1965's French-Italian "OSS 117 Mission for a Killer" (Furia a Bahia pour OSS 117 or Fury in Bahia for OSS 117) finds the completely unknown, Czech-born Frederick Stafford replacing Hollywood's Kerwin Mathews in the role of Colonel Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, better known to international audiences as secret agent OSS 117, cast only after a chance meeting with director Andre Hunebelle on location in Bangkok for previous entry "Shadow of Evil" ("how would you like to make movies with me?" "why not!"). Stafford acquits himself well considering this was his screen debut, similar to George Lazenby when called upon to use his fists in various well choreographed encounters, shooting in both Rio de Janeiro and the neighboring state of Bahia (hence the original title). A series of suicide deaths by hand grenade are perpetrated against political figures by trusted associates of each victim, under the evil influence of some type of mind altering drug, putting Hubert on the trail of a Brazilian organization seeking world domination. There's no shortage of action or pretty girls, and its production values are on par with the early James Bond titles. One hair breadth escape finds Hubert fending off a lighted blowtorch, while locations like Sugarloaf Mountain and the Iguazu Falls foreshadow the 1979 "Moonraker." It may be the best of Hunebelle's three OSS 117 films thus far, though perhaps a bit too leisurely at 99 minutes. Stafford only completed one other OSS film ("OSS 117 Mission to Tokyo") before starring in Alfred Hitchcock's "Topaz," whose box office failure was typically placed at his feet.

Nearing the end of ICM's French Viewing Challenge,I looked for a quick and easy flick I could watch before bed. Catching the fun O.S.S. 117 n'est pas mort (1957-also reviewed) earlier this month,I decided to join OSS for another mission.

View on the film:

For the first hour co-writer/(with Pierre Foucaud and Jean Halain) director Andre Hunebelle's adaptation of Pierre Foucaud's novel is spent in a wandering state, where instead of gradually increasing the stakes, Agent OSS 117 is left to aimlessly travel round with little feeling of increased pressure from boo-hiss Euro Spy baddies.Going down to the jungle for the final, the writers switch from Euro Spy to a more Adventure flavour, with excitement fired up in the Amazon jungle over an uprising on by the locals on the baddies using a plant from the region to create a drug which will let them take over the world.

Whilst the Jungle action does get lively, the writers oddly continue making OSS 117 and Sulza feel like side characters,due to it being the locals and the baddies who pull the mission along. Mostly filmed in Rio and backed by Michel Magne's sweet hula hula score, director Hunebelle & cinematographer Marcel Grignon visual bring out the Euro Spy style missing in the script,in lush wide-shots giving Rio a globe-trotting espionage adventure sizzle, with the lair of the baddie surrounded by the jungle giving the flick a pulpy vibrancy. Burning up anyone who takes him on, Hunebelle makes the wonderful fight scene the centre-piece, thanks to the hand to hand combat moves being slickly shot, and left-field weapons coming out of nowhere,including a stand out fight OSS 117 has against a henchmen welding a flame-thrower. Cast after the director ran into him in a Bangkok hotel (!),Frederick Stafford (joined by the alluring glamour of Mylene Demongeot as Sulza) gives a very good debut performance as OSS 117, thanks to Stafford match the Euro Spy cool under danger style with a rough and tumble edge in the action scenes,as OSS 117 takes on a mission for a killer.