AGENTE SEGRETO 777 - INVITO AD UCCIDERE - "Secret Agent 777 - A Ticket To Die" (1966)

This weeks Super Spy Secret Agent feature is what you might call different, so let's get this crazy 7 train rolling with three times more sevens for your money and something that's usually a good thing to see on a slot machine, the cousin of the beast, 777!

It's titled "Agente Segreto 777 - Invito Ad Uccidere" and was released in English as "Secret Agent 777 - A Ticket To Die!" Do you think that the fact that The Beatles had a massive number one hit a year earlier with "Ticket To Ride" had anything to do with it?

This is Tiziano Cortini as Lewis Jordan, Agente 777! Tiziano also acted using the pseudonym Lewis Jordan in most of his credited roles! 777's life is a mess! After 14 years as a spy, he has been drummed out of the ranks because for being medically unfit, and he needs money! He knows that there's a secret formula floating around out there, and he figures if he has it, he can sell it to the highest bidder! There's only one problem, the formula is divided into 3 parts, and he's not quite sure where they all are, but he's got some leads!

He knows the first piece of the puzzle is in this "Van Gogh-like" artiste's studio, so he quickly goes there and shoots the guy and retrieves what he is looking for!

777 is kind of a loose cannon, sure, he's only killing bad guys, but he's being pretty rogue about it, and it's upsetting a lot of the people around him! They must have had some money to burn on this movie, because they destroyed a couple of cars in fiery blazes!

Pretty cool Volkswagen Bus ambulance, but I'm not too sure about the colour of that paint job!!

This is Claudie (Flashman, Crossplot) Lange as Elsie, 777's main squeeze! She seems to have a set of birthmark buttons on her breast that he needs to put in the code in order to enter, or something like that!

Part of the reason 777 needs money is because of his high standard of living! He dwells at the "Excelsior Palace!"  I don't know if I'd call it a palace, but it's a pretty fancy pad!

This guy is spying on 777, and off screen there's an Asian guy spying on this guy!

777 enlists the help of an old buddy, but while the guy is talking to 777 from a phone booth, this giant claws comes down and scoops up the telephone booth he's in and unceremoniously drops it back on the cement where the guy is pronounced dead on the scene!

The secret agent guy bosses tell one of 777's old pals to check up on what he's doing, because they don't trust him. On the left is Umberto (Mr. X) Raho as agent Linus Jericho, but in the English version, his name is Clyde! 777 challenges Clyde to a very intoxicating version of the game normally known as Checkers!

Just like everything else in this movie, they don't exactly explain the rules, but as far as I  can tell, it's like Beer Pong without the ping pong ball! Now that would be a good reference point! Needless to say, Clyde gets exceptionally fucked up, and 777 has to put him to bed, and then he hangs with him, they're that good of friends!

Here's one thing you'll never see James Bond do, pop a pill!! It turns out that maybe part of 777's health problems are connected to the fact that he's a speed freak! Can you spell Benzedrine?

So let's get this straight! 777 is a cold-blooded desperate killing machine with no job, no money, and a drug habit, what a prefect 1966 role model!

Do not throw a knife at the dude, that really pisses him off, just like throwing peanuts to a monkey in a zoo, and then it turns around and pisses on you, only this time it is lethal!

Clyde is told by the boss that it's necessary to take 777 out, and even though Clyde protests a little, the bottom line is that he's a company man, and he'll do whatever he's told to do whether it means killing his best friend or not!

Here they are, two pieces of the secret formula puzzle that when put together contain secrets that will bring world powers to their knees!

Hélène (My Friend, Dr. Jekyll) Chanel as Jeanne Cartier, 777's supposed partner shows her true colours!

Lucky for triple seven, Clyde loved him more than Jeanne Cartier!

Honestly, I don't know, "Agente Segreto 777 - Invito Ad Uccidere" is an unrelentless tough and gritty movie! Compared to 007, I guess # 777 was quite a bit down the line! I'll bet there's a lot of other cool untold stories from  Agents 13, 69, and 666 etc. that will never be told! What a shame! Once again, where can you get it? Cult Action Films is the only place I know of!

EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG / Firesign Theatre - 1975

It's time to take The Golden Hind to Hellmouth, CA, with Tabonga!.. Then, we're going to get our facts straightened out by some sun baked conspiracy theories brought to us by that desert news hound.. Happy Harry Cox!

Dogs flew space ships!.. The Aztecs invented the vacation!.. Your brain is not the boss!.. Everything you know is wrong!

Eegah!! sent over a great little soundclip from this thing, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there by the giant atomic-powered fried egg, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG!

Here's the fun little album Eegah!! and I both had, the movie is just a lip-synched version of the original album recording! The cinematographer, Allen Daviau, went on to be the director of photography on E.T. and THE COLOR PURPLE.

Here's Happy Harry Cox, happily reporting the facts as he knows 'em from his trailer in the California desert. Philip Austin is Happy, there's his address in case you want to inform or warn him of something that has you confused or confounded.

I'd give anything to hear some Gas Music from Jupiter!

I swear, Hellmouth looks like parts of Bakersfield, if we ever do our next Dungeon Flick called BUG EXTERMINATORS: 2062, we have a place similar to this picked out for our location!

I really dig this shot of seventies clutter!

Happy interviews Sheriff Luger Axehandle pertaining to an incident that has just happened! David Ossman is Sheriff Axehandle.

