The title refers to pair of bikini-clad female assassins, Irma (Elke Sommer) and Penelope (Sylva Koscina), who work for a mysterious, Blofeld-like megalomaniac who has the girls bump off anyone standing in his way. Enter Bulldog Drummond (Richard Johnson), British adventurer who, with help of playboy American nephew Robert (Steve Carlsen) gradually traces the girls and their leader to a castle on the Mediterranean.

The best thing about Deadlier Than the Male is Richard Johnson's debonair hero. The actor, probably best known in the States as the poltergeist investigator in The Haunting (and more recently as the Distinguished Gentleman in Laura Croft: Tomb Raider), brings to the role an understated sophistication. Where Sean Connery never entirely shed his working class roots, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts-trained Johnson effortlessly expresses the kind of learned gentleman elements infused in the Bond series by Terence Young and others. Indeed, Johnson reportedly was approached to play Bond prior to Connery, but didn't want to be saddled with a multi-picture contract. Watching the cool-under-pressure Johnson in Deadlier Than the Male, it's easy to see how he might have made a great Bond. Though less physical than Connery, Johnson is a better actor and has a similar edginess -- an edginess completely lacking in later Bonds like Roger Moore.

Generally though, Deadlier Than the Male imitates the Bond movies instead of putting its own spin on similar material (the Harry Palmer films with Michael Caine were far more successful at this). Malcom Lockyer's music and Scott Walker's singing of the title song are Bond-like without being any good, and Jimmy Sangster's script is confusing and disjointed.

Not surprisingly, the best scenes are those which break away from the Bond formula. Perhaps the best is a sequence where Robert's date Brenda (Virginia North) dumps the young man in favor of Uncle Bulldog, whom she tries unsuccessfully to seduce. The amusing sequence has Drummond slyly trying to get rid of the woman, who won't give up.

As for Irma and Penelope, their acerbic humor, Bondian gadgets, and surprisingly ghoulish brutality seem out-of-synch with the rest of the picture, and a presumed showdown between them and Drummond never develops. The women are thinly coded lesbian lovers, giving their scenes of seducing then sadistically murdering their all-male victims a mildly distasteful air. Penelope's subsequent attraction to Drummond (and Irma's jealously thereof) promise sparks that never come. Johnson and Koscina's big love scene is one of the most unerotic in the history of the spy genre, and the female assassins are ultimately dispatched in a most mundane manner.

Spoiler

Before sitting down to Deadlier Than the Male, this reviewer caught a 1961 episode of the TV series Danger Man, in which character actor Nigel Green turned out to be the surprise villain. When Green also turned up in the cast of Deadlier Than the Male a red flag went up. Sure enough, Green predictably is revealed as the surprise villain here, too -- the mastermind behind all the assassinations. I mention this because once he's revealed, the female leads fade into the background, and the big showdown turns into one between Johnson and Green. In Bondian fashion, the two match wits in a game of chess on a gigantic mechanical board using pieces standing about eight feet high. But despite the scene's Ken Adam-ish aspirations, the sequence falls flat, partly because both Green is even more low key in his performance than Johnson, and because director Ralph Thomas imitates the style of Terence Young and editor Peter Hunt without really understanding it.

Deadlier Than the Male isn't a bad film, just undistinguished. A sequel, Some Girls Do followed in 1969.

Video & Audio

Deadlier Than the Male has been released in an okay 4:3 letterboxed transfer probably supplied to Hen's Tooth by British distributor Carlton. It's a shame this isn't 16:9 enhanced, as the picture has some very nice Techniscope photography. The image is acceptable but not impressive. The mono sound is fine. There are no extras or subtitle options.

Stuart Galbraith IV is a Los Angeles and Kyoto-based film historian whose work includes Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo! The Incredible World of Japanese Fantasy Films. He is presently writing a new book on Japanese cinema for Taschen.