This week’s episode “Agent for H.A.R.M.” reminded me of the several secret agent films (like Secret Agent Super Dragon, Double 007, Danger! Death Ray) the Brains have riffed on the show and if you haven’t done it already I think it would be a great weekend topic to rate the best/worst of those particular films.
Several people suggested this in the comments last week, as well. Sounds good! We could also discuss what does and doesn’t count as a secret agent/spy movie. We’d all include 504- SECRET AGENT SUPER DRAGON, 508- OPERATION DOUBLE 007, 620- DANGER! DEATH RAY and
815- AGENT FOR H.A.R.M., but for the KTMA-minded there’s K18- THE MILLION EYES OF SU-MURU. Heck, 314- MIGHTY JACK kinda qualifies. And isn’t there a spy agency in 420- THE HUMAN DUPLICATORS? And of course there’s the George Lazenby appearance in the second half of 324- MASTER NINJA II.
As for favorites, I lean toward 620- DANGER! DEATH RAY. It’s like somebody took all the elements you’d expect in a super secret double-naught spy movie, threw them up in the air and just assembled them in what ever order they came down.
What’s yours?
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How about # 1013 Danger ; Diabolik and #815 Agent for H.A.R.M. ? I think those are 2 pretty good ones, anyone agree?
secret agent superdragon
danger! Death ray
Diabolik
Agent for harm
and if sam casey qualifies… Riding with death.
but he’s just a plain old federal agent…
there… probably just wanted one… but i can’t live without these.
Yeah, you forgot Diabo-LICK. And Secret Agent Super Dragon is a close second.
mornin’, arch!
yeah… i agree totally.
oh and human duplicators!
Sorry , meant to say # 814 Riding With Death instead of # 815! Oooppps!!!! :lol:
double 007…..does it get any lamer then using a star’s relative to star in your movie?
Of the MSTed ones, I’d say “Operation Double 007” is the best. Sure, the dubbed Neil Connery isn’t all that great, but it has a fine supporting cast of Bond vets, a lot of action, and a great musical score. And Moneypenny gets to carry a gun and actually shoot it.
As for the worst, I’ll go with “Agent for h.a.r.m.” No budget, no eye-catching locations, smarmy hero, little action and a lousy ending. “Million Eyes of Su-Maru” is a close second, mainly because of the two doofus “heroes”.
Danger! DeathRay is definitely number one for me as an MST3K episode. As Sampo says, it’s just a messy hodge-podge of spy cliches, which makes for a hilarious ride. Double 007, while much better-made and shot in some nice exotic locations, is still a second-string knockoff/spinoff of a legitimate spy movie series and thus a lot of fun to mock.
If we were to rate the films based on who makes for the suavest, most-convincing superspy, I would vote for Super Dragon, aka Brian Cooper. Slick, arrogant and flirtatious, he nails the 60’s spy personality just right. The considerably lamer agents in the other films: Sam Casey, Adam Chance, Glen Martin, etc. fail miserably at capturing the spy mystique.
I would concur that Mighty Jack counts as a spy film; after all it has a super-villain with an evil cat. But it also wins the award for most incompetent spy agency. The supposedly powerful international intelligence agency Mighty Jack comes off looking like a crew of panicked, incompetent, ninnies. You know that your espionage efforts are in bad shape when you make Intersect look effective by comparison. My lord, what a ghastly film Might Jack was.
Unfortunately, the only true MSTie “spy movie” I have seen is Secret Agent Super Dragon, but that one is pretty good/bad. You know it’s a great spy movie because it’s got the great trumpet lick in the theme song: “Secret Agent”, bwaa-WAAAAAH!; “Super Dragon”, bwaa-WHEEE!
For another potential future topic, how about best “superheroes” – PumaMan, Prince of Space, Ator, Samson aka Santos, etc.?
We probably could also consider Castle of Fu Man Chu a spy-type film, but I personally find it difficult to ponder that god-awful film for long without plunging into deep despair.
