Secret Agent Fireball (1965)

A really nice Eurospy effort, 18 February 2017

An American agent, Bob Fleming (Richard Harrison), is sent to Europe to track down the whereabouts of two Russian scientists. They may have secrets important to the West. However, before he can find either, both are assassinated. Operating under the assumption that they had transferred their secrets to microfilm, he's asked to find it before the Russians do. As you'd rightly suspect, his path is blocked by a plethora of baddies, guns, explosions, women, and car chases. It's all a lot of fun.

Secret Agent Fireball is a nice Eurospy effort from director Luciano Martino. Martino keeps the film lively and never lets it overstay its welcome in one place for too long. Richard Harrison plays a good lead. He's got a natural appeal and knows how to use it. Dominique Boschero and Wandisa Guida make for perfect spy movie females. Either would have been at home in a Bond movie. And the whole bunch of Russian dudes, especially Luciano Pigozzi, are quite good. The plot is easy to follow, but has a couple of twists. I especially liked the twist right at the end. The only thing missing from Secret Agent Fireball that would have made it even better is a big action set-piece. I suppose that's where you can see the movie's budget limitations popping up.

The film does play a lot like a 60s European travelogue. The locations shots are all nicely done. I'm always impressed in a movie like this when I see what 60s-era Beirut looked like. Very interesting.

Overall, I'll be generous and rate it a 7/10.

7/10