Wednesday, July 23, 2014

A 001: OPERAZIONE GIAMAICA - Marcello Giombini - "Our Man In Jamaica" (1965)

No more dealing with impostors or impersonators, tonight's Dungeon Spy Feature is about Agent Double 01 and is appropriately titled "A 001: Operazione Giamaica" or "Our Man In Jamaica!" This poster kills, and it has nothing to do with the movie at all! Fantastico!!

So first things first, our man hasn't even got there yet, so let's try and find out why he's going! I don't usually spend a lot of time talking about directors, but I think it's worth noting something that might make "Our Man In Jamaica" just a little bit different from your standard Eurospy flick, and that is the fact that Mr. Mel Welles was the predominant director for the movie!  Mel of course, is a major Dungeon hero for his work on and in "Attack Of The Crab Monsters," "The Undead," "Rock All Night," "The Little Shop Of Horrors," and "She Beast" etc!

Our man who hasn't gone to Jamaica yet, is Larry Pennell as Agent 001 Alessandro Pennelli, or in the English version, Ken Stewart Agent 001! Larry Pennell was the character called Dash Riprock on "The Beverly Hillbillies," a suave movie actor who was quite attracted to Elly May! He was also in the "Outer Limits" episode called "The Mutant," and was Kemosabe in "Bubba Ho-Tep!" Larry just passed away a little less than a year ago!

"So what do you mean, you have a job? Last night you said you were a secret agent, and we were supposed to get married today!"

So Agent 001 has been called into the office to be given his new assignment, but he's still daydreaming about the action from the night before! Next stop............

I don't know who is singing that wild and fairly horrendous theme song, but the music credits go out to Marcello Giombini of "War Of The Planets," "Battle Of The Stars," and "War Of The Robots" fame and fortune!

This creepster dude is very intent on this dancer! In fact he's down right delusional!

So when 001 waltzes up to the bar, and the dancer ask him to buy her a drink, it really pisses off the creep because he thinks she's his girlfriend, and then all Hell breaks out!

Bad Brad Harris gives 001 a muchly unappreciated assist, because 001 prefers to fight his own fights!

By the luck of the draw, it just so turns out that I've ended up with two copies of "Our Man In Jamaica" so I'm going to give away one copy free, courtesy of  The Cult Action Team to the first person who leaves a comment with the correct answer to this question! Not in this movie, but in real life, what number 8 is Brad Harris quoted as saying that he believes is essential to good health?

The boss played by Wolfgang Kieling shows up, and tell his thugs to take the troublemaker into his office! Behind closed doors, it's now revealed that Wolfgang's character is indeed a special operative himself, and the whole thing was just a ruse, so the two could meet together and not cause suspicion! Wolfgang was in Hitchcock's "Torn Curtain," and I love this fact, on German "Sesame Street," Wolfgang was the voice of Bert!

001 is searching everywhere to try and catch up with his old pal Larry Peacock who has suddenly mysteriously disappeared!  Linda (The 1000 Eyes Of Dr. Mabuse) Sini is Signora Cervantes, an art collector and a known associate of Larrys, and she has a real cool pad, but she doesn't have any real answers!

I love this very short scene where these two streetwalkers come up and ask Mr. Bigshot for a ride in his fancy car, and 001 politely tells them that it's a rental!

Heading over to Larry Peacock's office, 001 finds a strange woman in his ransacked office, but it turns out to be Larry's sister, who is also looking for him! Marvelous Margitta (Zimmer 13) Scherr is Lana Peacock!

Lana finds what appear to be some doodles by Larry, but when it's turned upside down, it points at nothing but trouble at some place called Flamingo Bay!

A pensive 001 gazes out over the pool!

It's a fact that Brad Harris does all his own stunts!

Barbara Valentin is Signora Cervantes' secretary Gloria! "Yeah, she makes me feel all right, G L O R I I I I A!" -  Them. Barbara's first role ever was in 1959 as the dancing girl in "The Head!" She kept working right up to the time of her death in 2002! "Somebody's ringing the bell, open the door and let 'em in!"- Paul McCartney

Larry Peacock finally shows up, but he's in no condition to answer any questions, in fact, he's not even breathing, and it turns out that he has been electrocuted and was just left leaning up against the door bell!

It seems it would be almost inhumanly impossible to have a 60's spy movie without a miniature tape recorder of some sort!

In the end they try to pry more information out of 001 by hooking him up to some electric dreadlocks, but just like every time before, 001 is just too tough to give it up!

 Just so that you know he lived through the whole ordeal, here's a final shot of 001 and Lana together safe and sound and riding off into the sunset. "Our Man In Jamaica" is just one more movie in a long line of 60's spy flicks worth checking out, and speaking of checking out, I'm outta here!

4 comments:

Grant said...

Coincidentally, I saw this for the first time just a week ago. It's entertaining to see Larry Pennell and Brad Harris together, since each of them was so good at playing likeable "big lug" characters. It also makes me want to see my set of three "KOMMISSAR X" movies again (which I was planning to do anyway).

Another real attraction of course is Barbara Valentin. I don't know her from VERY many things besides HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND, but enough to really like her.
I noticed that her dubbed voice is similar in this film to the one in SPIDER ISLAND. Did she do her own dubbing into English? I know that isn't all that common, but I couldn't help wondering.

Eegah!! and Tabonga! said...

Couldn't truthfully answer that question Grant, but with an English speaking director and two stars, I'd say it probably is her voice. Is it Brad Harris and Larry Pennell's voice, if so, then I'd say it was Barbara's voice too.

R. Claude said...

Good looking girls: 60's forever ! At this time, we used the word "ensemblier" on a movie's statement or a theater's stage. Today, "ensemblier" is a lost job... and a lost vista.

Anonymous said...

Hello, does anyone know who plays the nightclub dancer shown in jpegs 2 and 5 above, and if she was in any other films?

Thanks,

Frank

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