While it shares many of the same elements of a good spy flick (flashy outfits, outlandish escapes, gimmicky gadgets) Diabolik is so NOT a spy movie. He’s a master criminal, that’s all. If it did qualify, I’d vote for it.
So I defer to Secret Agent Super Jerk.
Agreed wholeheartedly. Yeah, Neil Connery is rather a dud both as a character and an actor, but the movie is fun and never boring. In fact I think it’s more entertaining to watch than some of the “real” Bond movies. You’ll never convince me that it’s any more ridiculous than The Man with the Golden Gun or Octopussy. Even the much vaunted Thunderball, which gave us Adolfo Celi, is a bit of a snore in parts.
Mighty Jack is about spies but it’s not really a “spy movie” of the sort we’re talking about here because it’s not centered around one superspy.
Castle of Fu Manchu does count. Denis Nayland-Smith was the hero of all of the original Fu Manchu stories, although CoFM gives him very little to do. The crazy thing is that, in a way, Castle of Fu Manchu has the best pedigree. Its director, Jess Franco, enjoys a good reputation among horror movie fans. And it’s got Christopher Lee in it–criminally wasting him. Good God, if Franco had put any less effort into the movie, it would have been a filmed photograph.
Let’s see:
1) There were spies in World War II
2) The movie Casablanca had spies and secret agents
3) Rumor has it OatMB had allusions to Casablanca
4) Therefore, OatMB is a Spy/Secret Agent movie.
What do you think, sirs? :grin:
I did consider Diabolik, but seems to me that’s more of a super-criminal vs. the police movie than a spy vs. spy movie.
ck, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful alternate day bulk-up routine – oh, wait, I’m mixing up my movie metaphors…
ck – Oh, that’s a reach.
Oh, and no love for Code Name: Diamond Head? Not that it deserves any. And The Beast of Yucca Flats is full of international intrigue, with top Russian agents and secret data.
Spy movies for me tend to be those in which you’ve got a suave (or attempting to be) James Bond-type lead, with lots of funky gadgets taking on either another rival spy agency or those of an “enemy” country.
Agent for H.A.R.M.
Danger! Death Ray!
Secret Agent Super Dragon
Code Name: Diamond Head.
Double 007.
Those would qualify as spy movies with the lamest of these being Double 007 as it was such an obvious attempt to cash in on Sean Connery’s fame as James Bond using his lesser talented brother.
I’d eliminate Human Duplicators as that was more about an attempted alien takeover than a spy movie. Richard Kiel’s Kolos character is more memorable and appears to be more of the lead than the supposed lead.
Diabolik was as someone else noted more a super criminal versus the bumbling police. Castle of Fu Manchu was more about a super villain than of Nathan Smith. Would he even be considered a spy?
Riding with Death? Naw, I don’t thing that qualifies as it’s almost like a ripoff of the Six Million Dollar Man.
The Beast of Yucca Flats? Nope, that’s just Tor Johnson roaming aimlessly through the desert with a voiceover to explain why.
Mighty Jack? As Crow memorably asked, “What the heck was this movie about?” If you don’t know, it’s not a spy movie. It’s more like a weird-ass Justice League of America thing that seems to have more in common with Fugitive Alien, if that makes any sense? Sorry, even to this day I have trouble trying to wrap my head around Mighty Jack!
My definitive choice is Danger! Death Ray. Aside from that weird thing with the watch at the end, it was a competent James Bond knock-off. The movie is easy to watch and Mike and ‘Bots have a lot of fun with it.
“Super Agent Super RUDE if you ask ME.” (Crow) :cool:
I’d have to go with Super Dragon as my favorite. I hate spy movies to begin with, even ones that are supposed to be “good” , so it’s always good to make fun of those lame-ass things.
“My table’s a guy, my pen is a phone – I’m NUTS!” (Crow)
After that is Operation Double 007. “Heee – likes to wear mit-tens.” “HeEEEee, has a de-vi-a-ted sep-TUM!”
Then it’s Agent for H.A.R.M. Judo range???
Then Danger! Death Ray!!! Nothing much memorable about that except the buh-buh-duh-bah-DAH-dah’s.
