OPERATION KID BROTHER (1967)
aka OK Connery
Article 3830 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-29-2012
Posting Date: 2-8-2012
Directed by Alberto De Martino
Featuring Neil Connery, Daniela Bianchi, Adolfo Celi
Country: Italy
What it is: Spyghetti

When a crime syndicate plots to steal a magnetic wave generator with the intention of destroying all steel-based power in the world, a secret service organization recruits a plastic surgeon with hypnotic powers to help defeat them.

Now here’s a gimmick movie if ever there was one; an Italian spy movie aping the James Bond movies with Sean Connery’s brother Neil Connery as the secret agent, and featuring several actors and actresses who appeared in the official Bond movies; Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Daniela Bianchi, Adolfo Celi and Anthony Dawson. If it was intended as the start of a series, it didn’t pan out, which is just as well; the market must have been pretty flooded with Italian spy flicks at the time. Unlike yesterday’s movie, this one is loaded with enough gimmickry to make it qualify as science fiction. The story is messy, convoluted, and more than a little silly; the sequence where the military is trapped by a bevy of can-can dancers may be the goofiest scene in the picture. This was Neil Connery’s first movie, but apparently his English voice is dubbed, and most of his work afterwards is pretty minor. My copy of the movie is horribly panned-and-scanned, which is especially noticeable during the hypnotism sequences; I know they’re supposed to be close-ups of the eyes, but what we end up with is close-ups of the bridge of the nose, which is not particularly engaging. It’s extreme low rating on IMDB (2.5) is due to its having been featured on MST3K, but it’s really no worse than most of the other Italian spy flicks of the era.