This is a polished Eurospy production played very straight and serious, in fact it could do with a bit more wit and humour.
The screenplay and direction are both decent, there is always plenty of going on and the body count is unusually high, which helps distract from possible plot holes. In that way it reminded me a bit of "Goldfinger" or "You Only Live Twice", in that there were a number of events which didn't seem to make much sense, however some of them were adequately explained later, while others remained a mystery, and I was left wondering if that was just because I overlooked something.
The soundtrack is top notch, understanding which scenes need to be punched up with tense or dramatic music and which will benefit from a shot of cool jazz or breezy travelogue style music
The action zips back and forward across the Med, from Beirut to London to Madrid and back to Beirut, giving TWA plenty of product placement plugs along the way.
Lang Jeffries looks the part, but rarely cracks a smile. Even with the beautiful women he is all business, no time for flirting until the very last villain has been dispatched. Only then, in the final scene, does he loosen up and reveal a lighter side (and a romantic interest in the girl he has saved). Admittedly, in this regard, he's not given much to work with, as the script is very dry, dialogue wise.
Andrea Bosic gives a convincing performance as the villain, although he's easily identified as such from the beginning. He delivers his lines with suitable arrogance and authority, although, as with Lang, the script doesn't provide much in the way of memorable byplay between him and the hero during the several scenes where he expounds on his master plan and what he's going to do to Lang and the girl. He has an impressive classical mansion with a mod "Ken Adam-esque" underground lair below.
His master plan is to rule the World using a mind control drug he has developed, and later to project his commands into people's minds over long distances using a "special ray" (which appears to be no more than an ordinary movie spotlight). However exactly why he has been drawing attention to himself by using his mind controlled assassins to threaten and murder leading scientists, who are working on projects which might benefit humanity, remains a mystery, because, at the moment Lang asked him that question, the copy of the movie I have switched from English to German and by the time it reverted to English he was talking about the mind control drug. (Perhaps a German speaking person out there who has seen the movie can enlighten me?)
Female characters get little to do, although one does take the pivotal action which eventually saves the day.
Possibly the closest attempt to a "From Russia With Love" style Bond movie I have seen in a Eurospy.
