The Big Switch

The Big Switch (1968)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

John Carter (Sebastian Breaks) is a playboy who meets up with a beautiful blonde lady. The two plan on meeting in her room but when John arrives he finds her dead and before long he is accused of the crime. It doesn't take long for him to realize that the mob was behind the murder and now he must go up against them.

THE BIG SWITCH is an early film from director Pete Walker who is best remembered for a number of horror films that he made in the 1970s. I guess the best way to describe this movie is that it's a low-budget, wannabe James Bond that runs just 68-minutes and features a bit more sleaze than you'd normally expect from a film from this era. Is it a masterpiece? Not at all but it's a mildly entertaining spy picture.

I think the best thing that the film has going for it is the fact that it's just 68-minutes and it goes by rather quickly. Breaks makes for an interesting lead and I thought he added some fun to the picture. The villains are pretty much your standard bad guys but they too are mildly entertaining. Where the film really stands out is with the female nudity, which there is quite a bit of including some full frontal scenes.

THE BIG SWITCH will mainly appeal to fans of the director who want to see what he was doing before the horror pictures. There's nothing overly great about the movie but it was entertaining for what it was.