Emilio Vieyra is often described as "the Argentinean Ed Wood." The comparison is reasonable but not entirely accurate: Vieyra actually had many facets. _La gran aventura_, one of his action films, is somewhere between the 007 franchise in its self-parodying vein (I'm thinking of the Roger Moore years) and the Pink Panther films.
A beauty pageant is about to take place in Buenos Aires when one of the contestants, Miss Venezuela, who happens to be the daughter of a notorious scientist, is kidnapped. This looks like a job for agents Apolo (Ricardo Bauleo), Hércules (Víctor Bo), and Centauro (the immortal Julio De Grazia). The viewer will have a hard time deciding which of the three is the most inept, or the most hilarious. My vote goes for Centauro in both categories. Graciela Alfano, who plays Miss Colombia without even bothering to fake the appropriate accent, is perfect as the equivalent of a Bond girl. She reminds me of Tanya Roberts in _A View to a Kill_ (John Glen, 1985). Within one hour and a half, this team of four will do its best to thwart the evil plans of the mysterious man who kidnapped Miss Venezuela.
We all know what to expect of an action film: beautiful women, nice cars, fistfights, explosions, shootouts, and a catchy musical theme. _La gran aventura_ fulfills the requirements with some reservations: there is only one (relatively) nice car, the fistfights and the shootouts are unconvincing, and explosions are shown several times from different angles to "heighten" the effect. To be fair, though, the women are beautiful, and the tune really is catchy.
_La gran aventura_ was released in 1974. That means that while Francis Ford Coppola was busy making _The Godfather: Part II_, Emilio Vieyra was shooting this amazing piece of trash. Being an incurable aficionado of camp, I absolutely loved it. This is "so bad it's good" at its best.
