zardoz-13 Review of Mission Bloody Mary

Mission Bloody Mary (1965)

Above-Average Knock-Off of "Thunderball"

[8/10 · 10 January 2010]

Virile blond stud Ken Clark slugs and shoots his way from Paris to Madrid and back in "Mission Bloody Mary." Directed with momentum by "Beast with a Gun" director Sergio Grieco, this fast-moving secret agent escapade qualifies as an above-average but low-budget knock-off of the fourth Sean Connery James Bond epic "Thunderball." The first installment in a three film franchise about tenacious CIA Agent Dick Molloy, who rates as quite the ladies man, puts him on the trail of a mysterious organization that calls itself the Black Lilly. They use a resourceful impostor to sneak aboard a Strategic Air Command bomber and snatch a top-secret American nuclear warhead which the Black Lilly plans to sell to the Red Chinese unless the Soviets can acquire it first in this melodramatic international Cold War saga of action and intrigue. Of course, the impostor demands a bigger pay-off after he risks his life to seize the bomb for his employers. Naturally, the villains are prepared for this treachery and they barbecue the turncoat for his perfidy. Grieco stages a nimble scramble of a chase across the rooftops in Paris, a fistfight in the hold of a freighter off the Spanish coast, and a savage knockdown drag-out brawl in a train compartment along with several surprises right up to the last five that make this a exciting as well as entertaining adventure opus. Incidentally, the film derives part of its title "Bloody Mary" from the code name for the explosive device. There is an interesting strip tease scene in Paris when a beautiful Asian circulates around a room and allows the gentlemen, usually seated with their women, to remove articles of her clothing. She lets Molloy unsnap her bra which contains a message about a future rendezvous.