Un milione di dollari per sette assassini

Directed by reliable journeyman Umberto Lenzi and starring Roger Browne (who began his career in peplum films, but always seemed better-suited to and more comfortable in spy-espionage films), LAST MAN TO KILL has everything the fan of Euro-spy films could want. A witty, sly hero (Browne is excellent here); interesting mid-east location shooting; a plot that is both simple and convoluted at the same time; cheesy lounge-spy music (with an organ that sounds like it was borrowed from Joe Meek's studio!); low-budget props and sets; chases and fights; and even the occasional zoom photography. The dubbed sound effects are outrageous, and in some of the action scenes sound like they could have come from a 1970's Hong Kong martial arts film. This only adds to the fun and excitement of the film! Not much to analyze here--if you are a fan of dubbed Euro-spy action, you'll want to see this one. And Lenzi's fans won't be let down either. My copy is from a pan-and-scan, English-dubbed copy taped off UHF television in the 1980s--unfortunately, the days when we could rely on this kind of entertainment being available regularly and for free are long gone. Roger Browne is also put to good use in the films RIFIFI IN AMSTERDAM and PASSWORD:KILL AGENT GORDON, crime-spy films from the same era. Of course, director Umberto Lenzi made dozens of excellent films in any number of genres--as late as the 90s he was still churning out wonderful low-budget action films such as MEAN TRICKS (see my review) starring Charles Napier.

Eurospy film directed by Lenzi between his adventures and giallo periods. Michael King (Roger Browne, Superseven chiama Cairo, from the same) is an American adventurer performing audacious thefts in Cairo, signing his exploits with a King of Diamonds card, the last one being the robbery of the pawnbroker Figuerez (Tullio Altamura, Upperseven l'Uomo da uccidere). He is soon contacted by the wealthy trader Manfred (Carlo Hintermann, Tiffany Memorendum), who is remarried to his alcoholic wife Anna (Erika Blanc, Il Terzo Occhio), in order to find his disappeared adoptive son Martin, the assistant of a nuclear researcher.

When Michael finds Martin's body in the Giza cemetery, Manfred hires him for $1 Million to kill the seven assassins who have murdered his son to steal the formula of a new combustible: Pavlos (Antonio Gradoli, Password Uccidete agente Gordon) and his henchmen James (Claudio Ruffini, Agente 077 dall'Oriente con furore), Ali (Renato Montalbano, Operazione Goldman), Doney (Wilbert Bradley, Tecnica di una spia), Toto (Sal Borgese, Le Spie amano i fiori), Bruto (Nello Pazzafini, Agente 3S3 Massacro al Sole) and Also (Alses Dakar, Agente 3S3 Passaporto per l'Inferno).

But as Michael starts to track the culprits, he discovers that the situation is quite more complicated than it seems: a stripper artist, Ellen (José Greci, Operazione Poker), makes the liaison between Pavlos's gang and a mysterious chief called the Genius. Would Michael be able to carry on his mission until its end in order to avenge Martin's death and to win his prize? And as he crosses the path of Lilli (Monica Pardo here in her first role, Three Golden Serpents), a mysterious blonde, could he lead another more secret aim in this intrigue?

Through these entertaining adventures, however too often cut in a quite abrupt and random way, the English editing being a little bit better than the Italian one, and with an exotic setting being well respected with hammam, belly dance, camels and pyramids, Michael will have to go to the very end of his quest to confront the elusive Genius. (Viewed in Italian 1h24 version.)

Another reasonably entertaining film from Umberto Lenzi. I don't think he's quite as adapt here as he was in his earlier swashbucklers or later polizia movies but this is still fun enough as a typical Eurospy adventure. The ubiquitous Roger Browne hunts for a nuclear scientist around the world with the usual treachery, hand to hand combat, and beautiful femme fatales. It does the job.