Coplan, agent secret FX-18

By dumping the original opening song and replacing it with a more up beat number and changing the title to FX-18, SECRET AGENT, USA for the North American release in 1964, this movie was an instant hit with Spy fans everywhere. Ken Clark, who is American, and stands 6 foot 4 inches, was perfect as secret agent Coplan. There is lots of action and exotic locales (the warm beaches of Corsica were well used), this movie shows a true glimps into the exiting life of a secret agent. (That is the fictional view in the mid 1960s). Margit Koscis is absolutely beautiful and is a true sweetheart of that era, who unfortunately died at the young age of 43. (I can't find a cause of death on the internet). Watch the entire movie on YouTube and you won't be disappointed. Also look for the "missing scenes" version on YouTube as well. Larry Anderson.

The French producers ,noticing (it did not take'em long to notice),that James Bond was becoming a huge blockbuster ,began to look for a French counterpart:in the sixties,lots of movies were made :OSS 117,Coplan,Le Vicomte and more ,each one lousier than the one before (with the eventual exception of "Coplan Sauve Sa Peau" which was directed by Yves Boisset) Enter Maurice Cloche: needless to say,his previous career had nothing (and I mean nothing) to do with the spy thriller.He began his career in 1937 and there are only two good movies in his career :"Monsieur Vincent" and" Le Petit Chose" an acceptable adaptation of the Daudet novel.The rest of his movies are either Saint-Sulpician edifying works ("Un Missionnaire" ) or melodramas dealing with the prostitutes' plight,which put him in the same league as his colleague Leo Joannon for that matter.

What can be said for this first effort in the cloak and dagger field?(two more "works" were to follow ,in the same "vein" so to speak)There's a horrible song during the cast and credits (which is heard again at the end) performed by yeah yeah boy Frank Alamo called "Copain Coplan" ;a Z-movie actor who obviously does not speak French at all (anyone can't be Jodie Foster ,can they?),and who is dubbed in French Mediocre starlets ,who are not even that beautiful ,compared to Bond's girl's canon;an earnest FRench thespian,Daniel Ceccaldi,as the villain,who wish he weren't here;and a story the average viewer has seen one hundred times or more.

Ken Clark was a second or even third hand actor, always non-convincing, exclusively casted for his look. Daniel Ceccaldi is not inspired chosen as a negative character, he was an excellent performer of sweet and very nice characters. All the other actors equally unconvincing, in a boring story. Not even sexy girls, not even a bit beautiful, the two feminine characters are ugly. Stupid unattractive song too.

This was Ken Clark's first foray in the spy genre and it's easily the weakest of his half-dozen adventures. FX-18 is a juvenile take on one of Paul Kenny's Coplan novels although I suspect it's been `dumbed' down beyond recognition. Ken's name in the English-dubbed print is Francis Cabtry or something like that and he's given the voice usually reserved for thugs.

Second-billed Jany Clair is a pouty beauty who graced Mission to Caracas and FX-18 Superspy but here she's given little to do but get slapped around and tortured. Yes, this is a world where the men are brutes and the women like it.

Director Maurice Cloche also made Baraka X-77 and The Viscount but this time around it seems all the departments of film making are second rate; acting, editing, even the score by Eddie Barclay and Michel Colombier, which has its jazzy moments, is largely forgettable. There's some nice scenery off the coast of Spain to look at but that isn't enough to salvage this wreck.

One of those clones made in the sixties from the James Bond movies. There is action, drama, and love.. but everything is so bad made that you will be laughing all the time. Kaplan, the secret agent, is a James Bond mixed with Austin Powers. The script in fact is quite boring, but the dialogues are really stupid, the direction is more than awful and many of the scenes that take place in the film are not strange, there are often unbelievable. But I recommend watching this movie, because you will have a great time, wonderful, wonderful... it´s not supposed to be a comedy, but I kept laughing all the time.