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5/10
First seen on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater in 1968
5 December 2021
1966's "Attack of the Robots" (Cartes Sur Table or Cards on the Table) was a French-Spanish example of the growing Eurospy genre spoofing the James Bond films, scripted by director Jesus Franco and Jean-Claude Carriere after their previous collaboration "The Diabolical Dr. Z." A more lighthearted affair for European star Eddie Constantine, most popular in France as detective Lemmy Caution (over a dozen films since 1953), here as Interpol agent Al Peterson, whose rare blood type makes him the perfect bait for an organization requiring only susceptible test subjects to become unwitting human assassins of prominent political figures. The picture opens with a slew of such killings, the perpetrators identified by their dark complexion, pressed suits, and horn rimmed glasses, ultimately the work of Lady Cecilia (Francoise Brion) and her obedient husband Sir Percy (Fernando Rey), avoiding detection by sending their automatons across the globe but nervously eyeing Peterson on their Spanish turf of Alicante. Sophie Hardy as Cynthia keeps tabs on Peterson through a one way mirror in her closet, while Chinese spies led by Lee Wee (Vicente Roca) involve themselves by offering a generous bribe for whatever Peterson uncovers. Constantine wears a bemused look as he blunders from one location to another, finally tracking the villains to their hidden island lair by donning the glasses of a dead killer, which only work to subjugate the will of his specific blood type (their dark skin turns white after death, never regaining their lost humanity). Unencumbered by the zoom lens that would ruin many a later Franco effort like Christopher Lee's "Count Dracula," this is much like his entire 60s output, highly watchable if undistinguished, granting Fernando Rey less to do than in his earlier stint as "Goldginger" opposite Franco and Ciccio. Plots to use robot duplicates in place of people was a highly popular one at the time, from Frederick Stafford's "OSS 117 Mission for a Killer" to Richard Johnson's second Bulldog Drummond update "Some Girls Do," usually laced with humor.
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