Just like riding on the "Psychotron," the thrills never stop down here in The Dungeon, so without further adieu, it's time for another rousing round of our Wednesday Number Seven Spy Guy Series, so B.Y.O.B. and let's get this
partito rolling with this little jewel from 1966 called "077, Killers Are Challenged!"
I've still got two more spy movies here to watch with the word 'Seven' in the title, but I thought I was done with 077 after tonight, but after a quick search, I soon realized I still need to track down a couple of more titles like "077, Dalla Francia Senza Amore"(Operation Snafu) from 1961,
and "Agente 077 Dall'oriente Con Furore"(From the Orient with Fury) from 1965,
and the Jess Franco "Agent 077 Opération Jamaïque" from 1964, and possibly even an Indian movie from 1968 called "Golden Eyes Secret Agent 077!!" Wow!
Tonight's version of 077 is played by Richard Harrison as C.I.A. agent Bob Fleming! We last saw Richard in "Fantabulous, Inc," but his career has run the gamut of almost every manly genre imaginable! His first ever movie was "Kronos" where he played a pilot, and he was in a bunch of Spaghetti Western and Sword and Sandal flicks in the 60's, and them reemerged in the 80's in a buttload of Ninja movies, and even as last year was in something called "Fallen Angel!"
Since I just made it up, you probably don't remember the olde legend about how if you see your shadow on a tombstone, you're most likely the next person to die! Well, it's true, luckily it wasn't our hero!
So if you get right down to it, I'm willing to say that "077, Killers Are Challenged" is not the best of the lot of 077 flicks I've seen so far, but
DAMN, it's got a fine bunch of gals in it that's pretty hard to beat! Off the bat, here's two Dungeon faves, on the left is the magnificent Mitsouko, and on the right is the Harvest Holidays Queen of The Dungeon, Janine Reynaud! So I could stop right here because, what more could you want, and what else do you need to know? Two thumbs up!!
Yeah, there's other stuff too, like this guy needed a new identity, and a new face!
In Morocco, it appears you can get high legally! No, they're not in a plane!
It's a spy movie, right? You have to have a shot like this!
This is a fun part where this slick cat thinks he's cool enough to pull something over on Bob Fleming!
Bob Fleming wasn't born yesterday jerkoff! Baldy waits for the mini-bomb he slipped into Bob Fleming's coat pocket to go off, but he finds out too late that Bob replanted it back on him!!
Here's another short but interesting take on the club scene with music supplied by Maestro Carlo Savina that starts out with a belly dancer, and then without warning......
.....The music turns to cinematic Italian Rock N Roll, and all the kids and the belly dancer start dancing in a less than traditional style! Here's a little
sample to better illustrate what I'm trying to say with a lead-in of Savina scat that was so popular at the time!
Bob Fleming is cool! He can get totally schnockered, and still do his job!
I honestly didn't know that the doorknobs in Morocco are in the middle of the door!
Naturally Bob Fleming comes in contact with various dastardly characters who don't know how to play fair and fight clean! I mean, in a nutshell, isn't that exactly what's wrong with the world today?
Button pushing time!! I find moronic comedy relief characters like this cab driver as played by Giovanni Di Benedetto to be totally useless in quasi-serious movies! I can't tell you how many great Edgar Wallace movies I almost stopped watching because of Eddie Arent's characters. It's like putting Jerry Lewis in a James Bond movie! (The funny Jerry,
NOT the serious Jerry)! It's not Giovanni's fault, and this isn't all that bad, but what the Hell, just have another fight scene!
You didn't think I was raving about the women in this movie just because of Mitsouko and Janine did you? Here's the wicked Wandisa (Miss Eurooppaa Metsästämässä) Guida! Dyn-O-Mite!!
One more time, there's going to be a test later, from left to right, repeat after me, Janine, Mitsouko, and Wandisa!! Three words that if you're depressed enough, just might save your soul some day!!!
It's a personal problem that I probably should have dealt with years ago, but I've really got a thing about patterns, hence, this is my favourite shot in this movie! The only thing that would have made it more perfect would have been a wildly patterned carpet on the floor!
I asked for a fight scene instead of the stupid cabbie scene, but what do you get but more unneeded slapstick comedy, this time delivered by a midget who gets involved in the melee, and a drunk who is oblivious to the whole fight going on around him! Why, why, why? I'll never get it!
I'll not let the midget idiocy bring me down because there is still one more beauty in this film, with exactly 13 acting credits to her name that include "Thor And The Amazon Women" and "Black Sabbath," the elegant Susy Andersen! Is it just me, or is she freakin' beautiful? "A 077, Sfida Ai Killers" is worth watching for her if nothing else, and in fact, that's exactly what I'm going to do! (But I will be fast forwarding through a few scenes!) Wanna see it? Where else you gonna find it?