“Oh you can tell by the lawn furniture that he’s a secret agent.” (Joel -SASD). :grin:
Operation Double 007 has always been my favorite. Sean’s brother just did not make for a compelling secret agent. He didn’t even try to give any one-liners. His ability to make women fall instantly in love with him had to have been his power of hypnotization. There was no other explanation for it. The riffs weren’t bad in the ep either.
I have to break it up a bit;
Joel-00, 007, What a fun movie to riff!? It was edited pretty well for MST3K treatment, lots of pretty girls, one of Joels top five host segment, great riffing.
Mike-DDR I think this is one of the best riffed films. The guys were just sharp with their timing and content. BA DUP A DUP A DOEDOE.
In closing, these are my selection for spy movies. My favorite spy is in a movie not associated with spies, Rex Dart (Eskimoo Spy)!
Double 007 is the best. Real Bond characters and a real Bond villian depite the poor choice of “Mr. Connery’s brother”. I think it was better than some of the later Bond movies with Roger Moore when they over did it with too many stunts and too much unfunny comedy.
Rex Dart: Eskimo Spy vs. the evil Oliver Wilde impersonator.
Super Dragon, for sure. He’s ultracool, the girls are to die for (but of course, it’s Holland), and Margaret Lee’s charismatic presence really holds the picture together. God, I love her! (Along with the many Latin women that I adore)
“It ain’t supposed to be commercial man! It’s JAZZ!”–Tom Servo
Worst spy – the undercover Agent Slapstick (Fingers O’Toole, I think) in CATALINA CAPER.
Danger! Death Ray is my choice for best spy movie – easily as watchable as any Bond movie for me.
I think Rocket Attack USA should be included as a spy movie. Sure, it’s Cold War propaganda, but it does feature a spy…an incredibly incompetent, useless, totally worthless secret agent who can’t even manage to blow up the most lightly guarded Soviet missile ever…good one, spy guy!
For me, it’s a toss-up between ‘Double 007’ and ‘Death Ray’. Their theme songs alone make them both classics, in my book.
Best spy: Super Agent Super Dragon.
Worst spy: The one from “Rocket Attack USA”. He failed his mission and America got nuked by the commies.
Most boring spy(ies): From “Radar Secret Service”. Very grey, dull men.
the entire master ninja series is easily the most ridiculously stupid thing to ever appear on tv. i’ve just wanted to say that for a really long time lol
i’m rather fond of Danger! Death Ray as well. I really like that whole episode.
Agent for HARM is a great episode too, but it really should be illegal for any actor to be that smarmy lol
Sadly, i actually think Riding with Death qualifies as a spy versus spy kind of thing as the whole Intercept group seems like an ultra-secret CIA wannabe bunch of people but they go after domestic spy types or something. not that it matters i suppose, that series was incredibly lame as well.
Yeah, you have to wonder just how many super sekrit CIA wannabe groups there are in all of the MST3K movies put together. The worst of all of them was probably H.A.R.M, consisting of one room with some string on the walls, one secretary, and a moribund Wendell Corey. At least Mighty Jack had a submarine.
For me,I’d go with Danger! Death Ray! because you have lots of action,a likable hero,good looking women and so forth,but what ruins it?? The toy helicopter,the toy car,the toy submarine..oh,and the ending with the watch! Also,Operation Double 007 is good,too..Both movies have good riffs and is still fun to watch to this day…Super Agent Super Dragon is third..Worst? Agent for H.A.R.M.
I’d probably lean more towards MASTER NINJA II because I find those movies enjoyable. But for full secret agent films I guess I’d go with DANGER!! DEATH RAY. But OPERATION DOUBLE 007 does have some great elements I think could’ve worked well in an actual James Bond film.
When I first got hold of the entire run of MST3K (via DAP) I was excited to see some Jess Franco related films in there. Season Three’s “Castle of of Fu Manchu” is bad (very bad), but K18 – THE MILLION EYES OF SU-MURU produced by Harry Alan Towers features some actresses (Shirley Eaton, Maria Rohm) who would appear in the Franco directed sequel “The Girl From Rio” (aka The Seven Secrets of Sumuru), the superior film. In it we see more of the female army and their plans for world domination.
