Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966)

- Le spie vengono dal semifreddo
I love Bava, but this movie is almost unwatchable, 18 April 2008

Mario Bava is responsible for some of my all-time favorite movies. Black Sunday, Kill Baby…Kill, Danger: Diabolik, Black Sabbath, and Blood and Black Lace are all in my top 100. I guess you could call me a Bava fanboy. As far as I'm concerned, Mario Bava was a genius and one of the greatest directors ever. I even love the movie that Bava considered his worst – Five Dolls for an August Moon. However, if he thought of Five Dolls for an August Moon as his worst then (as I wrote in my comment for that movie) "I guess Bava never had the misfortune of watching his movie Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs". I take it that there are some difference between the Italian version and the American version, but I doubt they'd change my opinion much. Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs is just that – a complete and utter BOMB of a movie. Other than Vincent Price's gleeful performance as Dr. Goldfoot, I can't think of another positive thing to mention. The plot is ridiculous. The acting is abysmal. The comedy, especially on the part of the two Italian buffoons Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia (maybe it's a cultural thing), isn't funny at all. The music is terrible. The final chase scene is noteworthy for being just so incredibly stupid. And there are none of the Bava directorial trademarks or flourishes that I've come enjoy. And to top it all off, the dubbing is simply atrocious. I normally don't complain too much about dubbing, but in this case the whole movie has a hollow, staged sound to it. In the end, Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs is so bad that it makes Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (the first of the two Goldfoot movies) look like a masterpiece of cinema (which it most definitely isn't). As much as I hate to do it, I've got to give this Mario Bava film a 2/10.

2/10