6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, aka American secret agent OSS 117, is dispatched to Rio and then into the jungles of the Amazon in order to locate and retrieve a rare and valuable drug.
Starring: Frederick Stafford, Mylène Demongeot, Raymond Pellegrin, Perrette Pradier, Annie AndersonForeign | 100% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.34:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
None
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
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.)
OSS 117: Mission for a Killer is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. (This film and OSS 117: Terror in Tokyo are paired on one disc.) I'd rate both this film and its disc mate as the overall best looking transfers in the Kino Lorber collection. This film really benefits from its Brasilian location work, and some of the wide vistas showing Copacabana Beach or Sugarloaf offer great depth of field and some surprisingly fulsome fine detail despite some hugely wide vistas. There may be just a touch of the same skewing towards yellow that I mentioned in the OSS 117: Panic in Bangkok Blu-ray review, but to my eyes it's not nearly as prevalent, and the palette looks nicely healthy throughout. Primaries can be especially appealing. Grain resolves without any issues.
OSS 117: Mission for a Killer features another fine sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track, though for the life of me I can't figure out why a film set largely in the Brasil of the late sixties didn't exploit that nation's gorgeous music from that era more consistently (there are some nice uses of Brasilian precussion instruments like cuicas and a passing attempt at recreating the "sound" of Carnaval music, but it's not exactly authentic seeming). As with Kerwin Mathews, it's apparent Stafford was dubbed, and judging by his lip movements, it looks to me like he was speaking English (there were evidently English dubs of all of these films, though they're not included here). One way or the other, dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.
The only supplements included in this collection are some trailers found on OSS 117: Double Agent. See that review for details.
Some regular readers of my reviews, especially my music reviews, may be aware of my unabashed love of Brasilian music, and I have to say I was just a little disappointed in some of the scoring choices made for this largely Rio set film. That said, my hunch is most viewers won't give one whit about that perceived "problem", and may instead be concentrating (if that's the right word) on Frederick Stafford's odd "acting" proclivities, though that said, his abilities in the action scenes are rather exceptionally facile, and this film offers some spectacularly choreographed fight scenes. Technical merits are generally solid. Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
Banco à Bangkok pour OSS 117 / Shadow of Evil
1964
OSS 117 se déchaîne
1963
Bai yu lao hu / 白玉老虎
1977
Shen jian zhen jiang hu / San kim jan kong woo / 神劍震江湖
1967
Goliathon / Xing xing wang
1977
Huang jiang nu xia / Fong kong lui hap / 荒江女俠
1970
Palace Carnage / Can ku da ci sha / Qing gong da ci sha / 清宮大刺殺
1978
龍拳秘功
1988
2017
2014
The Fall of Ako Castle / Akô-jô danzetsu / 赤穂城断絶
1978
女必殺五段拳
1976
Duo qing jian ke wu qing jian / 多情劍客無情劍
1977
Nan Shao Lin yu bei Shao Lin / 南少林與北少林
1978
5 Masters of Death
1974
帰って来た女必殺拳
1975
女必殺拳 危機一発
1974
沓掛時次郎 遊侠一匹 / Kutsukake Tokijirō - yūkyō ippiki | Limited Edition
1966
賞金首 一瞬八人斬り / Shōkin kubi: Isshun hachi-nin giri
1972
黃飛鴻之五龍城殲霸 / Wong Fei Hung chi neung: Lung shing chim pa
1994