THE LAST OF THE SECRET AGENTS? (1966)
Article 2113 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-28-2006
Posting Date: 5-26-2007
Directed by Norman Abbott
Featuring Marty Allen, Steve Rossi, John Williams

Two Americans who were being used as unwilling dupes in the theft of stolen works of art are recruited by a spy agency to fight THEM, the agency who is stealing the works of art.

Allen and Rossi were a popular comedy team in the sixties and seventies, and made a number of appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show”. They made only two movies together, and one of them (ALLEN AND ROSSI MEET DRACULA AND FRANKENSTEIN) is so devoid of credits on IMDB that I wonder if it really exists. This was their first, and you can see why they didn’t go on to a successful movie career. It’s supposed to be a parody of James Bond movies, but it’s so unfocused that it never really becomes much of anything. The laughs are few and far between, with a running gag about a doctor being paged particularly weak. The science fiction content is the usual array of spy gadgets, and much of the attempted humor is derived from their use. The movie is stolen by Harvey Korman, who, in one scene, displays the focus and timing that the rest of the movie lacks. Outside of his scene, the best moments involve the a film being shown to the two new agents showing their probable fate if they don’t join the agency (good use of stock footage here), and a scene in a topless dance club where, through the magic of careful camera placement, you manage to avoid seeing anything.