OSS 117: Five Film Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

OSS 117: Five Film Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 3, 2024

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.)

For reviews of the films in this set, please click on the following links:

OSS 117 Is Unleashed Blu-ray review

OSS 117: Panic in Bangkok Blu-ray review

OSS 117: Mission for a Killer Blu-ray review

OSS 117: Terror in Tokyo Blu-ray review

OSS 117: Double Agent Blu-ray review

OSS 117: Five Film Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Video quality is assessed in the above linked reviews.

OSS 117: Five Film Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Audio quality is assessed in the above linked reviews.

OSS 117: Five Film Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Three trailers are included on OSS 117: Double Agent. See that review for details. Packaging features a slipcover.

OSS 117: Five Film Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As long as you don't expect these films to be carbon copies of James Bond outings (and some Francophiles will probably want to argue that it's the Bond outings which are the carbon copies), all five of the films in this set have certain pleasures. Technical merits are generally solid. Recommended.