“Million Eyes” however stars two of the least appealing super-spies ever, the goofy, smarmy and unfunny pair of Frankie Avalon and George Nader. I would nominate Nick West as portrayed by Nader (otherwise good in Robot Monster and Human Duplicators) as my least favorite MST movie character ever. I’m not sure why, but “that square bugs me, he really bugs me.” Maybe the closeted gay actor (true fact) had trouble pretending he was tempted by the bevy of babes around him.
And since someone else brought it up, Rocket Attack USA is my pick for Worst Movie ever done on MST. Grey, dreary, anti-sexy (the dowdy heroine being pawed at by the Soviet official), and with a downer ending (SPOILER: NYC gets nuked, after a vignette introducing us to various sympathetic characters in the midst of their daily routines).
As for Best Spy/Secret Agent Movie, although 504- SECRET AGENT SUPER DRAGON features the lovely Marisa Mell and adorable Margaret Lee, my favorite is a toss-up between 508 – Double 007 (catchy Morricone theme, lots of Bond veterans, hypnotist surgeon, all-girl yacht crew, blind rug-weavers, invasion of archers) and 620 – Danger: Death Ray (Fart Bargo, naked painter, frog-face Frank – “If Michael Caine and Andre the Giant had a child”, toy sub and helicopter, “Watermelon Man”, wrist radio dropped in the pool). Doesn’t DDR climax with our hero being shot at by the interior of a house? Oh wow.
I’m gonna go with Secret Agent Super Booger.
bwaa-WAAAAAH!
I don’t think “The Human Duplicators” really qualifies, but I love that film. It’s so almost watchable.
Gotta go with Operation Double 007. The movie is at times inane and the riffing is awesome.
Norman! The calla lilies are raining lead!
Danger! Death Ray is a close runner-up.
Operation Double 007 is my worst spy movie to be MSTed. I really don’t like it and Joe Connery’s facial hair/glasses combo annoys me. The movie is just so boring. The only positive thing about this movie is that it’s only time I’ve seen hypnotism used for good in a movie on MST3K.
Well ‘Danger! Death Ray’ doesi t for me for one reason: it’s cheesy but groovy music. C’mon who can’t help but spontaneously go “BEP BADDA DA DA DA!!” And then there’s the groovy chase scene music. “WA-TER MELON MANNNN!!”
I agree, Sampo.
Danger! Death Ray is the best spy movie that they riffed on. The riffs are awesome and the movie’s soundtrack gets stuck in my head all the time.
Also, I like the name of the movie so much that I named my band after it. Fun, eh?
Spy movies have always interested me. As a matter of fact, the reason I started to watch MST3K was, becouse I wanted the see Operation Double 007. That is my favourite spy movie, and since than I had to luck to see the whole movie. Quite a few scenes were cut, as it was longer than the show. I would say, that despite not being a spy movie, Diabolik has a similar style like those 60’s spy movies, and thus I comes for me second. Third position for me is tied between Secret Agent Super Dragon and The Million eyes of Sumuru. I think Super Dragon was also cut for being too long, but I’ve yet to see the unriffed version. Fourth is again a tie between Danger! Death Ray! and Codname: Dieamond Head. Fifth goes for Mighty Jack, which I consider a spy movie. Sixth is The Castle of Fu Manchu. It’s alson not a spy movie, but borrows form it’s style. Poor Christopher Lee, wasted in this hastily put together unvanted sequel. They didn’t even care, that A Night to Remember was black and white, they just put in the sinking Titanic from that movie. Seventh is Radar Secret Service, which is gray and dull but still better than the horrible Rocket Attack USA, where the spy waits 11 years in a closet and fake Stalin nukes New York.
Here are my canidates:
K18 – The Million Eyes of Su-Maru: More entertaining than its sister film (The Castle of Fu Manchu). However, the two spies are rather weak, and Frankie Avalon is miscast.