Eegah!! loves this commercial, having been a real beer connoisseur hisself!

The local TV weatherman shows us where it's going to be over 130 degrees in the shade!

This stuntman is going to have to survive a stunt involving that insane hill at top left!

Now, it's time to take a trip on The Golden Hind, where we listen to commentary by Buzz and Bunny Crumbhunger and watch home movies from their recent vacation...

Hare are a couple of interesting shots from the Crumbhunger's exotic journey!

Love this, the dude writing on the blackboard gets gassed but good!

Here's the back of Peter Bergman's head, unfortunately, the only member of The Firesign Theatre that is no longer with us.

The conspiracy is brought into the light of day, giant flying fried egg saucers are revealed at last!! See you again on Wednesday when Eegah!! will pull post number 1,800 out of his hat!!

FLYING DISC MAN FROM MARS - Chapters 1 - 4 - "Missile Monsters" (1950)

"Flying Disc Man From Mars" was a 12 episode weekly serial that started on October 25, 1950! Serials were quite popular in the day, and would show along with a cartoon or two before the main feature came on! They were generally about 20 minutes each, and would always end on a cliffhanger to entice the viewer to return the following week, just to see what happened! 

The first chapter of "Flying Disc Man From Mars" was titled "Menace From Mars" and this guy ain't no Dennis! He's out for total destruction! The man who composed the music for this serial was Stanley Wilson, who also either wrote the music or worked in the music department for other space serial thrillers like "Lost Planet Airmen," "Radar Men From The Moon," "Zombies Of The Stratosphere," and "Canadian Mounties Vs. Atomic Invaders," and that barely scratches the surface of the body of this man's work! Here's just a taste to get you in the mood!

This is James (Captain Midnight, 13 Rue Madeleine, Mighty Joe Young, Project Moon Base) Craven as Industrialist Dr. Bryant showing off his new Atomic Death Ray! He's not an evil man, but as a former Nazi, he's probably not the must trustworhty person in the world!

Dr. Bryant enlists the help of local Air Patrol owner and pilot Kent Fowler as played by Walter Reed, and rigs his plane with the Atomic Ray Gun mounted up front! Walter has 204 freakin' acting credits that include "Superman And The Mole-Men," "Rock, Pretty Baby," "How To Make A Monster," "13 Fighting Men," "Macumba Love," and "Mexican Spitfire's Elephant!" He was also in the "Twilight Zone" episode titled "Nick Of Time" as the desperate man!

A strange flying object comes into view, and just as a friendly greeting, Kent Fowler shoots it down as instructed by Dr. Bryant!

There is a survivor, and as Dr. Bryant is about to find out, his name is Mota, and he comes from the planet Mars! No, he didn't bring any marsijuana with him!

Mota convinces Dr. Bryant to help him conquer the world, but they need lots of uranium and a couple of henchmen! These two guys get caught breaking into the joint by Kent Fowler when he's out on patrol, and turns them over to the Doctor, but instead of turning them over to the authorities, Dr, Bryant offers them a job stealing uranium instead! One of the henchmen is the amazing Harry Lauter! I wouldn't even know where to start or end talking about Harry Lauter! He might have more acting credits than anybody else we've ever written about with 323! On the far right, the other guy is Richard Irving! Richard only had 22 acting credits, but he kept busy as a director (45 credits) and also as a producer (29 credits)!

There was a fiery crash at the end of Chapter One between an airplane and Kent Fowler's car! Surely he must have died, but nope, one week later, you find out he just bailed out of the car at the last minute without a scratch!

The eye candy in the series is  lovely Lois (Weird Woman, Cobra Woman, Jungle Woman) Collier as Kent Fowler's secretary Helen Hall! She answers the phone, and files papers, but most of the time, she just stands around looking pretty, and she's very good at it!

I just happen to like these two shots of Mota and Dr. Bryant contemplating their complete and utter takeover of the whole world! These two are big thinkers, and are very industrious!

These guys are amazing!! Without help from anybody except the two henchmen Drake and Ryan, Mota and the Doctor have built a spaceship that besides being fast, can also hover, and land inside a living volcano, where Mota has a special lab set up! There's only one problem though, he needs MORE uranium!! Lots more if he plans to conquer the world!!

Sounds like the name for a cool Hendrix biopic, "Death Rides A Stratocaster!!"

 Chapter Two left Kent Fowler hanging from an exploding train bridge, but I'll be doggone if he doesn't live through this one too!

It looks like they actually built a full scale model of the space ship for this scene where it shuttles across the terra firma!

Chapter Three ends with Kent Fowler's plane going down in a fiery crash! Now this one is truly astounding! He doesn't have time to parachute out, but he does manage to jump out onto the ground right before the plane crashes! I'm telling you, this guy is something else!

Sandy (Phantom From Space) Sanders as Kent's pal Steve, and Kent Fowler discus some important business while Helen Hall just happens to be filing some papers in the background the whole time!

Drake and Ryan are about to dispose of this guy they think is a rat when they are interrupted one more time by Kent Fowler!

In every episode, Kent gets the jump on Drake and Ryan, and while he's holding a gun on them, one of them manages to knock it out of his hand and a two or three minute fight scene ensues! These guys are tough and relentless!

Eight years later, Republic Studios edited all the chapters of "Flying Disc Man From Mars" down to a 75 minute movie, and re-released it as "Missile Monsters!" Just like Mota and Bryant, pretty sneaky!!