of the previous OSS 117 features, though it approaches things from an ostensibly "grittier" framework. Technical merits are generally solid for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.