205 – Rocket Attack USA: Out two spies botch their mission, are killed, then New York is nuked. Very depressing.
314 – Mighty Jack: The most incomprehensible film the Brains did. There were “spy” elements, but it felt more like a Fugitive Alien episode.
323 – The Castle of Fu Manchu: A true spy film since the charactor of Naylon Smith is a spy. To bad the film is god-awful.
420 – The Human Duplicators: This one is borderline. There is a spy, but the focus of the film is on the androids.
504 – Secret Agent Super Dragon: One of the better spy films. Plenty of eye candy. Too bad so many scenes were cut out; and Ray Danton is very obnoxious.
508 – Operation Double 007: Lots of fun because of the Bond vets. And Adolfo Celli is always great as a villian.
608 – Code Name: Diamond Head: Roy Thiness was great in The Invaders and The X-Files, but doesn’t really pull it off as a spy. I was more impressed with Zulu as Diamond Head’s sidekick.
620 – Danger! Death Ray: This is the best. Lots of fun all around.
814 – Riding with Death: Yeah, Ben Murphy was a spy, but it would have been more entertaining as a stronger sci-fi entry.
815 – Agent for H.A.R.M.: It’s a spy film, but it is so poorly done that I just don’t care.
1013 – Diabolik: The best spy film that doesn’t have any spies!
Bottom line: The best spy film is Danger! Death Ray. The worst is a tie between Rocket Attack USA and Agent from H.A.R.M.
This is really funny..best of the worst spy movies :)
My favorites with spies/spy like elements
Rocket Attack USA
Mighty Jack
Secret Agent Super Dragon
Danger Death Ray
These are my favorite four
the rest Im not into..TV movies just bore me sorry to say
Happy Turkey Day everyone…Im sure some of us will have an MST3K marathon :)
Danger! Death Ray! deserves consideration if only for having a Death Ray intended for peacful purposes only.
Danger! Death Ray! is one of my favorite MST episodes. The ba ba da ba da da song, Bart Fargo, the unusual looking European guys (who are still cooler than average America guys) and the Jerry Reed lookalike add up to great fun, not to mention a bizarre ending that seems spliced together by Coleman Francis. I give it a very slight edge over Secret Agent Super Dragon, which had a fantastic dub and maybe the best assortment of MST babes, even if they do shop at clown mart. Something about all the spy movies makes them perfect for MST, and they are all among my favorites.
I agree with #45 in that generally the sixties-style spy movies are always a highlight when they come in the rotation. I’m more of an inclusive guy, in that I think The Human Duplicators could be thought of as a spy movie, but the spy would be the Richard Kiel character. What’s a better spy than someone going behind enemy lines to soften up their defenses (ooh… sounds like Rocket Men from the Moon (Commando Cody)). And from the Geneva convention, in war anyone without the uniform of their country’s armed forces caught on enemy territory could be considered a spy and shot on sight. This being said, my favorite “spy” movie would be Operation Double 007, just for the ludicrousness of the film. My least favorite would be Mighty Jack, although by the Geneva Convention, these guys would not be spies, since they wear a uniform. A lot of the other ones are just cop movies (I think of Castle of Fu Manchu as a bad spy movie, but Naylan Smith is really just a cop.)
Well I go for that suavee spy vs. Prince film,the one with the spore gun and antidote
The radar film too-grey spies vs.grey gangsters-very arty!
What is the topic?
Like a lot of others here, Danger! Death Ray. Bart Fargo is cool even if in womany Italian glasses for small headed Italian men. And including Watermelon Man in the soundtrack, awesome. (Ribbit)
Code Name Diamond Head. Made for Tv drech makes beautiful MST episodes, especially from the 70’s and 80’s. I wonder though, is it a US agency DH worked for, or one strictly for Hawaii. And does DH cover all the islands or he based only on Oahu, does the agency have an agent for each of the islands? Quinn Martin is long dead so we may never know!!
give me H.A.R.M and the judo range for $100 Alex.
Danger!! Death Ray!! apart from it, I haven’t been impressed with the secret agent films movie-wise or riffing-wise.