Cult Action! That's right!
The incredibly hard to find "Visit To A Small Planet" was a broadway play written by the masterful author Gore Vidal! The theme music was written by the amazing composer Leigh Harline, who started his career way back in 1933 on the Walt Disney Silly Symphony cartoon short entitled "Father Noah's Ark" and wrote the score for Disney's "Pinocchio" and also "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs" among a hoarde of other titles!
It's the perfect vehicle for the antics of Jerry Lewis, France's other American film hero besides Eddie Constantine!!
Because it was written as a play, the whole beginning of the film looks and feels like a 1960's TV sitcom with a lot of familiar TV faces!
Jerry, as Kreton comes to earth to explore and play around. Being a master of space and time, he was headed for the civil war era and dressed appropiately, but his calculations were off and he lands in the 1960's right when all these folks are getting ready to go to a costume party. Kreton elbows Lee Patrick as Rheba Spelding while daughter Ellen portrayed by Joan Blackman watches!
TV stalwart Gale Gordon is the nosey neighbor Bob Mayberry, and if he looks familiar, it's because Gale was Mr. Wilson in the Dennis the Menace TV show, and appeared in over 180 episodes of various Lucille Ball shows!
Fred Clark appears as Major Roger Putnam Spelding, another very familiar face who made a career of playing a cranky bald dude in everything from "Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb" to "F-Troop," "Petticoat Junction" and "The Beverly Hillbillies" and too much more! In this scene, Ellen's boyfriend Conrad played by Earl Holliman, not knowing Kreton is from another galaxy, decides to go to the costume party this year as a guy from outer space! Oh, the irony!!
This film is loaded with sexual innuendos. Where Kreton comes from, they no longer have any reason to procreate, so he is incredibly interested in watching how it's done, much to Ellen's chagrin! Among many other roles, the lovely Joan Blackman would marry Elvis in "Blue Hawaii!" Earl Holliman is unforgettable for his role as the cook in "Forbidden Planet" who gets Robby The Robot to make him booze, and also his 91 episodes in "Police Woman" as Lt. Bill Crowley, etc. etc. There's no end!!
John "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" Williams as the overseer Delton, watches on as Major Spelding gives Kreton his first taste of that demon alcohol...and the not so surprising results!!!
Above Conrad's objections, Ellen takes Kreton to their favorite 'local' hangout, "The Hungry Brain." Kreton got 'dressed up' for the occasion, and he outweirds the weirdos!
The music starts swinging, but nobody's paying a whole lot of attention yet, in this crowd of beatniks, but this is the start of the reason why I love this movie so much!!
Wow, this cat's out of this world! Gene "Zorro" Collins and Kreton get inside of each other's heads! Other beatniks scattered throughout the crowd are Beach "Creature From The Haunted Sea" Dickerson, and Titus "Rat Pfink a Boo Boo" Moede, among others!!
The mind-blowing band consists of bassist Don Bagley, Frank Socolow on sax, Jack Costanzo on the bongos, and Buddy Rich on the trap set!!!
This still is a beyond cool portrait of The Man, Buddy Rich!! 
Buddy Rich and Kreton have a drum duel with Kreton playing the bongos with his mind! I have an album of "Buddy Rich vs Gene Krupa" that works along the same lines!
Here's the crazy part, this whole scene is just starting to jive! Now it's time for Barbara Lawson as the nutzoid Desdemona to do her scat-singing thing! 
Sounds pretty far out, but dancer Barbara only ever acted one other time, and that was in the same year on "The Millionaire" TV show!
The song that is bringing Kreton to tears is called "Desdemona's Lament" and was written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. Together, Pomus and Shuman wrote the words and music to the hits "Save The Last Dance For Me," "Suspicion," "Viva Las Vegas" and much more.
No, they're not done yet, now it's time for Kreton and Desdemona's big dance number choreographed by Miriam Nelson who also worked off and on for years on The Red Skelton Show! Now that makes sense!!! The music for this dance sequence is the ginchiest! It's totally gone!!
After all that, it's back to reality, Kreton falls for Ellen, but is stopped from kissing her as his protective shield is reversed by Delton, but his feelings are so strong, it breaks the barrier!
Which leaves him unprotected to attack by the likes of Conrad!!
Kreton ends up having to go back where he came from, and Rheba Spelding brings out a whole platter of chicken sandwiches for the people watching the send-off!
I've only given you a glimpse of the sights and sounds in this film, do whatever you can do, to find a copy, and ponder for yourself why it's not more readily available!! Thanx be to Los Oso Grande Ted for providing this copy!
