Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

OSS 117: Panic in Bangkok 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.)

As retro as these early OSS 117 films can seem at times, Banco à Bangkok pour OSS 117 is actually almost frighteningly prescient in a couple of ways, with a plot that revolves around a quasi-pandemic (in this case viral outbreaks of cholera) and some dastardly vaccine makers. That may be a bit too "on the nose" for some viewers, but as "ripped from the headlines" as at least some plot elements may seem to be, Panic in Bangkok continues the trend in the first Mathews outing of offering fairly cartoonish villains, which perhaps makes things a bit less real seeming.

In some ways Panic in Bangkok evokes both the early Bond films and the arguably misguided Jean Dujardin OSS 117 reboots by offering an exotic location and sumptuous color photography. Dr. Sinn (Robert Hossein), who is almost as perfectly named as Dr. Evil, is a power hungry mad scientist who rather interestingly might subscribe to something close to the Nazi era eugenics, though in this case he's taking out the supposedly "lesser classes" by offering them inoculations which are in fact poisoned. Luckily OSS 117's way with the ladies extends to Sinn's sister Lila (Pier Angeli), giving the agent an "in" to defeat the bad guys.

While actually the third OSS 117 film, per the above, this does have a bit of a "sophomore slump" aspect to it, when seen as the second Kerwin Mathews outing, but the color photography and good use of locations perhaps helps to counterbalance some plotting and characterization deficits. The film also exploits a certain ambiguity about its female characters, where it's not exactly clear whether they're villains or not, something that both the first Mathews OSS 117 effort and subsequent films in the series also feature.

OSS 117: Panic in Bangkok Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

OSS 117: Panic in Bangkok is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. (This film and OSS 117 Is Unleashed are paired on one disc.) This first color entry in the collection looks great for the most part in high definition, though color timing looked just a tad yellowish to me at times, as can perhaps be gleaned in some of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review. A lot of the outdoor material pops extremely well, and the locations offer some extremely nice scenery along the way. The 'scope aspect ratio tends to understandably lead to more midrange and wide shots, but detail levels are very good throughout. Grain resolves without any issues.

OSS 117: Panic in Bangkok Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

OSS 117: Panic in Bangkok features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono audio in the original French. The use of locations offers some nice energy to the sound design in terms of both "cultural" aspects like background urban clamor and even some of the music. Other sound effects like the crunch of fists colliding with faces can be just slightly boxy at times. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

OSS 117: Panic in Bangkok Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only supplements included in this collection are some trailers found on OSS 117: Double Agent. See that review for details.

OSS 117: Panic in Bangkok Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's some kind of goofy fun to be had in this second Kerwin Mathews OSS 117 film (I especially loved his showdown in the lab with the mind control doctor), but there's a certain lethargy in this outing that suggests the creative staff thought all that was needed here to duplicate the first Mathews film's success was a larger budget and nicer color photography. While the pacing here is a bit inconsistent, technical merits are generally solid for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.