PHANTOM FX-18 (1965)
aka The Exterminators, Coplan FX 18, Coplan FX 18 casse tout
Article 1904 by Dave Sndelar
Viewing Date: 6-1-2006
Posting Date: 10-29-2006
Directed by Riccardo Freda
Featuring Richard Wyler, Robert Manuel, Jany Clair

Some good guy spies do battle with evildoers.

If you’re saying “What gives?” with that lame plot description, I can only say that’s the best I can do with a French/Italian Eurospy movie dubbed into German without subtitles. The fact that it seems to have been fairly well dubbed into German (for the most part) does little to console me, I’m afraid. Still, I can’t exactly say I haven’t been in this situation before.

Of course, the fact that the movie is a James Bond style spy flick does make for interesting viewing. Since action sequences are the heart of this type of movie, and since action sequences rarely demand dialogue to be understood, the action scenes work best in this format. Some of them are quite memorable; a scene where two spies find themselves threatened by a steam shovel is quite memorable, and there are some decent chase scenes. On the down side, I find some of these spy flicks hard to follow even when they’re in English, so it should be no wonder that from a plot perspective, I spent most of the movie in a fog. The fantastic content probably involves a little gadgetry here and there, and the finale does involve a nuclear missile to some extent (at least I see a missile and hear someone mention Hiroshima). Actually, it looks like one of the better Eurospy movies out there, but that’s just a shot in the dark.

Oh, and the four titles? Usually, the main title I choose for the movie is the one that actually appears on the print. The other titles usually indicate the title under which I first added the movie to my hunt list, the title under which I purchased the movie, and the primary title given the movie by IMDB. In this case, I added THE EXTERMINATORS to my hunt list, IMDB listed it as COPLAN FX 18 CASSE TOUT, I purchased it under COPLAN FX 18, and the title on my print was PHANTOM FX-18. It just goes to show you have to keep on your toes when hunting for these types of movies.