My review was written in April 1988 after watching the film on Celebrity video cassette.
"The Order of the Black Eagle" proves one can make a low-budget James Bond imitation in North & South Carolina, but the results aren't appealng. Shot in 1985, pic received limited theatrical runs commencing last December and now is in video release.
Designed as a sequel to helmer Worth Keeter's "Unmasking the Idol", pic toplines Ian Huntr (not very impressive compared to the late British thesp by that name -he's also not the rock performer) as Duncan Jax, a government agent imitating 007. Unfortunately, he is cryptically saddled with a baboon (literally, played by a trained animal named Typhoon) sidekick who wears a tux and makes rude gesturs and noise for so-called comic relief. Everyone in the film takes the simian's presence for granted, but the audience is bound to wonder.
Jax' mission provides a very skimpy story line: it seems a group of cartoonish baddies led by portly William Hicks is attempting to take ovr the world by using stolen laser technology to destroy the major communications satellites. Adolf Hitler is in deep freeze and will be revived to take over.
Pic consist of mainly okay action scene involving lots of explostions, as well as irritating Bond imitation, especially from "Dr. No" and a Q-figure played by Shang Tai Tuan. The girls are plretty but Hunte's peformance is flat. An Amazonian black actress, Flo Hyman plays Spike: film is dediated to her, listing her as having died in 1986.
Lensing at Earl Owensby Studios and on locations in the Carolinas is quite unconvincing for all the globe-hopping plot, especially when feathers are used for snow in a Geneva-set sequence.
