Black Box Affair (1966)

It's dull, dry, lifeless, and difficult to get through., 6 June 2017
- Il mondo trema

The plot for The Black Box Affair is pretty simple – Agent Johnny Grant (Craig Hill) and sidekick Pablo (Luis Marin) are assigned the mission of finding the black box from a downed airplane before it can fall into enemy hands. Why? I honestly couldn't tell you. All I know is they have to find the box.

While I say I'm a Eurospy fan, what I'm learning about myself is that I'm a fan of GOOD Eurospy films. I prefer an entertaining Eurospy with something exciting, something kitchy, something different, or something totally ridiculous. I like films like Special Mission Lady Chaplin or Dick Smart 2.007 or Our Man in Marrakesh – you know, something good. Acting, budgets, dubbing, and most everything else plays second fiddle for me as long as it's entertaining. Unfortunately, I found little entertainment in The Black Box Affair. It's dull, dry, lifeless, and difficult to get through.

There are so many issues I have with this movie that I would write about, but I'll start with the plot – it's a disaster. A large portion of the film consists of little more than our heroes, Grant and Pablo, running, driving, or flying from one location to the next for no real reason that I could ascertain. They seem to be in one fight after the next with either the Russians or the Chinese. Why? Again, I'm not sure other than they're all trying to find the box. None of it makes much sense and that fact really hurts the overall movie. There's nothing I could sink my teeth into and care about. Hill and Marin aren't very good either. Hill makes for one of the most uninteresting leads I've seen recently and Marin's attempts at comic relief are just plain old horrid. His ventriloquism schtick gets old before he does it the first time. Agent Grant also happens to be about as stupid an agent as I've seen in a Eurospy film. He takes forever figuring out who's double-crossing him. The solution all but slaps you in the face it's so obvious. Honestly, I could write for days on the many problems I had with The Black Box Affair, but I've got better ways to spend my time.

3/10