O.S.S. 117: Mission to Tokyo (1966)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The fourth entry in the official French movie series of "OSS 117" movies, while a notch better than the previous entry ("OSS 117: Mission for a Killer"), still fails to engage viewers as much as even a second rate James Bond movie. There are a few things along the way to catch the eyes or ears of viewers momentarily. The location shooting in Tokyo, combined with an adequate budget, do provide a lot of pleasant eye candy. The musical score is also pleasant, sounding very much like the music found in a James Bond movie of the same era. And the action sequences are pretty well done. That is, when there IS action. There simply isn't enough action to be found in the 100 minute running time, which will leave viewers impatient for the movie to get down to business like James Bond. I think the lack of action can be blamed for a very slow-moving script. Surprisingly, James Bond veteran Terence Young had a hand with this movie's story, but you wouldn't know it. The story unfolds at a snail's pace, and another unfortunate consequence of this is that there is no feeling of tension, no feeling that people's lives are on the line. It doesn't take long for the movie to become quite frankly dull. "James Bland" is more like it.

The French answer to James Bond is back. And this time he travels to Tokyo and battles international terrorists. This film does have some things going for it: Frederick Stafford is a good enough spy lead (I'll take his OSS 117 over Timothy Dalton's 007 any day!), the cast includes a French mega-babe (Marina Vlady) and a Japanese super-cutie (Jitsuko Yoshimura), there are some enjoyable fight scenes, and the Oriental setting actually predates Connery's "You Only Live Twice" by one year! Despite all that, however, the film is a bit of a bore. It is VERY slow-moving and lacks a strong central villain. The filmmakers probably stretched the budget as far as it could go, but in comparison to the Bond pictures of the time, they still came up short. They just about beat "Diamonds Are Forever", though. (**)

Yes, Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath is based on novels by Jean De Bruce but he is so similar to Ian Fleming's very well known English spy James Bond who is by the way funnier and more advanced.Well, I adore the 1960s and all of its crazy, charming and sexy stuff. So when it comes to Bond movies' formula I wait for : good action, good science fiction, good Jazz music, good huge production and for sure good seductive delicious women from the good old 1960s when the voluptuous style was on and Marilyn Monroe was the perfect model (forget our miserable damned days of Jessica Alba or Sarah Michelle Gellar ! GOD HELP US !!). But this movie anyway is not working as its likes. The action is not so good, it's average. The direction is not that well done; you'll watch the camera more than once (in the glass of some bus and in the bathroom's mirror of the submarine..), plus the stunt man's face tells you that he isn't the real hero ..And so on. The music is not the unforgettable one !. Frederick Stafford is trying to be (or forced to be) another Connery, and that dubbed voice case was unfunny, but I think with some other director and writer he would've done much better work. The cinematography by Marcel Grignon was real nice as the classic rich shooting of the very era. You won't have a lot of exciting spying devices (only a little microphone and sunglasses which had a camera in it !). And although it's French-Italian production but it's not BIG one by all means ?! Especially when all of the events take place just in Tokyo. The writing was mediocre or maybe the surprises of 1966 are corny in 2007 ! (someone is shooting Hubert in his bed to discover that it wasn't him it is a doll under the blanket !, another one was chasing Hubert to discover that he was a harmless policeman.. etc). Let alone the non-creative dialogue (forget utterly the sly work at Bond with the forever double meaning phrases).Though the real anger would come from my remorse because of the long waiting for the enjoyable Marina Vlady to do anything would show her remarkable beauty but I've got NOTHING at all !!. She was explosive as a cross between Marilyn Monroe and Elke Sommer with charming ambiguity and suppressed great womanhood where the simple yet crafty smile, the silent deceptive look and the confident sexy walking !! But believe me the disappointment will be too awful to stand when you have just one kiss, a very quick brief scene where she was wearing a black swimsuit "under the water ??", and no alluring scenes like Mr. Bond's women made us accustomed to !! However when you read that Marina Vlady wanted to prove that she wasn't a second-rate Brigitte Bardot or another blonde bombshell (and Oh Boy she was indeed) but an actress who is capable of much more, then you'll understand why she wasn't one of the playboy's posters at the time ! So the only thing to say and sorrowfully is : what a loss !!.All in all, this movie is a poor one when you compare it to Bond movies. But if you measure it by its own desire to be amusing and how it could fulfill it by itself, then you'll find that it's a nice humble small espionage flick not too boring, silly nor bad.Yet unfortunately most of the global taste or mood will innately compare that French spy to the original English one hence he'll be some sort of the fool cousin from France whom imitates desperately his uncle's famous clever son !

Frederick Stafford's second and last adventure as Hubert Bonniseur de la Bath a.k.a. OSS 117 is a well made but ultimately disappointing feature. The film starts out with a nifty car chase but unfortunately that level of excitement is never regained and the result is a rather dull film. The self-assured Stafford is never allowed to showcase the talents he displayed in OSS 117 Mission For a Killer and even the lovely Marina Vlady isn't enough to perk things up.Director Michel Boisrond does what he can with the material but the lack of a good story dooms this from the start. Michel Magne's score is appropriately flavored with Asian spice but is otherwise forgettable. You can skip this one as an also ran that doesn't measure up.