Dick Smart 2.007 (1967)
Article 5795 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-21-2020
Directed by Francesco Prosperi
Featuring Richard Wyler, Margaret Lee, Rosana Topajos
Country: Italy
What it is: Spyghetti

Dick Smart investigates a woman who has discovered a means of converting carbon into diamonds via a nuclear explosion. But there’s a third party also interested in the secret…

It’s another James Bond pastiche from Italy, and the title makes me wonder if there might even have been a little inspiration from the TV series “Get Smart”. This one is heavy on the pulchritude, the humor and the gadgetry (there’s an all-purpose vehicle driven by the hero that can go and land, at sea and in the air for one thing). The main premise itself is a standard science fiction concept, though it seemed to reach its peak of popularity a good half century earlier. It’s a fairly silly affair, but that may be what it’s trying for, but it doesn’t appear to have spawned any sequels, despite some hints that it might in the movie’s final moments. I rather liked this one better than many of the others of its ilk.