The Tehran Incident

Peter Graves is the iconic 70's agent material, and MISSLE X is one of his lesser features exploiting the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE persona. However, the non-Hollywood production atmosphere fills this one up with highly paid stars doing some exploitation work that you can't usually see under the major studio banner.

MISSILE X delivers violence, menace and a few neat Packinpah influenced shootouts in this noirish and yet very Bondian tale o stolen Soviet cruise missile being smuggled into Iran and put on wholesale.

The whole American male agent alternately versus and with Russian female agent fighting the villain played by Kurt Jurgens makes MISSILE X look like a THE SPY WHO LOVED ME rip-off. And that definition holds. However, this film is derivative that it simply cannot stand such singled out rip-off allegation.

Tehran is well used as a location and the mixture of Iranian luxury juxtaposed on very poor suburbs precisely explains why the revolution eventually took place there. This film, with its' unashamed Western jive and aim to exploit the Persian setting may as well be used as the epitome of Iranian revolution and the Shah's decadence.

Overall, MISSILE X is the ideal programmer for the 70's superagent fare hounds. It may as well be worth the search.