A-008 OPERATION EXTERMINATE (1965)
aka A 008, operazione Sterminio
Article 4444 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-8-2014
Directed by Umberto Lenzi
Featuring Ingrid Schoeller, Alberto Lupo, Dina De Santis
Country: Italy / Egypt
What it is: Spyghetti

British and American secret agents are sent out on a mission to keep an anti-radar invention from falling into the wrong hands.

The Gizmo Maguffin here (which is to say the anti-radar device) does get a certain amount of use in the plot, so the science fiction content of this helping of Spyghetti is more pronounced than usual. That being said, the movie as a whole is a mixed bag. Like so many others of its ilk, it’s less interested in the intricacies of the plot than it is with having the good guys constantly falling into and escaping traps, a pattern that I’ve really began to notice in the last few I’ve seen. The movie actually seems to lose steam as it goes along, and the closer it gets to the climax, the slower it seems to move. The movie also had what I thought of at the time were bizarre little story quirks. Yet I have to really give credit to the movie for having effectively faked me out; there’s one humdinger of a plot twist towards the end, and if I hadn’t dismissed the odd plot moments as mere quirks, I would have seen it coming. For those who want a few hints, all I can say to help them is to pay attention to the numbers, the title, and the order of the credits, and watch what you assume. Or maybe you’d prefer to just ride with it; for me, the plot twist was the best moment of the movie.